Lorraine Mahany – 8/7/05

This page was last updated on August 7, 2005.

How dare we…?; Lorraine Mahany; Beaver County Times; August 7, 2005.

Ms. Mahany seems to dislike the U.S.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Former President Jimmy Carter, speaking at the Baptist World Alliance’s centenary conference in Birmingham, England, criticized the war in Iraq as ‘unnecessary and unjust,’ and that what is going on at Guantanamo Bay and other places was an embarrassment and a disgrace to the United States.

“Why aren’t we embarrassed and disgraced? How do we justify and deem necessary this stupid, costly war? How dare we dictate to another country, when we can’t resolve our own problems right here?”

[RWC] I hate to say this about a former president, but Jimmy Carter is the embarrassment. He has been on a Bush and U.S. bashing crusade all through the Bush administration.

“How dare we tell another country to live under a democratic government, and we live in a republic _ and not a very responsible one at that. How responsible is it to tell your citizens, to work as hard as you can to raise your family and take care of yourself when you’re old and then turn around and let corporations squander your life savings. At the end of your life, you’re left with nothing - no home, no easier life, no medical care, and no nest egg. Sorry, there is one thing - a minimum-wage job at the Wal-mart [sic].”

[RWC] If Ms. Mahany had been paying attention, Iraq is and will continue to be a republic, not a pure democracy.

How can businesses squander your life savings, unless you are 1) foolish enough to “put all your eggs in one basket” and 2) do so with a poorly performing company? How you invest your savings is your responsibility, not government’s. “At the end of your life” you are dead, so what does it matter if you have “no home, no easier life, no medical care, and no nest egg?” Seriously, though, preparing for retirement is a personal lifelong responsibility, not the government’s. If you reach retirement and it isn’t what you had hoped, you have no one to blame but yourself.

“How dare we have more prisons, prisoners, guns, murders and (I’ll bet) more corporate-bought politicians than any country in the world.”

[RWC] Huh?

“How dare we tell Iraq to have a constitution by Aug. 15, when we shoot our Constitution full of loopholes every passing day? How dare we say God bless America and then deny God and his blessings each day.”

[RWC] Again Ms. Mahany failed to pay attention. The Coalition Provisional Authority set the August 15^th deadline in the Transitional Administrative Law (Article 61) of March 8, 2004.

Given the nature of Ms. Mahany’s rant, I suspect the political people she favors are the very ones who “shoot our Constitution full of loopholes.”