Attacks on Palin a disgrace

Attacks on Palin a disgrace

EDITOR:

This letter is a result of a great deal of frustration and disappointment with our local newspaper, the mainstream media and people of the opposing side in what is a very important presidential election. Probably the most important election in the history of our country.

As a woman, I am especially saddened by the relentless and unfair attacks on Sarah Palin and her family. There have been horrible things said about the “parenthood” of her special needs child, attacks on her pregnant unwed daughter, questions regarding her experience as a governor and even her eyeglasses. So what if they cost $300 or for that matter $400. I go to Lens Crafters for my eyeglasses, and I’ve paid that much. At least she’s not getting $700 haircuts (sound familiar, John Edwards?). Would anyone dare to bash Hillary Clinton or her family in such despicable manners? Probably not. I never once heard such disrespect come from the other side.

Sarah Palin is a shining example of what the American woman can achieve. She manages a family, is governor of a state, cares for a beautiful Down syndrome child, which she unselfishly chose to have. How can anyone take pleasure in demeaning this woman?

John McCain is a true American hero who served his country proudly, and was willing to sacrifice his life for this great land. He spent five years in a Vietnam prison camp. How many of us can even know what he went through? We owe this man respect.

So people, please keep that in mind when you are talking to the press, newspaper or local radio talk shows, even your friends. It doesn’t really matter who you support in this important presidential election, We are the United States of America, not the divided states of America. And everyone of us deserves respect.

RUTH NABB

Canfield

A piece of vile propaganda

EDITOR:

The Vindicator is one of seven newspapers in Ohio which unfortunately chose to distribute a vicious anti-Muslim DVD called “Obsession.”

Truth, the first casualty in war, is nowhere to be found in “Obsession,” except in Burke’s cited quote that “all which is necessary for evil to triumph is for good folks to do nothing.”

The hate message of “Obsession” is raw evil, and its mass distribution is the functional equivalent of ideological anthrax.

To say that it distorts Islam and misrepresents Muslims is a gross understatement. This propaganda film is an open invitation to violence against all Muslims, especially those in the West who are uniformly smeared as outside infiltrators, probable traitors and potential terrorists.

In a very real and disturbing sense, producers of “Obsession” use the same propaganda tactics against Muslims which Nazi cinematographers once used against Jews and others. Much of the film is devoted to force-feeding viewers the Big Lie that Islam today contains within it a threat greater than Nazism of the past.

From the frequent depictions of violence against civilians (including slashing a child’s throat), the repeated claims of indoctrination of hatred among children, the desecration of sacred and patriotic symbols and the routine demonization of others, it is clear that the miscreants responsible for “Obsession” have inverted objective reality and projected their own toxic ideology and misanthropic practices upon followers of a religion of peace.

WERNER LANGE

Newton Falls

Go back in time to 1932

EDITOR:

This year’s election may depend on voters over 70 years of age. These voters were born in the 1920s and 1930s and witnessed the Great Depression firsthand. They saw the results of Republican financial failure under Herbert Hoover and the resurrection of the country under Franklin Roosevelt.

Now, 75 years later, we’ve come full circle. The collapse of major financial firms on Wall Street, record numbers of home foreclosures, and colossal budget and trade deficits under Republican leadership point to the harshest economic times since senior voters were children.

Remember just three years ago when John McCain and George W. Bush tried to privatize Social Security? They wanted to tie retirement funds to the volatility of the market. Talk about bright ideas. Anybody want to push that plan now?

This is 1932 all over again. We need a highly intelligent, dynamic Democratic leader to remind us that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Just like FDR at that time, Barack Obama can bring us together and start to clean up the mess created by years of Republican mistakes.

Obama proposes targeted tax cuts, including the elimination of income taxes for seniors with less than $50,000 in annual income. His plan would save an average of $1,400 for 7 million seniors nationwide, including several thousand in the Mahoning Valley.

BILL ADAMS

Austintown

What do the workers get?

EDITOR:

We, the working people of this country, who follow the letter of the law from paying our taxes to maintaining our property (and our collective civic spirits) to cleaning up after our dogs — the mundane heroes who struggle to make ends meet while we watch illogical government spending — we want to know: where’s our bailout?

Was it that little pittance called an economic stimulus check that we gave to ourselves last spring? It sure did the job, didn’t it?

KIM R. KOTHEIMER

Boardman