Letters to the editor for Sunday, Sept. 12: We should be thanking President Biden
We should be thanking the president
I’m getting tired of politically motivated criticism of President Biden for the evacuation from Afghanistan. It was an impossible task in the midst of chaos. I think it was as successful as humanly possible, and brilliantly executed by our diplomats and military. It accomplished what the majority of Americans wanted, which was that we get out.
Biden’s critics haven’t come up with a single constructive idea as to what should have been done differently. To rail about a few hundred American citizens who failed evacuation overlooks the fact that they had every opportunity to leave but chose not to do so. They can still go if they want to.
It’s now time for the United States to find another corrupt, incompetent government somewhere far away to prop up in the face of popular support of insurgents we don’t like. The U.S. has lots of money and soldiers’ lives to waste in the name of something or other. Maybe the third time will be the charm.
We should be thanking Joe Biden for a job well done.
Jim White, Florence
More:Guest View: Rise of the Taliban and defeat of the U.S.
Thoughts are with today’s veterans
Some of the new members of Congress in the House are veterans of the war in Afghanistan. Will the Republican members have the courage to speak out against Trump's statements that letting in the Afghan's that were a support to you is an immigration issue? I bet only a few will, and they will be assailed by his supporters as not being American enough. Duh! They put their lives on the line and lost friends in the war and one that Trump signed a devil's deal with the Taliban to end. As a Vietnam vet, I am having many thoughts for all the service members that served in Afghanistan.
Don French, Eugene
Freedom must have its limits
Recent letters to the editor taking anti-vaxxers to task for their risky behavior are welcome arguments against these faulty positions. Aside from misinformation, this movement against vaccines bases its position on a fuzzy definition of freedom. Without defining the word, the protesters claim that their freedom is being violated when some school district or business requires a COVID-19 vaccine. They even ape the abortion slogan “my body, my choice.”
More:Lost your COVID-19 vaccine card? Here's what to do
Freedom, however, has never been about doing whatever we want. If we want to live in a civilized society, freedom must have limits. We have laws against running a red light, stealing and murder to ensure the safety of every citizen. COVID-19 shot requirements are not about taking away someone’s freedom but about protecting the community. In America’s social contract, individual freedom stops where danger to others starts.
Marilyn Farwell, Eugene
POTUS has no room for slack
In a letter to the editor printed Sept. 5, 2021, we were asked to cut Biden some slack.
Of all the people we should cut some slack, it is not the president of the United States, whether red, blue or plaid.
This is the most powerful person in the world and each utterance, decision and photo op are dissected, analyzed, propagandized, every day, every way and everywhere. There is no room for slack in the leadership of the president, because their every action or inaction is turned, twisted and tortured to enforce someone’s point of view.
More:Opinion: Biden shows his skill and will
The harshest critics of any president should be those who are the fiercest supporters of that president.
The Democrats did not cut the last president any slack, nor should they to this president.
S. D. Smith, Eugene
A party based on misinformation, misdirection
I agree with Lou Lewis’ letter on Sept. 7. The Republican Party has become Trump fascists. The editorial cartoon next to it likened Texas’ attack on women’s rights and voting rights to the Taliban. Republicans are not interested in governing, and have no policy ideas except to destroy our democracy, limit our freedom and block Democratic attempts to help people, even though most Democratic policies have the approval of two-thirds of the public. Republicans used to be anti-communist, but under Trump they did all of Putin’s bidding and now believe most of the Russian misinformation on social media.
The Washington Post reports an NYU Facebook study that says misinformation got six times more clicks than factual information, and that conservative media spread more fake news. An OSU study found that “conservatives are less able to distinguish political truths from falsehoods than liberals, mainly because of a glut of right-leaning misinformation.”
Trump knew in January 2020 that the virus spread by air and was deadly, yet he called it a liberal hoax, politicized mask wearing and insisted on super-spreader events. Now vaccinations are politicized, which is causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and spreading variants.
Jerry Brule, Eugene
Burn on!
George Will weighs in on climate change with the standard, tired, worn-out conservative arguments. The one I find most comical is the argument a 10-year-old child makes when asked to do something: “China doesn’t do it, so why should I?”
My second favorite conservative argument is that climate change has always happened through nature, which is true, but there has always been a catalyst for that change. This particular catalyst happens to be human-caused and might even have a human cure, if the world responds quickly.
More:Guest view: Military may be climate's biggest enemy
Will says nothing about the increased acidity of our oceans, which is killing off sea life that we rely on for food, and he says nothing about the change to ocean currents, but instead brings up silly analogies to hydrogen bombs and nebulous references to the fact that oceans have been rising for 20,000 years.
He also mentions this is also to sever a pre-existing liberal agenda, but neglects an understanding that many of the causes of global warming have contributed to the spread of cancer and emphysema, so I guess we should never be concerned with the effects of pollution.
Bruce Schertell, Eugene
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