Holly Burns – 10/17/04

This page was last updated on October 17, 2004.

With friends like that …; Holly Burns; Beaver County Times; October 17, 2004.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“In response to Dan Haggerty’s Oct. 7 letter to the editor (‘The company Kerry keeps’), I would like to point out that his candidate’s friends include the Saudis, Halliburton, Ken Lay and the zealous religious right.

“I am having flashbacks of the ‘60s, a time when mountains were moved and a nation was changed forever. I see students protesting in the streets, using their right of free speech to protest unfair and unjust policies of the government.

“I remember bra burners in their fight for equal rights under the law. I remember Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement.

“I was a young girl at that time, yet the images are forever etched in my memory.

“I am proud to support John Kerry, a man who volunteered for service to his country while others were hiding out in the National Guard of that era.”

[RWC] Is Ms. Burns trying to equate John Kerry and Mr. King? As a reminder, John Kerry “volunteered” for the Naval Reserves after he was denied a draft deferment to study in Paris after he graduated from Yale. That doesn’t diminish Kerry’s service.

“There is no hiding there today, however. Today’s National Guard is bravely fighting a war they don’t deserve.”

[RWC] No one deserves a war. Unfortunately, sometimes war is thrust on us.

“Kerry had the courage to go to Vietnam and the courage to speak of the atrocities occurring there upon his return. Does anyone remember the My Lai massacres? That was not an isolated incident in Vietnam.

“I prefer a man who has the courage of his convictions to speak the truth, even when others don’t want the truth to be known.”

[RWC] No one denies Americans committed war crimes in Vietnam. Sadly, this happens occasionally in all wars despite best efforts to avoid them. But that’s not what Kerry said. In his testimony, Kerry said war crimes were an ongoing strategy committed on a daily basis with the full knowledge and support of the military command. Apparently Ms. Burns believes this is true. How can someone think so little of her fellow Americans?

“Kerry is not weak and will not be weak with terrorists. He will also not swagger and say, ‘Bring it on’ with my or anyone else’s sons or daughters.”

[RWC] Apparently Ms. Burns is not basing her position on Kerry’s record. In addition to his Vietnam activism, let’s remember Kerry also opposed the Reagan policies that helped crush the Soviet Union, opposed the Reagan policies that helped drive communism from Central America, and opposed the first Iraq war after Hussein invaded Kuwait. Kerry’s record is one of appeasement.

In a recent New York Times Magazine piece, Kerry said, “We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance. As a former law enforcement person, I know we’re never going to end prostitution. We’re never going to end illegal gambling. But we’re going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn’t on the rise. It isn’t threatening people’s lives every day, and fundamentally, it’s something that you continue to fight, but it’s not threatening the fabric of your life.”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t consider any level of terrorism to be a “nuisance.” I don’t want a president who thinks terrorism is a nuisance.