My grandparents would be so proud of MLK Memorial Re: “Long-awaited Martin Luther King Memorial opens,” Aug. 22
I traveled more than 100 miles to the District of Columbia one week before the unveiling of the highly anticipated enshrining of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s image on the National Mall. It’s been a long wait for this tribute, which received public and private funds to complete.
This new white granite memorial symbolizing King’s great deeds as a theologian will be an appropriate backdrop for the golden anniversary of his famous, “I Have A Dream” speech in 2013.
My Southern grandparents, who struggled for racial equality, are now deceased, but they would be proud of this memorial to King so near the place where his vision was manifested 48 years ago.
Wayne E. Williams
Camden, N.J.
Disability payments should only go to truly disabled
Re: “Social Security disability on verge of insolvency,” Aug. 22
This is another example of a wasteful entitlement program that our country can no longer afford.
One simple step to cut costs is to stop paying Social Security disability benefits to soldiers and others who are still on active duty and drawing full salary and benefits. Disability payments should be a stopgap measure for people in need. None of these beneficiaries — most of whom aren’t working even though they can — have lost their salaries, and most are not even combat injured.
The Department of Veterans Affairs should also stop 10 percent monthly disability payments for “nuisance diagnoses” like subjective tinnitus or allergic rhinitis, worth $123 a month for one and $243 a month for both. Neither condition meets the definition of a disability. It’s a racket and the soldiers know it.
We need a good dose of common sense and politicians brave enough to stop the madness before we bleed an already anemic system beyond resuscitation.
Dr. Jeffrey M. Edmondson
Fairfax
Israel can no longer count on Egypt or Turkey
Re: “Hamas official: Gaza militants agree to cease-fire,” Aug. 22
Employing its usual tactic, Hamas carries out a terrorist attack, now coupled with a long-range rocket bombardment of Israeli cities, and then calls for a cease-fire before Israel makes an appropriate response.
Egypt, the arbiter of the cease-fire, is no longer a friend of Israel, if it ever was one. Egypt is now actively aiding terrorist rocket attacks by opening its border with Gaza. Unfortunately, Hamas only understands one action, namely an overwhelming military reply that Israel has been reluctant to conduct because of the possibility of angering not only Egypt, but also Turkey.
However, Israel no longer can depend on either Egypt or Turkey being neutral in the battle with a Hamas-controlled Gaza, as the latter refuses to consider Hamas a terrorist group and the former allows the flow of weapons into Gaza.
Nelson Marans
Silver Spring
