GHOSTBUSTERS CLUB EDITORIALS 1
In future days we look forward to a world founded on 4 essential freedoms. Freedom of speech. Freedom of worship. Freedom from want. Freedom from fear. A healthy peacetime life. Worldwide arms reduction so no nation can commit aggression against any neighbor. That is no vision of a distant millennium but a world attainable in our own time. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
* One sign of maturity is being comfortable with people not like us.
* A good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge.
* History is how people get along with each other. Alan Greenspan
Don't gate public festivals or rope off park areas.
Copy Fanueil Hall: Free general public admission!
THIS LAND IS OUR LAND
Our most important development is capitalism and democracy's philosophical and practical triumph over totalitarianism. We demonstrate that a market economy and limited government work better than central planning and unfettered government power and lead to greater economic prosperity, national security, individual liberty and justice. Central in defeating totalitarian governments, we have every right to be proud of our accomplishments. Limiting government powers and keeping government control in the hands of the people is the central and perpetual challenge of human affairs. Whether we'll be as free as we are now to work, create, speak, assemble, travel, worship, defend ourselves and make marketplace choices a century from now depends on how well we meet this challenge.
Religious tolerance denied - Only Muslims are allowed in Mecca. Only Mormons can enter Mormon churches. The list goes on. France's position on head scarves is trivial compared to Saudi Arabia's ban on all non-Islamic religions and its denial of women's most basic human rights, including the right to vote. Afghan women are also still oppressed. Let's pressure these the worst offenders.
Ours is the land of the free only as long as it's the home of the brave. NEWSWEEK People of the Century: American GIs, many times making the world safe for freedom and democracy. The world truly benefits from their presence. Honor them by voting and doing other civic activities. The United States government is the world's best because we the people - ordainers, signers and upholders of its Constitution - can question it freely without penalty. TIME 2003 person of the year - again, our troops.
How much trouble is it to take minutes of your busy schedule on Election Day to vote? East Timorese voters left their homes and hid in the forest, walking out of the hills and lining up to vote under threat of death to decide whether to remain part of Indonesia or be independent. Voter turnout was over 98%. Zimbabwe voters lined up for miles to vote. Want congressional timber? Elect a tree. People don't vote. A potted plant could do no worse.
Elections should be joyful. Fun is spoiled by public crackdowns on the homeless, begrudging them the motivation to vote. Many of us are only one paycheck or person away from homelessness. Voter turnout is low because of poor service at polls and at the registrar's office.
Barbie's leap from doll house to White House comes with blue campaign suit, red and white inaugural ball gown, bumper stickers, campaign signs and button and Internet and marketing material from Girls Inc and the White House Project for development of female leaders. At 40 Barbie's old enough, with a firm economics background to campaign on the Barbie.com website. Barbie will impact California's race as Malibu Barbie.
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE
Voter apathy links to low self-esteem. Voting won't change your life overnight. Taking part in the political process you feel like your input counts, a needed step towards confidence at work and in relationships.
Democratic Party Green Party Reform Party Republican Party Calvoter
American Civil Liberties Union League of Women Voters
New citizens offer inspiration. Hundreds wait in lines around the corner in both directions from the Civic Auditorium. Well-dressed immigrants come downtown early to stand before a judge and become U S citizens, leaving families and homes to come to the United States and a better future. Learning our Constitution they pass a test many native Americans fail. These people, central to the American experience, are a driving force for our economy and a large contributor to our high living standard. My ancestors stood in this line. I thank God they did. Thanks for coming here, but leave your cigarettes behind. We hate smoking.
I'll worry about the United States' human rights record when people stop risking their lives to come here, and if critics enjoying human rights here exercise their freedom to leave. Hear from the guy who visits all those countries and finds everybody wants to move to the U S.
Why don't organizations who supposedly care about human rights protest about allied civilian and U S casualties? They're all fakes and frauds, only protesting against the U S.
You hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon using helpless Americans to take out other helpless Americans. You missed America because of something you'll never understand. America's not buildings, financial or military centers, a place or even bodies. America's an IDEA that you can earn as much as you can figure out how to, live as you envisioned living, and pursue happiness. You whine and chant your terriroist litany, "If you can't see my point you'll feel my pain." This concept is alien to us. In our country you're free to have a point but we don't have to see it. You can make speeches but we don't have to listen. We don't have to agree with you either. American spirit takes over people coming here for liberty, opportunity, freedom, even if they misuse it. You can't understand we don't live in America. America lives in US! Killing a few thousand or million of us won't change that. Mostly we're happy-go-lucky until we're crossed, then we're different. Wait until you see what we do this time. Sleep tight if you can. We're coming!
Angry because city council rudely refused to install a traffic signal in front of her school so children could cross the street safely, Janet Gray Hayes became our city's first woman mayor. Rod Diridon, upset about a neighborhood park, served on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors 20 years until the killjoy element screwed him out of office with term limits. PROTEST litter, broken glass, gum, nonworking streetlights and traffic signals.
Banner ad free estimate how much your house is worth. I keyed in my post office box zip code. They said it's worth $1 million. Next the courthouse, the post office and City Hall.
Veteran police officer enters burning home, shepherds a boy to safety before firefighters arrive, his actions based on training and experience. Untrained people should never enter a burning building.
NYPD Homeless Outreach officer Eduardo Delacruz received a Christmas bonus of $5,350 from homeless people thanking him for standing up for them. Delacruz was suspended 30 days without pay for refusing a sergeant's order to arrest a homeless man found sleeping in a garage because the man had nowhere else to go. Grateful homeless organizations raised the fund for Delacruz, his wife and their 5 children. "We want to thank him by contributing as much as we could. A lot of us gave quarters, nickels and dimes." Homeless people also contributed change scrounged from passersby, money earned from recycling cans and bottles, even part of their welfare checks. Delacruz returned to work "very moved" by what the homeless did. Delacruz and his family said "God bless everyone, especially the homeless."
From Police Chief Davis' speech at the annual police memorial service: People at a town meeting complained bitterly about police presence, yet the police are the ones defending their right to free speech and thought. Police won't break down their doors at 3 a m and haul them away. People who love our police mention officers by name.
CBS documentary Victory in the Pacific didn't mention submarines. Tom Brokaw interviewed no submarine veterans in The Greatest Generation. Although only 1.6% of the Navy they sank over 30% of Japan's Imperial Navy and 60% of their merchant marine including 4 large and 3 small aircraft carriers, 3 heavy cruisers, 8 light cruisers, 43 destroyers, 23 submarines and 2,400 merchant ships carrying fuel, food, ammunition, supplies and troops. They laid mines, hauled ammunition, transported troops, deployed secret agents, delivered guerrilla leaders and rescued refugees, nurses and generals, including Lt j g George H W Bush and 502 other downed fliers. 52 submarines never came home. 2000 marks the submarine centennial. Heroic submarine veterans are seldom mentioned - a grave injustice.
Soldiers, not reporters or poets, give us freedom of speech and press. Soldiers, not campus organizers, keep us free to demonstrate. Soldiers salute the flag, serve beneath the flag, their coffins draped by the flag so protesters can burn the flag.
An elderly man visiting France with a group of teachers had to dig inside his bag for his passport. When asked if he'd been to France before and knew of the need to show passports when entering France he said "When I landed here on D-Day to help liberate France I couldn't find anybody to show it to!"
You can't tell a veteran by looking
MEMORIES OF KOREA
No matter how many fancy weapons we have the infantry still has to dig out the enemy. As combat infantry I proudly wore the 3rd Infantry Division's blue and white striped patch.
I still remember thousands of bedraggled refugees. Dirty, ragged kids begging for food. A boy with no legs. Endless steep mountains we climbed on all fours. A wounded soldier rolling and sliding 100 yards down a mountain. Bitter, bone-chilling cold. Endless long nights on ambush patrols and listening posts when for 12 - 13 hours we dared not stand up, talk or move about. Frostbitten hands and toes that still plague me. Living outside or in a freezing hole in the ground. Constant boredom interspersed with terror and fear. Sometimes I didn't think I'd live another second. The enemy was often only 10 - 15 yards away, usually at night. My buddies wounded, some slightly, others horribly. My friend Teddy bled to death in my arms. I wore those same blood-drenched clothes for a month. My clothes were also splattered with the brains of an enemy soldier. I still wake up screaming.
Friendly fire: Due to mistakes of others, one night we got into a firefight with another American company. I killed at least one of those men. That will haunt me forever. That very same night our own artillery fired on us. My fighting ended when I was wounded by a Chinese hand grenade, hospitalized 3 months and returned to a society that didn't even know I left. Our soldiers in Iraq will undoubtedly have similar experiences. Some will die, others will be maimed, but all who survive combat will be scarred for life.