Athena wore two hats: Goddess of Wisdom and Goddess of War

Opinion: May 30, 2008 at 12:00a.m.

EDITOR:

I could not decide whether to laugh or curse when I read the May 9 story about Judge Theresa Dellick’s comments at the Canfield Cheerleaders’ appreciation luncheon. Judge Dellick told the audience that wars, fighting and destruction are all brought on by men. “Do you think we would have so many wars if women were in charge?” she asked. She then embellished that erroneous question by suggesting that women and men have different sized brains and also suggested that men like wars, fighting, and destruction while women do everything they can to avoid that. “We don’t just break down into wars” she stated.

Obviously Judge Dellick never heard of Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher, or Indira Gandhi. Those three women took their countries to war. None were attacked. Two went to war for justifiable reasons. Meir acted proactively to prevent an imminent invasion of Israel. Thatcher went to war to prevent Argentina from seizing the Falkland Islands. Indira Gandhi, however, invaded East Pakistan because she wanted to create a new country, Bangladesh, out of East Pakistan. Also, Indira Gandhi suspended all civil rights in India, imprisoned opposition leaders, and imposed a mandatory sterilization program to “reduce population growth.”

I don’t know where Judge Dellick went to school, but I have to believe she was taught by historians who teach history as they think it should have been, rather than as it actually was. I don’t enjoy writing letters like this, but it disturbs me that comments such as Judge Dellick’s can make a lasting, erroneous impression on the students whom she was addressing.

JAMES W. DUNN Sr.

Canfield

Sometimes you can’t win

EDITOR:

The Memorial Day weekend proved to be much different for a lot of people. The news said that many people chose to stay at home, or, at least, closer to home this year due to the high gas prices. Those that do have more money and can afford it took longer trips. Those who chose to remain at home cooked out in their backyards. Guess what, that even cost more this year, too. Food prices have gone through the roof as a result of record high energy prices. It seems as if we are left with a choice to either take a short vacation for the holiday weekend and spend a small fortune to fill up our tanks or to stay at home to cook, only to watch our money go up in flames and our hopes of an economic turnaround to go up in smoke. My response to this is, “Why don’t we all just lay down and die?” But, then again, it probably costs more to cremate people nowadays.

It is only going to get progressively worse, folks. We know who to thank for it. But, why let the rich tycoons stop there? Let them take it all from us. The rich will always get richer and the poor will always get poorer; there is no third direction. We’ve seen this through and through and it is becoming more apparent today. Let Disney, Six Flags, and Cedar Point all suffer from slow-downs in business. They’ll soon be the firsts to go under. Thanks, George W. Until then, I’ll just hang around home and eat a little less. I need to drop a few pounds anyway.

VINCE WILLIAMS

Girard