Our 'war president' isn't listening

COUNTERPOINT: Our 'war president' isn't listening

BY JOYCE DOLAN

I feel I must reply to Tony Moschetti's Counterpoint (Aug. 18). For someone with such a conservative view, he seems to get a lot of his letters in both local "liberal media" newspapers he seems to disdain.

Yes, we on the "left" are aware that Cindy Sheehan has met with President Bush before. There are many news sources - print, TV, Internet - that have covered that point quite extensively, not just Rupert Murdoch's agenda-driven outlets. Maybe Moschetti should check out the Aug. 22 Newsweek, page 36. Or maybe even just check any of the hundreds of news Web sites, both liberal and conservative, which have had more than a mere glance at the subject.

The fact remains that Sheehan would like to speak to the president again. Maybe the shock of the death of her son, Casey, and meeting the president was too much to handle at the time. Or perhaps all that has come to light during the past year has brought up enough questions to make her feel a second meeting is necessary.

I, along with many others, feel he should make a little time to speak to her. He is vacationing in Crawford for 36 days, but he is the "war president." And people are starting to question that war more and more every day. His refusal to speak to Sheehan is just feeding the fire. Wouldn't it be best to speak to her and help kill that spark, at least? Maybe that would further his ability to "get on with life."

The writer lives in High Point.

News & Record
August 30, 2005

Full story on Sheehan not being told

COUNTERPOINT: Full story on Sheehan not being told

BY TONY MOSCHETTI

I feel compelled to respond to Nathan Golden's misguided plea for President Bush to "face grieving mom" Cindy Sheehan. Mr. Golden, as with most of the left, is either vastly uninformed or being blatantly dishonest concerning Mr. Bush and Ms. Sheehan.

Bush met with Sheehan, and other families of fallen soldiers, at Fort Lewis, Wash., in June 2004. After the meeting Sheehan told a local Vacaville, Calif., reporter, "I now know he's sincere about freedom for Iraqis." She followed with, "I know he feels pain for our loss" and added that Bush "gave us the gift of happiness of being together."

Why has no major publication, reporter, columnist, editorial writer or news organization on the left reported those pertinent facts? I think we all know why. The truth does not support their anti-Bush, anti-war and sometimes anti-America agenda.

Simply look at the protagonists pushing this, who say, "Why won't the president meet with this poor woman, and answer her questions." Not a single, supposedly reputable news organization (except for Fox, of course), during their endless hand-wringing, has mentioned the previous meeting or Sheehan's words afterward.

Also gone unreported (surprise) is that the remainder of the Sheehan family is on the opposite side of this issue. Though her husband Patrick has declined to comment publicly, his family issued the following comments: "We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the expense of her son 's good name and reputation."

They added, "The Sheehan family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq war, and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. The rest of the Sheehan family supports the troops, our country and our president, silently, with prayer and respect." Casey's Aunt Cherie, on behalf of his paternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, signed this e-mail.

It is incomprehensible that any legitimate news organization could report endlessly on this issue and not even mention the salient facts stated above. Why anyone in our country today would trust any information coming from our "elite" media without verifying it through other reliable sources is beyond my comprehension. I ask those of you on the left, if the truth is on your side, why are you compelled to continually misreport and distort so many issues dear to your hearts?

The writer lives in High Point.

News & Record
August 18, 2005

Spend a billion more to fix our schools

Your front-page article Aug. 5 detailing the continuing failures of our public schools is disturbing but not surprising. The problem persists because we do not spend enough money on education. Perhaps another hundred million dollars or so would solve the problem. How about a billion? It's also obvious that we have far too few overpaid administrators. Even more surprising is how this can happen with the collection of geniuses we have on the school board.

The crux of the problem is that we test students on reading and writing. Bad approach. Let's test them on the important issues such as self-esteem and the virtues of diversity. The scores would skyrocket.

In the meantime, we need for the Democrats on the board of commissioners to institute an immediate 100 percent property tax increase and put in a countywide lottery so that something can be done about the embarrassingly low $43,000 average teacher salary. Of course, they have to work 10 months. We must also immediately add more administrators, bringing them up to level of the average parochial school system. Then perhaps we could get a quarterly, audited financial report signed by the superintendent (see Sarbanes-Oxley) detailing where every dollar goes.

Tony Moschetti
High Point

News & Record
August 8, 2005