Agony in Arizona

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America; one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." We all grew up saying this at the beginning of every day in school. What has happened to us? We are no longer one nation undivided. Where have our liberties gone? What happened to justice?

The tragedy in Arizona is just the tip of the iceberg. If our leaders that we have elected to office do not change their divisive behavior, this sort of tragedy will occur again and again. We are flooded with hate-filled vitriol coming at us from our TVs, radios and mailboxes every election. The issues facing the nation are hardly addressed, but hate for those running for office runs rampant.

Crosshair-laden self-promotion as well as all other hate-filled campaign propaganda has finally come home to roost with one young mentally unbalanced individual taking it seriously. President Obama said, "We don't yet know what provoked this unspeakable act. . . . We are going to get to the bottom of this and we're going to get through this."

However, this senseless violence is just the beginning of what we are going to face if we do not address the underlying issues. Politicians who have sold their souls to the devil by allowing corporate interests to stymie any constructive progress have to stop their insanity.

We cannot afford to continue on this divisive path. Franklin D. Roosevelt saved us from a bloody revolution with his programs that put thousands of people to work and broke the back of the Depression. We are currently on the brink of becoming a Third World country if we do not institute drastic changes in the direction we have been going.

Corporations that have fled our country and are making obscene profits in other countries must be taxed severely in order to get rid of our deficit. We need to put people to work fixing our roads and providing homes for the homeless and medical care for those who cannot afford it without so much red tape that they fall through the cracks. We need to address global environmental issues before our planet becomes uninhabitable. We need to realize we are all on this little spinning ball together and stop fighting over our differences.

We need to teach peace! The slaughter that has happened in some of our schools and elsewhere is a direct result of our inability to deal with hate and how it affects mentally unstable individuals. If we do not change the direction we have been heading, then this country is on the brink of anarchy and horrors one cannot begin to imagine.

Peace and justice must prevail, or we are doomed to go the way of the dinosaurs for some future archeologists to wonder what became of our so-called civilization.

Irene Durham

Graton

Dept. of Corrections

In a recent article about Marin County's move to ban plastic bags ("Bagging It Up," Dec. 22), it was stated that Stephen Joseph, spokesperson and attorney for the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, hung up on the reporter. Mr. Joseph has disputed this, saying that the call suffered from poor reception and was simply dropped. Considering the fallibility of cellular reception, we agree that the cause of the call's termination is unprovable.

The article also stated that the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition sued the city of Oakland. The city of Oakland was sued by the Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling, a group similarly backed by plastic-bag manufacturers.

The Ed.

Packing Milk and Produce Into His Timbuk2 Bag

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