Letters
Letters to the editor
Highlands Today
Published: February 10, 2013
Common sensePublished: February 10, 2013
Nothing in our government makes sense today. Let your voice be heard with a Common Sense party. Where do you stand? I have been campaigning for months and years for a Common Sense party. Now it is needed more than ever.
Some of the comments I have heard: "This is a good idea and a good plan"; "I don't want to get involved"; "We really can't do anything about it"; "Our country has been through rough times before"; "I am only one person, what can I do?"; and "What is common sense to you might not be to others." My response is, "I will accept 10 to 20 people gathered together as a common sense committee who love America and love God."
American standards of living remain high, but American moral standards of living have plunged. All who love America should be very concerned. Rarely can we turn on our TV and find it not polluted by immoral thinking.
Our public schools are exposed to drugs, violence, anti-American and anti-God teaching, pro-one world government, pro-evolution, pro-homosexual, pro-condom and other satanic teachings.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin says, "I suspect most of our cultural institutions, new media, the entertainment industry, etc. are now in the hands of those who reject the Almighty." Those who run our universities, schools and court systems are constantly implementing anti-God doctrines.
Humanists do not believe in nation or God. They say, "Americans will have to give up some of our sovereignty." Christians and humanists are 180 degrees in opposition.
We mustn't forget the ultimate goal in big government is world government. The only way to save our country is by the power of God through a Common Sense party. This is the same God that George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and our founding fathers called upon to help make good decisions and lead America.
If you are too old to physically get involved, you can pray to God. If you have good health and are able, get involved with the Common Sense party.
Remember: If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.
Ralph Costello
Avon Park
Moving on
Examining our difficulties with Iran today, it seems useful to examine two other countries where we have had difficulties in the past: Vietnam and Cuba.
In Vietnam, we have normalized our relationship to a level that permits Americans to visit and a growing economic relationship — this, despite a war that cost the lives of over 58,000 Americans and several million Vietnamese.
By contrast we still maintain hostility toward Cuba, based largely on the belligerence of a small minority of former Cubans, largely resident in south Florida, who have developed a political footprint significant enough to dominate our foreign policy and elect several persons of Cuban descent who place old hostilities ahead of our more important interests and "better angles." Truly a "tail wagging the dog" situation.
In Iran, the ancient grievances on the Iranian side are largely based on our role in ousting the democratically elected government of Mossadegh in 1953, his subsequent assassination and supporting the military takeover, which installed Pahlavi as shah, whose regime brutalized the Iranian people.
Eventually the Iranians rebelled against the shah despite his continued support by the U.S. and other western governments. On the U.S. side, we still cultivate our outrage over the takeover of our embassy in 1979 and the subsequent anti-western theocracy established by Khomeini, who filled the void created by the shah's departure. Currently, some low-level talks signal a beginning, perhaps some reason for hope.
It seems obvious that some effort to get past old grievances and look for the potential for establishing mutually beneficial relationships is a necessary first step. Reaching out to Cuba and rejecting the cultivation of old grievances as the Miami refugee community insists on pursuing should be fairly easy.
We should get over it and recognize that most of the Cubans today were born many years after our political contra-temps and are eager to normalize their relationship with the U.S. If we could put aside our former offenses and look to current opportunities for mutual accords, we just might be able to reduce the world tensions that currently drive our foreign affairs.
Randy Ludacer
Lake Placid