The choice by John McCain of Sarah Palin as his candidate for the vice presidency is an act of astonishing irresponsibility and exhibits profoundly poor judgment. Not since Richard Nixon’s ill-considered choice of Spiro Agnew and George H. W. Bush’s highly questionable selection of Dan Quayle has there been such a frontal assault on the common sense and clear thinking of most Americans. This type of flawed, shallow decision making and imprudent judgment clarifies for all why McCain is not only a very dangerous and radical choice for president, but it also confirms in starkly realistic terms why he is absolutely ill equipped to carry out the duties of the office.
McCain reflects a lack of respect for the office of vice president and an appalling preference for political expediency rather than experienced leadership and intellectual substance. Gov. Palin has no experience in national security or foreign policy. What a callous insult to the intelligence and good will of the American electorate who rightly expect greater vision and a commitment to excellence rather than mere devotion to the endless twenty-four-hour news cycle! This decision by Sen. McCain is sufficient reason to question, at the most fundamental level, not only his judgment, but his readiness to assume the highest office in this nation. This reckless choice illustrates why he is unfit to become the next president of the United States.
To the Editor:
Of all the mean-spirited and untrue statements made by many of the speakers at the recent Republican convention, none were more offensive than those that demeaned and degraded Sen. Obama’s work as a community organizer and those made in earlier remarks by Sarah Palin asserting that the War in Iraq is a “mission of God.” As a life-long practicing Christian, the God I worship never desires or encourages the wholesale destruction of a sovereign nation and the wanton murder of its people. The decisions by George Bush and his administration to lie to the American people in order to convince us that Iraq was responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and subsequently launch an invasion of Iraq were ill-considered, intentional and totally flawed human decisions and not at God’s direction.
For Sarah Palin to assert that such murderous acts were the will of God is a total distortion of the Christian religion and I and millions of other Christians resent it highly. She is absolutely wrong in this assertion and her radical interpretation of God’s will is far out of the main stream of Christian teaching and thought. She and others who demean and degrade Senator Obama’s work as a community organizer also denigrate the work of the Rabbi of Nazareth, Jesus, whose work as a community organizer among the poor and downtrodden of his society established the model for Sen. Obama’s significant work in South Chicago. Governor Palin, Mitt Romney and Rudy Guilani need to acquaint themselves with the history and practice of Christian thought and action before they presume to inform others of God’s will and intentions for the peoples of the world.
Both letters received from
John Russell
Emeritus Professor of Music