'Yet another' protest? Hardly the case

Henry Mallory writes a sadly flippant opinion ("Activists always demand attention", Letters, April 2) which demonstrates his ignorance of the protest held on March 22, the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion-occupation of Iraq.

The protest was a collective statement of socially conscious individuals outraged by more than 4,000 American and tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths over five years of fighting.

His devaluation of our protest march against death in Iraq carries the implication that he downplays the significance of those very deaths.

Mr. Mallory writes, "Oh, my God! … Yet another … anti-war march … old, tired and uninteresting…"

Does he actually believe he can legitimately label the fifth anniversary protest as merely, yet another?

Does this mean he could possibly describe an additional American death in Iraq as merely yet another death, "…old, tired and uninteresting…"?

Of the marchers, he chides "… you were getting ready to perform yet another partisan double-backflip with the shrill and emotionally overwrought half-twist."

Though he delights in his verbal gymnastics, Mr. Mallory should recognize that we protesters walked the entire distance through Corvallis, proudly and slowly, in recognition that it is yet another year of morally reprehensible, U.S.-instigated violent turmoil in Iraq.

Simply yet another protest? Simply yet another tragic death? He simply can't have it both ways.

John Lopez Jr., Corvallis

Republicans aren't very conservative

It has become increasingly clear that the party of "conservatism" is anything but.

Under Republican leadership, starting with Reagan and continuing through the current White House resident, the party of conservatism has become fiscally ultra-liberal and morally plastic.

For these cynical power brokers, private or corporate gain from government policies and programs is the name of the game.

Advantageous tax and regulative policies translate into huge personal wealth and power for their friends.

Government could be a useful and essential tool for balanced growth and protective measures, but it becomes a forum for earmarking, skimming, and hoarding, while vilifying Big Government as a demon (of their own creation). What a great scam.

Turning reality on its head is now a well-established Republican propaganda technique. In mid-2007, Bush, his military commanders and clay-minded reporters began labeling all Iraqis fighting U.S. occupation as "Qaeda fighters," whereas people familiar with the situation estimate al Qaida's strength at only 2-10 percent of Iraqi fighters.

Bush Republicans, like John McCain, use this technique regularly because they have few scruples, even less going for them, and many still believe them. Invert percentages, switch adjectives, change nouns - blame your enemies for your own faults.

Label people fighting your grossly terror-producing policies as "terrorists." It doesn't matter.

Terms like reckless, corrupt, or criminal better describe these folks than conservative.

The term conservative actually has some positive connotations, as in driving conservatively, being conservative with natural resources, or paying for things up front.

Chris Foulke, Corvallis

New coach could put OSU back on top

Good news: Barack Obama's brother-in-law has been named OSU's new men's basketball coach.

I pray it is prophetic of next year's basketball season. "He who starts on bottom ends on top."

Carl Lawrence, Corvallis

What America needs is another New Deal

Historian Howard Zinn, the author of "A People's History of the United States," has a proposal in the April 2007 issue of The Nation magazine.

He asks presidential candidates why none has connected the present national crisis with President Roosevelt's New Deal.

He points out that, just as it was when Roosevelt took office, people desperately needed help, they needed jobs, decent housing, protection in old age.

Zinn proposes that an improved Works Progress Administration put millions of people to work at all kinds of jobs, from building schools, hospitals, playgrounds, to repairing streets and bridges, to writing symphonies, painting murals, illustrating books, putting on plays.

He recommends the continuation of the Civilian Conservation Corps. It employed young people, who planted millions of trees, reclaimed millions of acres of land, built fire roads, protected natural habitats, restocked fish, and gave emergency help to people threatened by floods.

Zinn observes, "The military is having a hard time recruiting young men and women for war, and with good reason. We will have no such problem enlisting the young to build rather than destroy."

He speaks about projects beyond the New Deal, as extending the principle of Social Security to health security, and extending the GI Bill of Rights to a Civilian Bill of Rights to higher education. "To match the New Deal, to go beyond it, is an idea whose time has come."

Marilyn Dilles, Corvallis

Obama has support of this fifth-grader

I am a fifth-grader at Adams School. If I could vote, I would support Sen. Barack Obama for president.

When I heard him speak in Eugene, he said he would make it cheaper to go to college and that he would try to end the war in Iraq in 2009.

And he said he would answer the red phone at 3 a.m., if it rang.

André Krause, Corvallis