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LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD ● LJWorld.com ● Saturday, January 15 2011 WHERE TO WRITE
Arizona shooting has parallels in Pakistan
Three days before the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a courageous Pakistani politician was shot dead by one of his guards. President Barack Obama The circumstances of the two White House, Washington, shootings, of course, were very differD.C. 20500; ent. Salman Taseer had infuriated (202) 456-1111 conservative Muslims by criticizing Online comments: his country’s apostasy law, which prewww.whitehouse.gov/contact/ scribes death for insulting Islam. Much of Pakistan’s media made U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R) excuses for the killer, while leading Russell Senate Office clerics denounced the victim. Top Building, Courtyard 4 politicians were too timid to attend Washington, D.C. 20510; Taseer’s funeral. (202) 224-6521; Website: In the United States, by contrast, www.moran.senate.gov the media and a bipartisan array of U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts (R) politicians praised Giffords, a Demo109 Hart Senate Office crat from Arizona, as she struggled for Building survival. President Obama traveled to Washington, D.C. 20510; Tucson to deliver a healing message. (202) 224-4774; Website: Yet a thread links these two crimes www.roberts.senate.gov and their victims: Before they were shot, both Taseer and Giffords were U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp (Rbattling for moderation and against 1st District) the politics of hatred in their respec126 Cannon House Office tive lands. Building In Taseer’s case, the struggle was far Washington, D.C. 20515; more stark. He called for an inclusive (202) 225-2715; Website: Pakistan in which apostasy laws aren’t www.huelskamp.house.gov used to persecute minorities. But in a country where feudal landowners rule, U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins (Rilliteracy is high, and unemployment is 2nd District) rampant, his campaign put him in acute 1122 Longworth House Office danger. Angry youths like his killer, Building Malik Mumtaz Qadri, look for guidance Washington, D.C. 20515; to radical mullahs who preach hate. (202) 225-6601; Website: Giffords, a centrist, pleaded for www.lynnjenkins.house.gov more tolerance in a state bitterly
Federal
Trudy Rubin trubin@phillynews.com
Yet, unlike in Pakistan, the “shooting of Giffords offers a
chance for our pols and pundits to modify their language. It’s telling to note who has and hasn’t done this so far.” divided over immigration and health care. The week before the shooting, she e-mailed a friend: “We need to figure out how to tone our rhetoric and partisanship down.” She had good reason to worry. In March, after she voted for Obama’s health-care bill, the glass on the front door of her Tucson office was shattered. During her re-election campaign last year, her opponent, Jesse Kelly — a Republican with tea-party backing who defeated a moderate Republican in the primary — appeared in a Web advertisement holding an assault weapon. According to news reports,
U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-3rd District) 214 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515; (202) 225-2865; 901 Ky., Suite 205, Lawrence 66044, 842-9313; Website: www.yoder.house.gov
Unsustainable plan
State Gov. Sam Brownback (R) Suite 212-S, State Capitol, Topeka 66612 (785) 296-3232 or (877) 579-6757 governor@state.ks.us Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) 1st Floor, 120 S.W. 10th Ave., Topeka 66612 (785) 296-4564; sos@sos.ks.gov Attorney General Derek Schmidt (R) 2nd Floor, 120 S.W. 10th Ave., Topeka 66612 (785) 296-2215; general@ksag.org Treasurer Ron Estes (R) 900 S.W. Jackson St., Suite 201, Topeka 66612 (785) 296-3171; ron@treasurer.ks.gov
State Board of Education Janet Waugh, (D-District 1) 916 S. 57th Terrace, Kansas City, KS 66106 (913) 287-5165; JWaugh1052@aol.com Carolyn Wims-Campbell, (DDistrict 4) 3824 SE Illinois Ave., Topeka 66609 (785) 266-3798; campbell4kansasboe@verizon.net
Kansas Board of Regents 1000 S.W. Jackson St., Suite 520, Topeka, KS 66612; (785) 296-3421 www.kansasregents.org Gary Sherrer, Overland Park, chairman Jarold “Jerry” Boettcher, Beloit Christine Downey-Schmidt, Inman Mildred Edwards, Wichita Tim Emert, Independence Richard Hedges, Fort Scott Dan Lykins, Topeka Ed McKechnie, Arcadia Janie Perkins, Garden City Andy Tompkins, president and CEO
he said at a rally, “ ... if you dare to stand up to the government, they call us a mob. We’re about to show them what a mob looks like.” This kind of vitriol — the constant demonization of government with language that invites violence — has become the norm for some conservative pundits and candidates. Jared Lee Loughner, the accused Tucson shooter, appears to be deranged and has no known political affiliation. Yet, in troubled times, the mad and the unstable can find validation in the language of a Jesse Kelly and of other rhetorical bomb-throwers. Talk of “gangster government” (a term used by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., the founder of the House Tea Party Caucus) is magnified many times over by repetition on chat shows and the Internet. FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III observed after the Tucson shooting: “The ubiquitous nature of the Internet means that not only threats, but hate speech and other inciteful speech, is much more readily available to individuals than ... it was eight or 10 or 15 years ago.” Such language can help provoke “lone wolves or lone offenders” into “undertaking attacks,” he said. Yet, unlike in Pakistan, the shooting of Giffords offers a chance for our pols and pundits to modify their language. It’s telling to note who has and hasn’t done this so far. Congressional Republicans, including Michele Bachmann, paid tribute to
Giffords. (But will Bachmann stop tossing vicious verbal grenades at opponents?) Rush Limbaugh, however, shrilled that “the left” was out to suppress debate. Newt Gingrich used the moment to accuse liberals of being weak on terrorists. And Sarah Palin, whose website had included a U.S. map with crosshairs on the districts of 20 Democratic candidates, including Giffords’, has not spoken publicly about the shooting. Instead, she posted an Internet video calling criticism of her rhetoric a “blood libel.” Unlike the mullahs of the right, Sen. John McCain unequivocally denounced the Tucson shooter, saying, “Whoever did this, whatever their reason, they are a disgrace to Arizona, this country, and the human race.” Nor did they grasp the message of Giffords’ astronaut brother-in-law, Scott Kelly, which was beamed down from the International Space Station. He decried the “unspeakable acts of violence and damage we can inflict upon one another, not just with our actions, but also with our irresponsible words.” Kelly added a phrase that should shame the pols and pundits for whom vitriol is an elixir: “We’re better than this.” We’re so different from Pakistan, with its sermons of hate, aren’t we? Aren’t we? — Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
PUBLIC FORUM
U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R4th District) 107 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515; (202) 225-6216; Website: www.pompeo.house.gov
Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger (R) 420 S.W. Ninth St., Topeka 66612 (785) 296-3071 or (800) 432-2484 commissioner@ksinsurance.org
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To the editor: The Public Forum letter titled “Be selective” requests being selective about cutting or not repealing the Affordable (Health) Care Act. Beware of benefits from a government that is here to help you. We do not deny a need for health care reform, just not a 2,000-page morass of a law that includes hiring a projected 16,000 IRS agents to enforce the law. We need enforcement agents for something so wonderful? This act is economically unsustainable. I know what the CBO says. But anyone can make a project work with 10 years of income and six years of expenditures. So debating “government speak economics” will not get us closer to justifying the current law. We can’t speak intelligently about the law because The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has yet to write the many provisions required because our elected officials passed the “buck”! Why has President Obama and HHS granted 222 organizations waivers from the law? (See: http://www.hhs. gov/ociio/regulations/approved_applications_for_waiver.html for a list of waivers granted through Dec. 7, 2010.) Why did HHS have to write a rule to grant exemptions if the law is so economical and has wonderful benefits? Government-run Medicare and Medicaid programs are going broke. Medicare has rising premiums, reduced payments to doctors and rising premiums for Medigap insurance. Medicaid is being eliminated for some. Don’t be seduced by promises the government has already proven they can’t sustain. Let’s provide common sense health care reform that supports a growing From the Lawrence Daily economy and decent jobs? World for Jan. 15, 1911: David Reynolds “Remember Miss Mabel Lawrence
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Lawrence School Supt. Dan Neuenswander said that Gov. John Carlin’s proposed “barebones” budget would be “disEdith Ransom, the young YEARS YEARS astrous” to the state’s public lady who attracted attention AGO AGO education system. Carlin’s by riding all the way from IN 1986 approach decreased budget IN 1911 Perry, Okla., to Lawrence increases for some schools, that she might attend providing less funding for special education, school? [See OHT for Sept. 28, 1910] She is transportation, and vocational education. the same student who had a pet gander expressed to her here, because ‘it was so Despite his threats to lonesome without her at home.’ Well Miss close down the “hippie com- Ransom has a dislocated shoulder today, munity” in Lawrence, Kansas and it is all because she fell off her horse on Attorney General Vern Miller Quincy street this week. The same gentle YEARS was not held in much awe by bronco she rode all the way from the wilds AGO members of that community. of Oklahoma met a chug-chug car on QuinIN 1971 When hearing of rumors that cy and promptly bolted.” Miller already had undercov— Compiled by Sarah St. John er agents in Lawrence, the young people were still not seriously concerned. “He’s got his information sources and we’ve got ours,” Read more Old Home Town at said one. “He’s got his long-hairs and we’ve LJWorld.com/news/lawrence/history/o got our short-hairs.” ld_home_town.
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To the editor: The Philippines, Indonesia, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria and Egypt all have one thing in common. In the last 25 years, Christians have been killed by Muslims in those nations solely because they were Christians. Most Muslims respond to this fact by saying they personally were not involved or it is a different sect or that only the more violent Muslims do that or even that the persons perpetrating these acts are not really Muslims. Well, the killings are done in the name of Allah, no matter who is doing them and they are lauded in mosques as
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appropriate. If Muslims really do not want to be labeled as violent murderers, they should not be complacent or just give lip service as has been the usual reaction. They need to show us and the rest of the world they really care by deposing every imam that teaches jihad against non-Muslims or if someone criticizes Muhammad. They should make sure that every mosque that supports these actions be closed. And they should expose every supposed or real Muslim who in any way is involved in these violent teachings and/or acts. Only then will I and many other Christians and probably non-Christians believe that Islam is not a violence-based religion. Hugh Wentz, Lawrence
Prime programs To the editor: Friday’s article about the possibility of eliminating some of the smaller degree programs at Kansas University did not mention an additional factor: Many of them attract top-notch students to KU. Physics for example has consistently had the highest average ACT score of any undergraduate major, and many of the others listed are very high. Just the sort of thing we need to eliminate! Adrian Melott, Lawrence
Only ‘suitable’? To the editor: While listening to Gov. Brownback’s State of the State address, I was struck by the use of the word “suitable” to describe the sort of education he envisions for the children of our state. “Suitable?” Is that all? I would hope the state of Kansas could do more for our children than provide them with an education that is merely adequate. He charges the Legislature with the task of defining what a “suitable” education is for our future Kansans. For legislators without children in the Kansas public schools, that definition will probably be based on a desire to cut the education budget. They may want to dismantle important programs and probably do away with arts education altogether. Sports, on the other hand, will likely continue to be well funded. Don’t all children in Kansas deserve quality, well-rounded educations? Brownback’s rhetoric implied that only those fortunate to send their children to private schools could hope for good quality educations. All other children in Kansas will be subject to an education system that is only suitable. Megan Helm, Lawrence
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