A Tale of Two Letters

From the Oct. 16 issue of the Gladwin County Record and Beaverton Clarion:

Not the America I grew up in
To the Editor:
There are people who receive their news from various sources, some from newspapers like the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News or CNN, MSNBC, Fox News. Maybe some don’t bother to get their news from anywhere but their own neighborhood coffee shops or the local weekly newspaper.
When I read the letters to the editor it more than perturbed me to read a person quoting our President, saying he was putting fences around our national monuments to “punish our enemies.”
I read the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News most days and watch CNN and MSNBC, and I never once heard him say that! I’m wondering if it may have been on Fox News? It is the next best reliable news channel to picking up a tabloid at the grocery store!
I think the reporters seem to trash-talk Obama. Its viewers are a certain segment of our society with low IQs and bigotry and intolerance for our half white/half black leader.
I’ve never seen any letters in our local paper praising him, ever! Our state voted overwhelmingly for mostly Democratic presidents, so where are the loyalists to him? For God’s sake, will you speak up?
I’m sorry the vets couldn’t visit their special places of honor. I’m sorry national parks are also shut down, and for all the other sacrifices to many citizens.
Let’s see who shut down our government? People in Congress, mainly the Republicans who would love to destroy the Affordable Care Act and won’t let go of trying to do their best to rewrite history by taking Obama out of the history books!
Mitch McConnell came out right after the first election making the statement, “The main purpose should be to destroy President Obama.” Now he’s saying “enough is enough, we need to come to an agreement.”
Speaker Boehner isn’t strong enough to stand up to the Tea Party nuts, so now that the Republican Party’s ratings are at an all time low they’re finally coming to their senses and maybe, just maybe, this mess will end very soon!
Who remembers GWB giving away cash to his countrymen and not vetoing one spending bill, and starting an unnecessary war? He never increased taxes to start paying for either war!
That was the war where Halliburton went in and rebuilt the destruction we made, and where other American construction companies made repairs without paying one cent of American tax dollars.
Do you think President Obama enjoys mopping up all his messes plus getting handed the Great Recession?
The national debt has decreased by 50 percent, the economy is getting better, but taxes are almost as low as they were in the 1950s.
We’ve experienced one national disaster after another. The disparity between the top one percent and the rest of us is widening more and more. All the while the Republicans say no to new revenues!
What the hell is supposed to pay for the crumbling infrastructure we have? Face reality Americans. You can’t fix something out of nothing unless you’re Almighty God!
Move to another country if you hate the way things are going and pray to end bigotry and hatred!
Kathy Randle
Beaverton
P.S. I’m Irish and democrat.


From the Oct. 23 issue of the Gladwin County Record and Beaverton Clarion:

In response to Mrs Randle’s Oct. 16 letter, 
“Not the America I grew up in”
To the Editor:
I also believe that this is not the America I grew up in.
I’ll go as far as to say major news networks are slanted with an agenda to push, and that agenda is profit. The ratings bring their reward. News used to be objective, and a free press was a valuable tool to protect society from the overreaches government power introduces. When the media stops being objective, and starts reporting news subjectively slanted towards a demographic, it is no longer news – it is propaganda.
And it takes place in all major outlets. Why would it not?
Considering GE (General Electric) owns NBC and MSNBC…. GE also owns:
CNBC , A&E, The Biography Channel, The History Channel, History Channel International, The History Channel en Español, Military History Channel, Crime & Investigation Network, Bravo, Telemundo, and Universal Studios.
CNN is owned by AOL-Time Warner Corp. They also own HBO, Cartoon Network (which, like the news, can brainwash children), Warner Bros., New Line Cinema, Turner Classics, The CW Channel, various internet and telecommunications companies and more.
Massive corporations dominate the U.S. media landscape. Through a history of mergers and acquisitions, these companies have concentrated their control over what we see, hear and read. In many cases, these companies are vertically integrated, controlling everything from initial production to final distribution.
I do find it easy to see the connection of putting fences around open air monuments and national parks as making it uncomfortable for citizens, while demonizing the opposition to the president’s signature legislation (The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act). It could be argued that gating off the monuments and parks is more costly than keeping them open, which gives credence to the accusations of citizen punishment.
In regards to the incessant accusations of racism by any who oppose the sitting president, it is wearing thin. While it may work against politically weak leadership, the common sense American citizen sees squarely through the hatred that the Liberal Left continues to manifest in their efforts to further divide this country if steady and timely leftist progress is not made.
While racism may never be completely purged from society, I can assure you it is the president’s failing policies that have stirred America’s sleeping – and usually silent – moral majority.
I will agree that it would be best if Mitch McConnell and speaker Boehner would step down now, but not for shutting down the government, which is an absolute spin since the House of Representatives voted and passed multiple spending resolutions up to and including fully funding the government with a one year suspension of the ACA mandate; but because they have betrayed the conservative base of America that have been literally melting phone lines to representatives telling them to stay firm.
I do not see where low approval ratings for Republicans are of any concern to the American Left except for celebration. The last time I checked, Government’s overall approval is in the teens of percents.
The Left loves reminding us of GWB and his unfunded wars. But as the liberal leaders in Congress beat war drums to support BHO and his quest for war, the silence is deafening as questions about Fast and Furious, Benghazi, and the IRS acting as political adversary mob thugs go unanswered.
To counter the misstatement that the national debt has decreased by 50 percent begs an American grade schooler to question – if that is so, why has our debt ceiling been raised for the 79th time? And how have we just crested the 17 trillion dollar debt level, not including unfunded liabilities quite possibly into the 100 trillion dollar range?
Also, as far as tax rates, 43 percent of Americans will pay zero federal income tax due to tax credits, while our country has the highest combined corporate tax rates in the world, which encourages the creation of multinational corporations not returning profits made abroad back into the U.S. economy.
(We can thank our convoluted tax system for that; blame whomever you wish. The TEA party doesn’t care who’s to blame for that - wrong is wrong.)
Also, to address the income disparity of the rich and poor, it should be easy to see that increased inflation due to failed economic policies will disproportionately affect the poor on fixed incomes, while the costs of goods and services continue to rise with the weakening of our dollar, and the small to large business’ raise their fees to maintain viable budgets and profits.
Last but not least, the Federal government has never collected more tax revenue in the history of this country. And the crumbling roads and bridges could be funded handily if we work together to pare down our over-extended federal partner, and push it back down into the box of enumerated powers and responsibilities that our framers intended. Make States take back their sovereign responsibilities and re-institute at all state and local levels the stigma attached to taking handouts that are not necessary and actually contribute to our looming national financial crisis.
The TEA party folks across this land are not terrorists. They are the American bell ringers who have woken up to this progressive train ride engineered by revolving donkeys and elephants who are either to weak to apply the brakes, or fully willing to lead us into the moral, fiscal, and Constitutional tragedy which lies ahead.
By our nation’s repentance, the dedicated service of citizen patriots, and the divine providence of God, these United States may just remain the Sweet Land of Liberty.
Tab Faber
Beaverton
P.S. We’re fully assimilated Americans.