Bush's 'best' just isn't good enough

2/7/2004

Some of The Blade's pro-Bush columnists find it easier to dismiss the President's critics as "Bush haters" than to address our concerns regarding his policies. He is doing the best he can. We just don't think that's good enough.

He is clearly very loyal to the wealthy people he grew up with and shares some of the easy moral certainties of many of those who never had to work very hard to get by. Perhaps we shouldn't be too hard on Mr. Bush for this either. But his presidential record to date certainly is fair game for critical scrutiny.

Take his pre-emptive war on Iraq. He deceived us, and perhaps himself as well, when he claimed that Iraq was an immediate danger to our security. Either way, more than 500 young Americans have died in a dubious cause, along with thousands of Iraqis. And the chaos, the killing, and the drain on our treasury continue.

Or take his domestic policies. Again the influence of his heritage of privilege and wealth is unmistakable. When he skewed his huge tax cuts toward the very rich, he may have honestly believed that they deserved it. And when it comes to helping those who need assistance from the government, it is obvious that he never managed to transcend a background where poverty is often equated with a lack of virtue.

What it all comes down to is that the job of president is several sizes too big for Mr. Bush. We need to elect a more compassionate president this fall who is aware of the horrors of war and who has what Thomas Jefferson called "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind." It is our good fortune that several of the candidates now running meet these criteria.

Erhard Kock

Manchester Drive

The bus from Toledo, and others from northwest Ohio, were filled with people who traveled to Washington, D.C. for the March For Life Jan. 22. Attending the Ohio congressional breakfast were many senators and representatives, including Sens. Mike DeWine and George Voinovich and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur. About 140,000 people participated in the march, including the granddaughter of Martin Luther King, Jr.

I was disappointed by the lack of coverage from our local television stations and The Blade. The picture in The Blade showed one pro-abortion person and one pro-life person in front of the Supreme Court. Yes, this one person was there and the only pro-abortion person that I saw along the entire march.

Did this event not deserve more media and front-page coverage, considering the number of people participating from throughout the world, even France and Ireland?

BETTY BEHAM

N. Holland-Sylvania Road

I take exception to Rose Russell's Jan. 24 characterization of Marcy Kaptur's attitude towards the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.

I also feel that appropriate titles should be used, especially with the numerous telemarketers who call me by my first name, most of whom are unable to pronounce it. I strongly feel that first names should be used only when a personal basis has been established between the parties.

Representative Kaptur has always been a friend to the cause that we were celebrating on Jan. 19. I feel that she has been a true friend and therefore I call her by her first name.

I was at the MLK Day Unity Celebration, and there was nothing disrespectful of Dr. King in Marcy's comments. I am sure that she feels toward him as I do toward her, a kindred friendship which would therefore allow her to call him by his first name. This would allow us to be truly brothers and sisters as she has shown us throughout her tenure.

Hosea Payne

Collinway

The CBS Television Network refused to air the www.MoveOn.org federal deficit commercial during the Super Bowl because it was "too controversial," yet it would have an MTV half-time show with Janet Jackson? How two-faced is that?

John Pavlica, Jr.

Elmhurst Road