KEN STREMSKY DISCUSSES COMMENTARIES BY OTHERS I believe candidates for elective office especially candidates who are running for President of the United States of America should sometimes comment on what influential people have said. I believe candidates for elective office especially candidates who are running for President of the United States of America should sometimes comment on what other candidates have said. I believe candidates for elective office especially candidates who are running for President of the United States of America should comment on some of the letters to the editor they have read. I will probably add many more commentaries to this discussion in the future. COMMENTARY ONE The following was presented by The Associated Press and was on Newsday.com. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28, 1963 said "I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclaimation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of hope to millions of slaves, who had been seared in the flames of whithering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the colored America is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the colored American is still sadly crippled by the manacle of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the colored American lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the colored American is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we have come to our Nation's Capital to cash a check. When the architects of our great republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every Anerican was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed to the inalienable rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given its colored people a bad check, a check that has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice. We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is not time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy. Now it the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now it the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality to all of God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of it's colored citizens. This sweltering summer of the colored people's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hope that the colored Americans needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the colored citizen is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the colored person's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for white only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a colored person in Mississippi cannot vote and a colored person in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of your trials and tribulations. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our modern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of dispair. I say to you, my friends, we have the difficulties of today and tommorrow. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interpostion and nullification; that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphomy of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to climb up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father's died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvacious slopes of California. But not only that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi and every mountainside. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last." " MY COMMENTS I hope Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dream will come true some day. It can and should come true. It is more likely to come true if more people vote, write letters to editors, peacefully protest, and fight for what they believe in in other non violent ways. The better our schools education all our nation's children the better off we will be as a country, the stronger our economy will be, less crimes will be committed, fewer people will be in jail, and fewer people will need to be on welfare. Our country should provide more federal grants so students do not have to take on significant debt to attend college. College graduates often pay more money in taxes in their life times than people who are not college graduates. The federal education websites that I want the Federal Government to create I believe will increase the opportunity and freedoms of Americans of all races, religions, and all national origins. Men and women will be helped. Heterosexuals and homosexuals will be helped. We should be a beacon of goodness in a world that is too often dark and dreary. Our citizens have more freedoms and opportunities than most people in the world and they show that they do not value these freedoms and opportunities when they do not vote. Too many businesses discriminate against people because of their race. Too many businesses discriminate against people because of their sex. Too many businesses discriminate against people because of their religion. Too many businesses discriminate people because of their national origin. Too many businesses discriminate against people because of their sexual orientation. Too many colleges discriminate against students because of their skin color. Our businesses can and should do better. Our colleges can and should do better. Our citizens can and should do better. We should stop judging people by their sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, and national origin. We should all try to make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream come true. I believe God will be very happy with us if we do. COMMENTARY TWO The following commentary was in the Foster's Daily Democrat on January 18, 2002. "Martin Luther King challenged us to think" It was written by Rep. Jim Splaine "Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent much of his life encouraging us to think about racism. He asked us to think about why we so often judge other people based on their skin color rather than their character. He challenged us to think. He asked us to look into our hearts and question why we treat one another based in large part by our judgments and assumptions of how we are different rather than by seeing how we are alike and how much we share in common. Just think for a moment how different we are and how often each of us is in "the minority" in being what we are. On this planet there are fewer men than women. There are fewer left handed people than right handed people. Those who have blue eyes are in the minority. In fact, those who have brown eyes are in the minority, too, or green eyes — because eye color is quite diverse, so any one color is in relatively low numbers. All religions are in the minority, again, because there are so many religions that no particular one has been adopted by more than half of us. If you are over 5 feet 10 inches tall, you’re in the minority. If you’re over age 47, you’re in the minority. If you’re 19 or younger, you’re in the minority. Whatever your spoken native language is, you’re in the minority. Every nationality is in the minority. If your eyesight is 20/20, you may have good eyesight, but you’re in the minority. Do you like anchovies? If so, you’re in the minority. But did you know that if you like spaghetti, cheeseburgers or pizza, you’re in the minority, too? Indeed, there is no definition of the "average" human being. Our diversity of who we are and choices about how we live our lives is what makes us so interesting. Despite all of our differences, we are more alike than different. Biologically, as human beings we are virtually 100 percent alike, not quite, but mighty close. Despite where we live or where our ancestors came from regardless of our religious beliefs or our lifestyles, irrespective of whether we are black or brown or white, man or woman, fat or thin, gay or straight, short or tall, we have vastly more in common than all of our differences combined. The question that each of us in our heart has to answer for ourselves is why we would let those differences affect the way we treat, look at or feel toward one another. Why would we treat one another differently because of race, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion or handicap? Why do we treat people differently because of their age, weight, height, whether or not they have wealth or where they live? Why do we make those judgments? And yes, each of us makes those judgments about each and every person we meet, each and every day. Sometimes those judgments just reflect our preference about who we may wish to get to know better, but unfortunately, so often those judgments affect our choice about who we may choose to call our friend. Many times, those judgments lead to discrimination of one kind or another. Sometimes it becomes hate. There may be no correct nor uniform answer to that question of "why." But it is useful for each of us to be aware that we make those judgments and to ask ourselves why we make those judgments about one another. Then we can more likely succeed at putting those differences aside in the way we treat, look at and feel toward each other. We may also find that there are many more people we want to call "friend." If we become aware of why we make judgments about other people, then we can open our hearts to the call of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that we should judge human beings on the content of their character. That is our challenge in the 21st century if we are to fulfill his dream of getting to the mountain top." MY COMMENTS We will be better off as a country when we treat each other a lot better than we do now. COMMENTARY THREE The following commentary was a letter to the editor in the January 20, 2003 Union Leader on page A7 and it was written by Morry Stockwell. "A recent letter criticized those who ask for a peaceful settlement to the situation in Iraq, because they do not spell out how to do it. This is a common response and used to make me shrink back from offering my opinion. Not anymore. No one asks the proponents of the war how they propose to wage the war. We all know that our tax dollars support our Defense Department, which has plenty of experts who train people to wage war and kill people. Now our tax dollars also support a whole new department of Homeland Security since the enormous Defense Department, CIA, FBI, local and state police evidently were not doing it well enough. What we need is to have President Bush set up another department immediately - a new department of peace to create peaceful alternatives to war. In this vast country we have many great minds trained in mediation, diplomacy, global economics, international affairs, etc., who could be part of a huge think tank working for peace. Following their advice, we might find the world viewing us as a good neighbor instead of a self-serving bully. Perhaps they could help us follow the example of Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter, working to see that all people live in peace, have adequate food, shelter and health care, as well as a strong voice in choosing their political leaders. Years ago when President Kennedy made the space program a priority, it didn't take us long to walk on the moon. In addition to forming a department of peace, President Bush could create an alternative energy program. It would not take long for us to be rid of our reliance on oil. New jobs would be created, our planet would be cleaner and we would no longer have to squabble with countries or jockey for position to get the oil." MY COMMENTS I think our country should have a significant alternative energy program and I discuss my plan on my website. I think our country should have a Department of Peace and a Secretary of the Department of Peace. I think a Department of Peace could help to decrease the number of wars that are fought each year and improve lives of people in many countries. Peace and freedom is the best type of living. War and freedom is better than peace and slavery. Machiavelli discusses well the fact that it makes a lot more sense to defeat an enemy when it is weak than it it is to fight an enemy when it is strong. Many people appeased Hitler when he was weak and millions of people died when he was strong because of these misguided people. I believe Congress should Declare War against Iraq. I do not believe significant numbers of land troops should be sent to Iraq if Congress does not Declare War. A Congressional authoritization for the usage of force against Iraq is not acceptable. Congress and not the President of the United States of America is supposed to Declare War. Commentary Four. The following was a letter to the editor in the January 20, 2003 Union Leader on page A7 and it was written by James Maynard. "The two Claremont decisions stated that only the New Hampshire Legislature can determine the amount necessary to pay for an "adequate education" for New Hampshire children. Last November, New Hampshie voters soundly defeated a broad-based tax to fill this mandate. The problem is, the ruling still remains, as does the statewide property tax. Gov. Benson has not yet announced a new plan. There is another way. New Hampshire taxpayers (both homeowners and renters) should be allowed to receive a tax credit on their statewide property tax bills for all donations to private, public, religious and home schools. This would encourage private schools to thrive, eliminate double donations to education made by home schoolers and relieve overcrowding in public schools. Toward this end, I have established a new Web site, http://www.nhschoolschoice.org, with a petition to the Legsilature and Gov. Benson to enact such a measure. For more information, or to add your name to the petition, please visit the Web site, or e-mail nhschoolschoice@keenenh.us. Together we can provide not only an adequate education, but a great education for our children." MY COMMENTS I think giving "homeowners and renters a tax credit on their statewide property tax bills for all donations to private, public, religious and home schools" is a great idea. The New Hampshire Legislature should also give businesses a tax credit on their business profits tax bills "for all donations to private, public, religious and home schools." I hope all States in our country will give homeowners and renters tax credits "for all donations to private, public, religious and home schools." I hope all States in our country will give businesses a tax credit on their business profits tax bills "for all donations to private, public, religious and home schools." Wayne Barrows and John Stephen ran for Congress in 2002. Commentary Five. The following is a Guest Commentary that was written by Wayne Barrows. It was in the August 23, 2002 paper. "It’s time for us to pay our debt in order to cut taxes Far too often I hear candidates pandering to the voters with the stale, over-used party slogan of tax cuts. Of course we need tax cuts, but it’s time to think outside the box and include paying down the national debt in any fiscal game plan. According to the Cato Institute, a fiscally conservative public policy organization, "those pushing for tax cuts should recognize that reducing the debt burden is simply one way of cutting the tax burden on future Americans." Cato further notes that debt reduction "is similar to that used by many households that accelerate their mortgage repayments today in order to reduce them down the road ... the two goals of reducing taxes and reducing debt are not incompatible in a postwar era." Unfortunately, most candidates don’t understand this pragmatic approach. Today, families have a hefty tax burden, in part, because the national debt is $6 trillion! Last year, taxpayers paid $360 billion in interest alone. This year, taxpayers have already shelled out $181 billion for interest on the debt. This is money that doesn’t go to tax cuts, defense spending, homeland security, educating children, the health needs of veterans, contracts for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, highway repair, greater research for breast cancer or prescription drugs for seniors. Politicians talk about tax cuts as if this is a cure-all. It’s not. Tax cuts should be a part of a much greater strategy that also aggressively pays down the national debt. Prudent tax cuts always stimulate the economy, but this approach must be complemented with debt relief. There must be a long-term strategy to reduce and ultimately eliminate the debt. The federal government uses money like a credit card without regard to a credit limit. Imagine if families charged everything? If the family has additional needs, it charges them knowing that there is no limit so long as you meet the minimum monthly payment. Take a look at your credit card statement and see how much of a minimum payment goes to paying debt versus the interest. "It’s your money," is the mantra of tax cutters. I agree. Government should give us back more of our money. But what’s the point if the debt each of us must pay increases. In short, taxpayers are getting a tax cut by borrowing money with hefty interest. It’s no different than an individual getting a cash advance on a credit card and thinking it’s without a cost. In the 1960s and 1970s, the federal government spent roughly 7 percent of its budget on interest payments. In the 2001, the percentage in the budget will be a whopping 11 percent. As noted before, the interest paid is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. I applaud President George W. Bush for recognizing that the debt is a burden on every working family. He is attempting to allocate a portion of the budget for debt relief. It’s pragmatic and logical conservatism at its best. As a member of Congress, I would work diligently to see that both tax cuts and debt relief continues to be a priority. Congress must take the issue more seriously. Consistently, those who shout the loudest about conservative fiscal principles ignore the debt. It’s easier to talk tax cuts than to figure out how to diligently pay down a staggering $6 trillion debt. Financial solvency gives the government greater flexibility in addressing domestic and international needs. Sure, cut taxes. But let’s have a broader, intelligent strategy that doesn’t pander to voters with a stale message. Just imagine the size of a "real" tax cut, based on savings from interest, if the national debt were eliminated." MY COMMENTS We need to reduce our country's tax rates, spend our tax dollars more wisely, and start paying off our debt. We should allow people to make voluntary contributions to federal debt reduction year round. COMMENTARY SIX The following was written written by John Stephen and was on NHSpyglass.com and dated August 5, 2002. "IF ITS GOOD ENOUGH FOR OUR CONGRESSMEN, IT WILL BE GOOD ENOUGH FOR OUR SENIORS In Washington, there is currently a great deal of discussion about the best way to provide a prescription drug benefit for Medicare. While there is consensus on the need to offer relief to needy seniors with the cost of their medication, it has been difficult for the parties to build agreement on the size and scope of such a plan. I wholeheartedly support adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare. I believe it is a tragedy that many of today's seniors are forced to choose between food or rent and the drugs they need. This isn't an illusion. I meet people who tell me this every day that I travel the district for my congressional campaign. There is no question in my mind that our leaders in Washington need to stop the bickering and get our seniors the assistance they need. A long-term solution for prescription drug coverage, however, should be viewed in terms of a piece of the Medicare reform puzzle. We need a structural overhaul of the program that will give seniors not just coverage of their medication, but also more freedom, choice and flexibility in the benefits they receive. The problem with Medicare today is that has changed little since its inception in 1965, while the entire health care industry has undergone a dramatic metamorphosis in the past 37 years. It has evolved from fee-for-service to managed care to defined contribution plans, such as medical savings accounts, that are becoming popular today. Medicare, however, has, by and large, stayed the same. The one attempt at true reform, the Medicare+Choice plan, created in 1997 to give seniors more health care options, was so excessively regulated that over 100 health plans dropped out of the program, denying seniors the opportunity to choose private coverage. If we do not update Medicare, the entire plan will head towards collapse, imperiling the retirement security of many Americans, particulary the 77 million baby boomers set to begin retiring in 9 years, while locking today's seniors into a program that offers them little real choice and no competition. The problems with today's Medicare include the regulation and reimbursement rates that cause many doctors to drop seniors in favor of younger patients with private insurance and can cause fraud and hospitals to shift costs to other patients to cover the Medicare shortfall. This cost shifting raises health care costs for private insurers and, in turn, leads to more uninsured and wage stagnation among today's workers. This does not begin to mention the blizzard of paperwork and headaches to which our seniors are subjected. How do we change this? How can we give our seniors not only the care they deserve, but also a true choice where they can pick their own doctor and the plan that best suits them? The answer is already in Washington. A bipartisan proposal introduced by Senators John Breaux (D-LA) and Bill Frist (R-TN) and Congressman Bill Thomas (R-CA) would give seniors the freedom to choose among numerous private health plans, just like the federal employees and retirees have. Called the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP), you know it's a good deal, because it is the same program that our Congressmen have. The FEHBP model would constitute real evolution of Medicare that would give us a health care system for our seniors that is expandable enough to handle the influx of recipients about to begin receiving Medicare benefits. It would also offer many people entering Medicare the opportunity to continue their private plans into retirement. Additionally, FEHBP plans would include prescription drug benefits as part of their coverage, so our seniors would not have to be stuck in a government run, one-size-fits-all program like the one that the Democrats have proposed in the Senate that includes no incentives to keep costs down and no competition, so the costs to the taxpayers would skyrocket without any better benefit for Medicare recipients. The legislation Senators Daschle, Kennedy and company made that turns Medicare prescription drug coverage into a federalized entitlement is a recipe for financial disaster in Medicare Part B, one that could swell beyond a cost of over 600 billion dollars over the next ten years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That is certainly not the New Hampshire way- being as frugal with the taxpayers' money as we are with our own. We need leaders in Washington who are committed to more than just political gain. Leaders who are focused on keeping the promises we have made to today's seniors, while also thinking about our seniors' children and grandchildren. My father would often tell me "a politician thinks of the next election. A statesman thinks of the next generation." We need, and our seniors deserve, more statesmanship in Washington and a lot less demagoguery." MY COMMENTS The sooner Medicare is more like the Federal Employees Health Benefits program the better off our seniors will be.