Presidential eloquence can be clouded by trivial pursuit

I have been reading a new book from the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, "The Inspired Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln" by Philip Ostergard.

A portion of the book concerning Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was especially interesting to me. President Lincoln was invited to make "a few appropriate remarks" at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg on Nov. 19, 1863. (The honor of the main address was given to Edward Everett, the former president of Harvard and a famed orator).

As Lincoln prepared his remarks for the dedication of the cemetery, he realized his words could be empty in the presence of life and death realities of war. Prophetically, President Lincoln said, "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here."

At the time, newspaper reactions to Lincoln's short speech at Gettysburg were largely positive: Many newspapers noted the simple eloquence of his message and the emotional responses it elicited from the gathering at the cemetery dedication were acclaimed. There was less appreciation of the world-wide significance of the speech; it was more open to minute inspection of its most trivial detail.

The same could happen today. The media would undoubtedly ask: What was the president wearing? Did he ride his horse awkwardly or well? What kind of chair was provided for the nation's chief on the platform? Unfortunately many are fascinated by countless details surrounding the Gettysburg Address, yet people glibly recite Lincoln's words which have so much meaning even for Americans today.

Ann Lincoln, Corvallis

Beavers could learn much from loss to Penn State

Boy! Talk about being thrown to the wolves!

For starters, we could talk about home field, 108,000-plus fans and Big Time college football.

What a joke, and all for the pleasure of helping pay off the contract of the former basketball coach. But that's another story.

What's to complain about? The stats show Oregon State had three men chalking up rushing yards, Penn State had only seven.

Easily I could go on and on, but I'll make it brief. This young team has a lot to learn and apply - right! Rather than be embarrassed for being tossed into the spotlight, I hope every player stands tall and gets used to patting the back next to them.

Remember, one's for the money, two's for the show.

Dottie Jackson, Corvallis

Palin is pro-life - unless that life is furred, fish or fowl

Let's be clear on this. Sarah Palin and those who think like her are not "pro-life"; they are only "pro-hominan."

One cannot be called "pro-life" if she promotes the senseless slaughter of sentient beings such as wolves and bears from helicopters, especially if the purpose is to make it safer for hunters to have a larger target pool of moose, elk and other animals to kill.

One cannot be called "pro-life" if she fights to keep polar bears and walruses off the threatened-species list in order to avoid having to do anything about climate change or to enable more oil drilling.

This is nothing more than what I call "species arrogance," which is disconnected from reality, and makes the person unfit to be a steward of our rich diversity of life … i.e., the person is unfit for high office. Such people need to re-label themselves as what they truly are: "pro-hominan."

Gary Angelo, Corvallis

Thou shalt not bear false witness, even in a campaign

I think it's sad that Carolyn Webb, and others, continue to bypass the truth regarding Barack Obama's policies (Letters, Sept. 4, "Want more taxes? Then vote for Obama").

I'd like to encourage everyone, before they believe or forward those scurrilous e-mails and letters, to go to snopes.com or factcheck.org. These organizations check all rumors and e-mails for truthfulness.

Factcheck states that the e-mails about Obama's tax policies are so full of misinformation, that they concluded it was a "deliberate deception." There are so many inaccuracies, factcheck concluded, that "it cannot be the result of ignorance or carelessness." These are some of the same tax policies that Carolyn Webb submitted to the Gazette-Times in her recent letter to the editor.

Being a proud evangelical Christian should include "not bearing false witness" even against a politician with whom you don't agree!

Please, let's all start checking facts before we spread rumors. This election is one of the most important in decades. Let's base our voting decisions on accurate information, not vicious lies.

Sandy Allen, Corvallis

Abraham Lincoln also was 'bashed' for going to war

Thanks to Jean Nelson for taking time to write letters to the editor expressing the opinion of so many of us concerning the lack of credibility of the Bush Bashers.

So often we sit by and let extremists do all the letter writing, which gives a very distorted impression of public opinion.

These Bush Bashers remind us history students of the Lincoln Bashers of Civil War days, whose hatred of Lincoln was even more brutal than that being directed toward Bush today. Lincoln Bashers could not see the big picture and had no way of guessing how history would rate Lincoln.

None of us, at this point in time, can see how history will rate the Bush administration. If, in bringing down the tyrant Saddam Hussein and establishing a democracy in Iraq, Bush succeeds in opening the door of the Middle East to a sweeping movement toward defeating authoritarianism, and bringing freedom and equal rights to millions of people, then Bush will be viewed by history as one of the great men of our time. If not, he will be recorded as a failure.

However, the jury is very much still out on how successful Bush's grand strategy of unilateralism, preemption and hegemony on a global scale will be.

It certainly appears true that we must all keep a critical eye, but the mindless Bush Bashing that appears in letters on this page is seen by most of us for what it is.

Anita Crowe, Corvallis

McCain pushing economic agenda to favor the rich

When Bush ordered tax cuts for the wealthy, he promised that the well-off would invest in America and create jobs. At that time, I remember hearing a financial advice talk show host recommend foreign markets, pointing out that the U.S. growth rate was under 2 percent while most European Union countries stood at 6 to 8 percent. Smart money, he said, was going offshore.

Money's bottom line is profit. Money is not patriotic.

Unregulated greed caused the current home mortgage meltdown just as it did that savings and loan crisis of 1989, which cost the American taxpayers $124.6 billion.

Out of the five U.S. senators who were involved in that crisis, John McCain was admonished by a 1991 Senate Ethics Committee as having "exercised poor judgment."

McCain's poor judgment continues in his plans to follow Bush economic policies by making the wealthy tax cuts permanent while Barack Obama's economic policies favor the working class. The Republicans need four years off to reform their elitist policies. Let's give it to them.

Stephanie W. Hampton, Corvallis

Has the U.S. given up on finding Osama bin Laden?

With today's painful anniversary of 9/11, we must question how our government has handled the investigation.

Once again, presidential candidates from the two parties evoke fear and bring back painful memories of seven years ago. Yet, as both actors are on stage blaming Osama bin Laden for the attacks and vowing to get him, they apparently didn't get the memo: The FBI and CIA have zero evidence of bin Laden's involvement. Yes, you read that right, no evidence. Go to fbi.gov and see for yourself.

The most heinous attack this country has ever seen and the man most wanted can't even be charged with the crime he supposedly committed? Even if you believed the official story, you would have to agree this makes no sense. On one hand, we have a government condemning the attacks and blaming bin Laden and on the other, the same government has no evidence he was involved. Forget the strong evidence supporting controlled demolition and no evidence of plane wreckage at any site (including the lack of black boxes); simply ask yourself why our government has basically given up on bin Laden.

The post 9/11 world depends on the official story to hold up. What if the whole story is a fraud? It took the courage and determination of the victim's families to even get an investigation in the first place. With the on-going coverup in full swing, it will take even more courage to unveil who the wizard really is.

Doug Huntley, Corvallis