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Be Careful, President Bush!
By Ray Pavlak, Winsted
Congratulations on your success in leading your party to major victories in the voting on November 5. I am not happy with many of the results of the vote, but as a loyal American I accept them.
What I am disappointed in is the lack of sincere dialogue about the many national problems that must be solved. The economy needs help. Unemployment continues to increase, while just as unsettling is the growth of underemployment—particularly in minimum-wage, benefit-less service sector jobs.
This dovetails into the widespread concerns about education. What is the point of our students going on to higher and higher levels of study when there is little or no call for their types of knowledge and skills in the job market? For students as well as taxpayers, the costs of education are reaching astronomical levels. Isn't it a terrible waste of human and financial resources to have many individuals with graduate degrees forced to accept unskilled and low-paying jobs while their knowledge stagnates?
Health care is another area which needs to be debated fully with a viable compromise reached. The minimum needed is a national pharmaceutical program to deal with the high cost of drugs. It is time for a national health program, which had been suggested in 1948 by President Truman. A 1993 Gallup poll found 96% of Canadians satisfied with their national health program.
The tax regulations need an overhaul. When so many businesses—whether headquartered in the U.S. or "off-shore"—find ways to avoid taxes, and our national debt and expenses go up and up as a result of the "war on terrorism" and the last tax reduction, there are major problems to be solved.
Last, but far from least, is your determination to go to war with Iraq. Now that the election is over there is definite need to discuss and debate your request, especially if you plan to go ahead without UN backing. Should you take the election result as a mandate for war on our own or without UN support, you will be making a tragic mistake. You will be going into the struggle trying to take a badly divided nation with you.
I supported your initiative and believed you were doing the right thing to go after Osama bin Laden. Saddam is far from such a clear case calling for our action, especially with a first strike or without the UN's support. To expose our men and women to death on such a flimsy basis, especially when we and other free nations face a real nuclear threat from North Korea, is highly questionable and frightening.
I also supported our government's involving us in the Vietnam troubles. Later, when I found out how much our government had lied to and misled us, I favored an end to the killing. Unless you can convince many of us of the need to fight Iraq, please don't do it and tear our country apart again.
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