The ugliness against Obama hurts our nation

There had never been a day in my life when I was not proud to be an American. I had the privilege to serve my country in the Korean War and as a member of the U.S. Foreign Service, having served at the American embassies in Vienna, Moscow, Rome, Reykjavik, Baghdad and Karachi. Through my travels, I saw poverty, hunger, sickness, illiteracy, hopelessness and the devastations created by war and dictatorships. My reaction was always "Thank God I am an American!"

That pride is being diminished with the candidacy of Barack Obama. I see the ugly faces of racism, bigotry and religious intolerance surfacing with a vengeance. While I am not naive to think these symbols of hatred had disappeared, I did not realize they were so prevalent and crossed all segments of society. They are not limited to the ignorant and uneducated. They manifest themselves on television, Internet blogs and e-mails. The assaults are filled with false accusations and vicious misinformation to discredit Mr. Obama's candidacy and deceive the American public.

We see John McCain, Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani ridiculing Mr. Obama's community service. I thought contributing to the welfare of the disadvantaged was one of the highest forms of patriotism and service to your country.

Sadly, I see a crumbling of our foundation and the principles that made this country great.

ALEX J. VALLAS
Plum

---

They're done

In one fell swoop John McCain has annihilated the presidential aspirations of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Thank goodness and anchors aweigh, President McCain.

GERARD D. PASQUERELL
Pleasant Hills

---

An affront to Hillary

I voted for Hillary Clinton in the Pennsylvania primary, and now I am a Barack Obama supporter. All of those former Hillary Clinton supporters who will support John McCain, especially since he chose a female running mate, are doing a disservice to Sen. Clinton and the Democratic Party.

It would be a "slap in the face" to Mrs. Clinton if Sarah Palin ran this country if John McCain becomes incapacitated. Would you want Mrs. Palin, with only 20 months' experience as a governor, sitting in the Oval Office making decisions affecting 300 million American citizens?

DAVE BRINK
Ross

---

Logical disconnect

In response to the Sept. 1 letter "Faith vs. Policy" from the Rev. Richard L. Freeman Sr.: In what other realm of life can one claim to be "personally" opposed to evil, but not so politically? If someone said he was "personally against mugging the elderly" but politically in favor of people making their own choice, the logical disconnect would be laughable.

The reverend stakes out an untenable and pusillanimous position by saying he is personally pro-life while being politically pro-choice. The state has the right to legislate against homicide. The thousands of people incarcerated across our nation for murder and manslaughter bear this out.

If life begins at any point before birth, the state also has the right to legislate the taking of that life. Our Constitution forbids the establishment of a state religion; it does not require that we check our morality, our decency or our humanity at the door when contemplating public policy.

I ask the Rev. Freeman, where would he and I be if the abolitionists of the past had been content not to "impose [their] beliefs and indeed [their] faith in the context of public policy"?

Let me remind the reverend of Matthew 25:40.

WALTER GIBSON
North Versailles

---

She made a choice

Barack Obama openly and clearly supports the right of women to choose. That means he trusts women to know whether and when they are prepared, in every sense of the word, to bring a new life into the world. He stands with the majority of voters in the United States.

Sarah Palin, whose 17-year-old daughter chose to continue her pregnancy, wants to deny all others that same right to choose. The McCain team's party platform clearly states that even in the case of rape, incest or even to save the life of the mother, abortion should be illegal. Mr. McCain will appoint Supreme Court judges who would immediately vote to deprive women of their right to make their own choice.

Barack Obama believes that women and families, not the government, should make these very personal, private decisions. A vote for Mr. Obama protects that right.

CLAIRE KEYES
Director
Allegheny Reproductive Health Center
East Liberty

---

True reformers

Every politician can preach the gospel of change, but it is only those who have walked the walk who can truly make the claim of being reformers with any credibility.

With his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain has the only reform ticket on the November ballot for president. Anyone who has watched politics closely knows Sen. McCain has been a pain in his own party's and his own president's side for most of the last seven years, ever since he lost the Republican primary in 2000.

He's been the "maverick" who was regularly celebrated by the media for his independence and commitment to his principles over party loyalty. His choice for VP shows that he is committed to providing the real change that people are seeking.

Mrs. Palin has, even more so, been a trailblazer in Alaska, taking on the powerful in her own party, returning oil tax revenues to the people and repeatedly making a name for herself as someone who challenges the status quo. She's truly a breath of fresh air who has startling reformer credentials in her 13 years in public office, especially in her last two years as Alaska's governor.

By contrast, Barack Obama never stood up to the Chicago political machine; indeed, he embraced and benefited from it. He has never once bucked the leaders of his own party in the three years he has been in the U.S. Senate. What he offers us is a return to the old, tried-and-failed liberal ideas of tax and spend, with the naivete of Jimmy Carter mixed in and the "experienced" but consistently wrongheaded ideas of Joe Biden (i.e., let's split up Iraq) to boot.

SANDRA LANNIS GENTILE
Squirrel Hill

---

Gleefully ignorant

Jules Lobel's Sept. 3 Perspective commentary ("Symbol vs. Substance") hit the nail on the head. The selection of Sarah Palin as the Republican nominee for vice president, like the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, clearly illustrates the anti-intellectual fervor that dominates the conservative political landscape in this country. The rush to proudly extol ignorance and narrow-minded views and gleefully scorn educated and thoughtful opinions is almost the scariest thing we saw at the Republican convention.

But there is something worse: Remember that John McCain has promised, if elected, to appoint Supreme Court justices just like one of his favorites, Clarence Thomas.

IRIS VALANTI
Brookline

---

Insist on goods made in America

Regarding "Stars and Stripes: Made in China?" (Sept. 1): I can only ask why this is suddenly newsworthy. It is, after all, the natural consequence of our actions, both as individuals and as a country.

We elect people to office who then pass laws that, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally, encourage companies to move their operations to low-wage foreign countries where rules and regulations to protect workers and the environment are essentially nonexistent.

The big multinational companies, which apparently need huge profits to keep their CEOs happily stuffed with grotesque compensation packages, are more than happy to relocate anywhere that they do not have to be bothered by pesky little details like limiting pollution and treating workers, including children, with any semblance of respect. Then, of course, there is the everyday American consumer, always wanting more and more and more for less and less and less. The interaction of these factors is the gradual and steady demise of manufacturing in America.

If we want American-made flags, we must start looking for the "Made in America" label on the other things we buy, too; we must avoid supporting companies that chase huge profits at our expense; and we must demand that our elected leaders pass laws that encourage manufacturing to stay here.

JEFF AYRES
Irwin

---