‘Payne’ in the NRA
In a time when it is more evident than ever that Americans must be responsible for not only their own personal safety, but for the safety of their neighbors, it’s disappointing to see the kind of prejudice and stupidity displayed in Pat Payne’s column (“Bunglers can boil in their own stew,” ODE, 01/08).
I’m a life member of the National Rifle Association. I’ve been a member for more than 25 years. The author’s disrespect of elected NRA President Charleton Heston is an insult to every NRA member. It was meant as an insult, and I take it as a personal and organizational insult. I voted for Mr. Heston and am proud of the job he’s doing for our association.
Payne owes an apology, which I imagine he is both too arrogant and cowardly to tender. As for his condemnation of Attorney General John Ashcroft, I can only say it’s about time the United States had an attorney general who respects both the wisdom of the authors of the Constitution and the maturity of the American people.
I assume Payne feels that he’s too immature to own any dangerous device and that, by extension, all people are too immature to be trusted with them, or that only he has the native intelligence to decide what devices and technologies his fellow citizens can be trusted to own. Holding either of these beliefs should be enough of a sign of a prejudiced mind to take the credibility from any of Payne’s writing.
I realize the column was intended to be humorous. However, cloaking purposely insulting comments about any group of people as humor is rude and transparent. I suggest the Emerald remind Pat Payne of that fact.
Glenn R. Vandergriff
Centreville, Va.
Bilingualism a necessity,
not a nuisance
The editorial on the language requirement being a “nuisance” was extremely short-sighted (“No, Non, Nein; In any tongue, ‘no’ to language requirement,” ODE, Jan. 17). Assuming one can now predict exactly what will be of use and value in future life is extremely naive and a bit arrogant.
The world doesn’t revolve around the English language. If you ever intend to successfully deal with individuals from various countries and cultures, you’ll find any language skills of value. While classrooms aren’t the “best” way to learn a language, all students can’t go to another country for immersion learning, either. You learn things about language in a class that you’ll never learn in daily usage.
I lived in Europe unexpectedly, in a country whose language I had never studied, yet the skills I had from Latin in elementary school (amazingly useful), and French in high school/college, enabled me to learn, read and speak very quickly. I was able to use everything I had learned to live there very successfully.
Don’t write off any education (especially not anything as fundamental as language skills) just because your narrow focus doesn’t allow you to see the practical applicability now. Life is rarely interested that you have a plan about what you will do, what your career will be. The world has a tendency to throw curveballs at you. It will amaze you how useful the things you have learned may turn out to be when you least expect it.
Rand Stamm
parking/transportation manager
Department of Public Safety
National insecurity
I hope I am not the only one to see the contradiction. President Bush builds an international coalition to fight terrorism, which is a valuable and worthy effort by any measure. With this, Bush draws people together to dismantle the forces that endanger us all.
Bush abandons international treaties on global warming, chemical weapons and land mines, and now he abandons a key treaty to our national security, the Antiballistic Missile Treaty. With this, Bush thumbs his nose at the concerns of others.
According to our National Academy of Sciences, Europe stands to become another Siberia; a global warming disaster could befall them in a decade. As sea level rises, small island nations may cease to exist. War-torn peoples around the world are maimed and killed by abandoned land mines.
By abandoning the ABM treaty, Bush can race forward with his ill-conceived and useless missile defense program, a technology whose absurdity was horribly demonstrated on Sept. 11.
Will Russia be more willing to negotiate nuclear arms reductions? Not likely. Will China, India, Pakistan and North Korea shun nuclear weapon and missile development? It is not likely. So are we more secure with a missile defense system? Not at all.
Bush’s motivation is easy to track. The money trail leads to those who purchased his presidency. Bush pays his political debts with the currency of our collective security. Beyond politics and beyond arrogance, this is immoral.
Eldon Haines
Eugene
