THE DAILY STANDARD welcomes letters to the editor. Letters will be edited for length and clarity and must include the writer’s name, city, and state.
*1*
Thank you for Jonathan V. Last’s hilarious article on the Dean for America blog (World Wide Dean). Last’s comparison of average citizens involved in grass-roots politics to a cult was delightfully absurd. I’m the new Iowan and blushing bride Last referenced. My coveted Official Dean for America Gold Stars are hanging above the computer as I write this.
Anyone who might mindlessly glance at the article might think that my husband and I are nutcases who got married in some crazy Green-Card-earning-type attempt. But since THE DAILY STANDARD attracts only people with good critical thinking skills, your readers will undoubtedly realize that we are just a couple of average Americans. As a devoted couple, we were going to enter the holy, no-gays-allowed bond of Matrimony sooner or later. Both of us being fervent Dean supporters, we decided sooner would give us both the opportunity to caucus for Dean as Iowans. Simple as that, no mind control needed.
As for the blog, the idea of all these people being controlled by one Orwellian force gave me a good chuckle. I mean, think of it–millions of people getting one distorted, politically-controlled point of view from a–I don’t know, “News Corporation.” The idea is just–
Creepy.
–Kathleen Gallagher
*2*
When I returned from Vietnam in 1967, I visited a wounded buddy at a military hospital in Denver. (Larry Miller, That’s the Guy for Me) I thought he would need cheering up because he and some shrapnel had arrived in the same place and needed sifting. It was feared he’d lose his left arm.
Well, I don’t know how it was in other military hospitals, but his morale and that of his comrades was superb. The arm was saved (even though he never recovered much use of it).
But the thing is that he and his fellow wounded were visited afternoons, evenings, and weekends by some of the most wonderful girls on earth–luscious office workers from Denver, gorgeous farm girls from Goodland, snow bunnies from Vail. Believe me, those fly-over country ladies welcomed the wounded tenderly and in style. They helped with physical therapy and any whacko who would have tried to spit on those recuperating Marines and soldiers would have had his or her eyes clawed out. These men were all American heroes!
Eventually my buddy married one of those girls and settled into a lucrative farm implement business. They now have six grandkids and are ready to sell the farm. We have corresponded for years and when I alluded to the lousy reception accorded Vietnam returnees, he wrote: “Buddy, I don’t know what you mean.”
–Scott Payne
*3*
I was rather surprised, indeed shocked, to hear of “Anna’s” suggestion for a foreign citizens’ letter-writing campaign. The manifest idiocy of the suggestion (I choose my words with scientific exactness–“idiotes,” in Greek, is the “private man,” one who is unfit for participation in the political life of the community) is enough to make us fear for the soul who authored the idea. I take issue with Jonathan V. Last’s assertion that such a thing has never before been tried. I recall a certain Citizen Genet, who, during Washington’s presidency (the end of the first term, if I recall correctly), attempted something quite similar.
–Christopher R. Altieri
*4*
From 1963 -1968 I served as an officer in the Air Force. The cultural change Larry Miller speaks of developed during that time period.
Early in my career, you could not pay for a drink in a bar if you were in uniform. Stores, hotels, and airlines gave formal and sometimes “ad hoc” discounts. You were treated as a celebrity when you returned to the old neighborhood.
The attitude of the next generation changed quickly and it was not until the first Gulf war that attitudes began to change back.
–Mark Sicinski
*5*
There is a place where a man (or woman) in uniform is offered handshakes, rides, meals, and most important, thanks. Here in Israel. Soldiers never wait more than a few moments for rides, and packages of cakes and sweets are frequently dropped off by well-wishers at points where soldiers congregate.
The way a country treats its soldiers is directly related to the universality of the soldier experience. If, as in Vietnam, there is a way for a segment of the population to either opt-out or avoid service, than the experience is no longer universal, and those who do serve are seen as being proactively involved in the nation’s policies. No democracy, no matter how perfect, is the absolute expression of its people’s wishes. There will always be dissenters and opposition parties, but a universally conscripted military in a democracy should be an accurate expression of its government’s policies, and the government–not the soldiers–bears the responsibility for the popular or unpopular policies.
–David Bogner
*6*
When I graduated from Air Force technical training in April 1971, I found myself short of the airfare needed to make it home to Michigan. Luckily, I had enough to fly to Indianapolis, where I hoped to hitchhike home.
I was in uniform, and needed two or three rides to get home, and the last driver went out of his way to take me to my front door. Thank goodness I traveled in the right colored states!
–Doug Cross
*7*
I actually served in Uncle Sam’s walking army, for thirty-three months. The army I was in, at least from what I see today, cannot be compared to today’s army. Today’s soldiers seem to know, even before the first shot is fired, what to do, how to soldier. We did not. Today’s soldiers seem proud to serve. We were not. Today’s soldiers seem trained to fight. We were not.
–Larry R. Duncan
*8*
Jonathan V. Last need look no further than the Japan leagues to find “another production house going almost a full decade without making a bad movie” as has John Lasseter’s Pixar (The Top 10 Movies of 2003?).
Studio Ghibli (pronounced “JIH-boo-ree”) has been knocking them out of the park nonstop since 1984’s “Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind.” Highlights of their run include the incredibly powerful World War II home-front film “Grave of the Fireflies” and last year’s Oscar-winning “Spirited Away.” An increasing number of the Ghibli masterpieces are now available in the United States.
Ghibli chief Hayao Miyazaki is also known for mentoring young animators including–surprise!–John Lasseter.
–C.J. Scott
*9*
I do not understand why the prohibition of wearing a veil should be so vexing. (Terry Eastland, Butting In). Not that I believe that almost anything that the French do is good. Quite the opposite.
Comparing the stricture of the wearing of veils to wearing a yarmulke or cross is totally invalid. The yarmulke and cross do not undermine essential aspects of our culture as the veil does. The human face is the primary means for identifying an individual without the use of exotic techniques and equipment for finger printing or DNA testing. Imagine a veiled person using their driver’s license for identification when cashing a check or making a purchase.
A veil does not fit into any modern culture. Yarmulkes and crosses do not offer any such problems.
–Victor Galindo
*10*
I think the French–I’m taking up for the French, okay!–do have a point.
We are seeing religious intolerance here in our own country brought about by the ACLU and the judges who legislate from the bench and no one stops it. I’m not talking about the Ten Commandment incident, but about some of our schools where the wearing of a cross in not permitted. Where we as a people cannot celebrate our religious heritage–primarily Christianity–openly with symbolic displays without the threat of a lawsuit by the ACLU and the onslaught of the courts, which seem to want to remove all reference to God from public life. So before we criticize France, we need a legislature that has a back bone and put a stop to the same thing we are criticizing France for.
–Barney C. Jessee
