Black voters should rethink their support of Obama Re: “Obama’s policies matter most to blacks,” From Readers, Oct. 24
Marvin Adams found Cal Thomas’ assessment of black support for President Obama insulting. As a fellow black American, I did not.
About 95 percent of African Americans supported Mr. Obama in 2008. Now in the latter stages of his presidency, we still have 9 percent overall unemployment — and double that for African Americans — while a recent poll found that 85 percent of blacks still support Obama.
How can this support be explained, considering the wide gap between Obama’s social stance and most African Americans’ and his failure to deliver the economic “hope and change” he promised, especially to blacks? Unfortunately, Adams lays the blame on others’ treatment of Mr. Obama. Because the success of his policies cannot possibly be the reason, I conclude that the real cause is blind allegiance to Mr. Obama’s skin color.
Many black folks are discovering that although the truth will set you free, it won’t necessarily make you feel good. As they abandon their blind allegiance and knee-jerk anger to constructive criticism, their choices at the ballot box will be wiser.
Angela McIntosh
Frederick, Md.
Rejection of aid shows depth of Pakistani anger
Re: “Rejecting U.S. aid hurts Pakistan’s poor,” Oct. 20
The Associated Press criticizes Pakistan’s Punjab province for rejecting U.S. aid, writing that “a cut would be felt most acutely by Pakistan’s poor.”
This is not true. As Imran Khan of Pakistan’s Movement for Justice described last month, “We need reforms, but this aid stops any real reform. If any money goes to the Pakistan government, it will not reach the people who need it.” As Rep. Ron Paul said in the last GOP presidential debate: “Foreign aid gives money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.”
Punjab’s rejection of aid shows how much Pakistanis hate U.S. involvement. Our military has killed thousands of civilians since 2004, each time using foreign aid as a bribe to quiet government criticism. Even after Punjab’s Assembly unanimously condemned them, U.S. strikes have continued. This affront to justice is what drives Pakistani militancy and toleration of the Taliban.
David Bier
Arlington
Obama should listen to his own commerce experts
The Obama administration has two high-ranking members who were on Boeing’s Board of Directors when it unanimously approved management’s decision to open a new Dreamliner 787 plant in South Carolina instead of offshore. One is Obama Chief of Staff Bill Daley, a former secretary of commerce in the Clinton administration. In an interview, a frustrated Daley characterized the National Labor Relations Board’s action as “bureaucratic stuff” and conceded: “Sometimes you can’t defend the indefensible.”
During his confirmation hearing, current Commerce Secretary John Bryson testified that he disagreed with the NLRB’s attempt to force Boeing to close the South Carolina plant. That attempt, he asserted, was “not the right judgment.”
To show that he’s really serious about domestic job creation, President Obama should value their judgment over that of Lafe Solomon, the labor lawyer he appointed as general counsel for the NLRB while Congress was in recess to sidestep the confirmation process.
Bob Foys
Inverness, Ill.
