David and Donna Peters
Hagerstown
Think for yourself
To the editor:
I am writing to comment on how so many Americans have allowed the spin of the liberal media and our own liberal politicians to form their opinions about world and domestic affairs.
I would like to encourage people to research the issues that impact our lives and not just listen to everything you hear. And finally I would like to express my disappointment in the way the far left of the Democratic Party seems to have decided their only chance for being elected is to destroy our current president at any cost. I will illustrate my points.
Following the State of the Union Address, Gov. Locke from Washington presented the Democratic response. He talked about the president's tax cut plan. First was the standard rhetoric of the tax cut going to the richest 1 percent. He said the tax cut should go to low income families.
We need to help the bottom tier of the income level, but how can it make sense to give a tax "cut" to those who do not pay taxes? It has been said that the rich would only put their tax cut in savings. Even if that were true, that allows the banks to lend money to entrepreneurs who could start businesses and put people to work.
The other argument is that the president's tax cut would cost far too much and excessively increase the federal deficit, at $600 million.
What is not said is that the Democrats tried to get $600 billion added to the appropriations bills recently passed. So they would still be increasing the deficit at the same rate. But the Republican majority in Congress blocked those increases.
Incidentally, the Republicans passed the fiscal year spending bill in only five weeks, while the Democratic majority could not get it done in 11 months.
Finally, the war with Iraq. Show us proof we are in imminent danger, liberals say. Iraq is no threat to us. They have no weapon systems that can hit us. If Iraq put one person with smallpox in each of the major airports in the US, it would spread the disease to millions of Americans. And there are many who would stand in line to be the martyrs who would deliver this disease to this country.
The liberals say we should let the UN do its job through inspections. The inspectors have done their job. Their job was to verify whether or not Iraq was disarming in compliance with the UN resolution. Chief inspector Hans Blix told the UN Iraq has not complied.
You may have guessed I am a Republican, but I am not a die-hard Republican. I support those I feel are acting in the best interest of myself and my country. There are many very good Democrats.
But the party as a whole has adopted a philosophy of destroy President Bush at all costs, because they have been unable to develop a platform which is in step with the American people. They realize that by and large they are not electable. At some point they must come to the realization that their lame attacks on the President only serve to further alienate the party from the American people.
Orville Ridgely
Hagerstown
Government can't get much right
To the editor:
The Jan. 22 Daily Mail tells us, "Judge to sign death warrant; March execution."
Yet common sense says the death penalty should be ended because it postulates the infallibility of a government institution.
And any citizen who has dealt with the Motor Vehicle Administration, Social Security Administration, or Internal Revenue Service knows that there is no such thing as an infallible government institution.
Douglas Scott Arey
MCIH No. 130196 A-1-A-20
Maryland Correctional Institution
Compassionate conservatism: What it really means
By Allan Powell
Under the verbal umbrella known as "compassionate conservatism," President Bush has introduced "faith-based initiatives" which are unconstitutional and economic recovery plans which give aid primarily to those who don't need it. It is time to take a hard look at what is really going on under the rubric of "compassionate conservatism."
