Columnists missed the boat on primary results
Re: “Racialists now, racialists forever in the District,” & “Deals with the devil might haunt Mayor Gray,” Sept. 17
Running Jonetta Rose Barras and Harry Jaffe on one page indicates that The Examiner needs a columnist more in touch with D.C. residents. Jaffe, who thinks Vincent Gray made “deals with the devil,” conveniently forgets the deals Mayor Fenty (whom he called a “jerk”) made to raise $5 million.
Gray’s support was so widespread, he didn’t have to make promises to the unions, LGBT leaders, the Chamber of Commerce, the Latino community or the Muslim caucus. Rather, they came to him.
I keep thinking that Barras is still mad at Gray for supporting marriage-equality, which she steadfastly opposed. As usual, she misses the point in her “racialist diatribe.” I am not black or part of the old guard. I am an education reformer, having taught school and run an education association for 14 years. Yet I supported Gray. He doesn’t have a race-based philosophy, but shares a philosophy with my old boss, Bella S. Abzug, called fairness.
I hope we can go back to more balanced columns in The Examiner as the city heads into the future.
Peter D. Rosenstein
Washington
What will it take to wake Americans up?
Re: “Speaking out against aggression is a moral imperative,” Sept. 15
Many thanks to Barbara Hollingsworth for her poignant reminder that we cannot afford to avert our eyes and ears to the behavior and words of Iran’s leaders as they conduct nuclear policy.
Her analogy to Hitler’s methodology is apt. We too easily forget how unspeakable Nazi crimes against millions of innocents were enabled by the silence and inaction of bystanders. Too many were hypnotized by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s words: “peace for our time. . . Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.”
What will it take to wake us up? This brings to mind a scene in “The Lord of the Rings” in which a kingdom is facing an imminent invasion. The king tells the hero, Aragorn: “I will not risk open war.” Aragorn replies: “Open war is upon you, whether you would risk it or not.”
Stella Green
Potomac
Santa Obama has lump of coal for black Americans
Black America’s love affair with the Democratic Party and President Obama should be filed under “Unsolved Mysteries”. Never has so much been given for so little.
Let’s peek inside Santa Obama’s bag. Wow, Santa! Money for Service Employees International Union, “too big to fail” banks and two car companies, a mosque at ground zero, and amnesty for illegal immigrants. Last but not least, Black America gets 17 percent unemployment and a blame George Bush bumper sticker.
What Obama and the Democrats may prove, however unintentionally, and what many in black America may soon discover is that the white man is not the boogeyman and neither is a black president and the Democratic Party their salvation. And the only change you can really believe is the one you see in the mirror.
Kenneth Hughes
Rockville
