It would be nice to be good guys again

What happened to the days when we were the good guys? We represented everything that was good and righteous.

The Russians and the Chinese, those communists, they were the bad guys. They represented everything that was evil. They were godless fiends.

We had to beat them to the moon. We had to beat them in the Olympics. They were evil.

I could not imagine being caught behind the Iron Curtain. Everything there was drab and dull.

Then I actually grew up and learned things from books and from people who were there. I learned to question things that were taken for granted.

I learned that politicians lied. I thought we are the good guys, and aren’t the good guys supposed to win?

At least we are truthful and open. Nobody oppresses anyone here, do they?

Why are we having an embargo? Their people are starving. Can’t we do something? When did we start giving guns to enemies?

Aren’t we the good guys? We are now locking up people for years without a trial.

We are spying on homes with infrared cameras. We are monitoring phone calls and e-mails without a warrant.

We discovered mass graves we knew about back when we were good. Does this mean we were never really that good and perhaps they were never really that bad?

It’s a sad realization, but we can change it. I want to be the good guys again.

Donald D. Jones, Corvallis

Former President Clinton exonerated

In her May 16 letter, “School district was wrong to host Clinton speech,” Barbara Crawford took the school district to task for permitting (former) President Bill Clinton to speak locally: “If my memory serves me right, wasn’t he dethroned. After sexual improprieties in the Oval Office?”

Her memory has not served her well at all.

In point of fact, Clinton was impeached by the House in 1998 and acquitted by the Senate a year later on largely party-lines votes following an investigation that cost $85 million.

As a consequence of the prolonged investigation and trial, we discovered anew that Clinton liked the ladies and found that he did not interpret “heavy fondling” as a sexual relationship.

Apart from that, he and Hillary Clinton were exonerated of all rumored or fabricated malfeasances of which they were accused. It might be of interest to note that in the course of the impeachment proceedings, Speaker Newt Gingrich and his replacement were forced to resign because of overt extramarital relationships.

But instead of honoring their acquittal, the prolonged investigation took a disastrous turn. Tired and confused by issues of morality, voters turned to honest George Bush, who then lied to get us into a war that has cost us over 4,000 American lives and

$520 billion.

Add to this the nearly 1 million Iraqis killed, and the price of a poor or ill-serving memory inclined to misinformation becomes apparent.

Robert W. Moore, Corvallis

Some still obsessing over Bill Clinton

Regarding Barbara Crawford’s May 16 letter, “School district was wrong to host Clinton’s speech”:

It’s always fascinating to me to hear that anyone can be still obsessing over what Clinton did with a consenting adult so many years ago.

I am thinking it must be a nice distraction from the useless war, burgeoning gas and grocery prices, waterboarding and illegal wiretapping.

I guess the big question that so many of us have been asking for years is why hasn’t George Bush been impeached?

If Bush ever comes to speak here in Corvallis, perhaps he can park himself in Barbara’s back yard. I am not sure where else he would be welcome.

Kelley Young, Corvallis

What we really want from our candidates

No candidate is perfect. Some align more closely with issues of value to you. Some also represent values, behavior and experience that may benefit our country and its relationship with the rest of the world.

I think of this and will in preparation for the national election.

Don’t most of us want a president who is civil, honest and exhibits integrity? Don’t we want someone who will think issues through — without pride and without undue influence from lobbyists and wealthy donors?

I want a president who is willing and capable of sitting at the table with those of like views and with those with differing views, and who will listen and speak as a statesperson. I want a president who not only is the Commander- in-Chief of this nation, but who also sees the role of participant in the world’s family of nations.

I want a president who takes the high road, who does not resort to smear tactics, and who truly values the lives and well-being of all people in our country. I want a president who cares for our national environmental treasures and who values beauty and those qualities that enhance the honorable aspect of our humanity. I want a president who leads and inspires us, bringing out our best qualities so we can all look to the future, to what we are leaving future generations, both in the quality of our environment and legacy of how we care for one another.

Linda Gelbrich, Corvallis

Personal attacks could soon backfire

I have been thinking about Martin Niemollera’s poem: “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out ... ”

I currently see this poem a bit differently, after months of savage attacks on Hillary Clinton’s campaign with both sexism and misogyny, while my Barack Obama-supporting friends have chosen to look the other way. Now it reads, First they came for Hillary Clinton with sexism, and I did not speak out, because I support Obama.

Then they really ramped up the misogynistic rhetoric, but I did not speak out and, in fact, I refused to listen because you’re saying that, as a Hillary supporter, and that makes it not really misogyny.

But McCain just called Obama’s speech protesting George’s Bushs “appeasement” comments, a “hysterical diatribe.”

This evening on the Mclaughlin Group, Monica Crowley implied that Obama was a “girly man.” Soon we may hear from John McCain’s campaign manager that Obama cares more for styling his hair then the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina.

Then they came for Obama — and there was less successful strategy for countering misogyny going into the general election in November, for whichever Democratic candidate wins because what happens with intentional or targeted apathy is that hatred soon escalates out of control.”

Tina Empol, Corvallis, past president, Oregon NOW