Readers Respond

Day Lights up the Letters on "1957"

(In his column, "1957", July 26, 2004, Day prompted a strong response from readers by invoking the words of President Dwight Eisenhower.)

Wake up, Mr. Day!

I, too, was a boy in 1957 and remember it well. Very well. As Mr. Day accurately states, things were very different then. Not just the price of gasoline. But he seems to forget the very thing he emphasizes. Things were different. Recognizing these difference demands that we also not apply remedies of 1957 to the situations in 2004. It would be insane to do so. But, that is exactly what Mr. Day would have us do.

How quickly Mr. Day forgets the very facts he brings forward and fails to contrast them to the facts of today. Just as you cannot get change from a dollar after buying four gallons of gas, you cannot apply the security strategy for our country in place in 1957 to what is needed in 2004. 

In 1957 we knew our enemy; where he was, what he was doing and, although we disagreed with him on many issues, we knew he would act in a civilized manner. Today, that is not the case. Our enemy just hates us. Period. He hated us before we invaded Iraq and still hates us today. He hated us when Bill Clinton was President and he hates us with George W. Bush as President. And he will hate us regardless of who is our President. 

We are not isolated in our strategy. We have strong friends who are with us. Just to name a few: Great Britain, Italy, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Poland and Bulgaria. Those not with us: France, Germany and Russia. Do we need to list those countries that were profiting from Saddam Hussein's bribes in the United Nations' Oil for Food Program? They were, of course, France, Germany and Russia. Surprised that they did not support us in toppling Saddam?

And what about those weapons of mass destruction? And Saddam's quest for uranium in Africa? I guess the dozens of rockets and missiles containing serin gas just don't count. And, of course, those were the only ones Saddam made. Mr. Day, do you believe that? I have a bridge I would like to sell you. And the "lies" that Saddam was seeking yellow cake uranium in Africa and "proven false by Joe Wilson" we now know to be true. Where is Mr. Wilson now? As the newsman, Mort Kondracke said recently, if you purchased Joe Wilson's book, The Politics of Truth, you should go to Barnes and Noble and ask for a refund.

Yes, 1957 was a wonderful year. I remember it well.  Maybe we should all learn from what we did not know and do then, compare the differences in times and situations and apply new ideas and solutions to the problems of today. Consider that, Mr. Day, and wake up and smell the new world.

Andrew F. Flores, CEcD
President & CEO
Global Marketing Advisors, LLC
Glen Allen
aflores@globalmarketingadvisors.com

A Happier, Safer Time? In Your Dreams.

Oh yeah, Barnie, 1957 was certainly a happier, safer era. It was the height of the American Empire. I was three. We were living at Wheelus AFB outside Tripoli , Libya . No TV for us, but daily swims in the Mediterranean . I don’t know whether the airbase was originally built by the Italians or the Nazis or the Brits or us, but I’m sure the Libyans didn’t have much to say about it. My father, an Air Force civil engineer, was building nuclear missile installations in Turkey and other undisclosed locations, missiles that would threaten Russia and would inspire Khrushchev to install missiles in Cuba . (The Russians didn’t cave in 1962 any more than Kennedy did, and while we were living in Turkey a few years later those same U.S. missiles were removed.)

We were geniuses when it comes to the Middle East in the 50s. The Suez Crisis. The CIA involvement in the Iranian coup that installed the Shah. Oh yeah, it was so much better.

Our previous foreign assignment had been in France , and I’m told the French were just as fond of Americans then as they are now. Sure, our NATO allies were more docile in those days, since they looked across the Fulda Gap and Berlin Wall at massed Russian divisions and thousands of young Americans had their asses on the line for European liberty and property. Now that Europeans are fat, safe and happy, they think similar exertions by young Americans on behalf of Muslim liberty and property rights are immoral. Perhaps the Eisenhower-John Foster Dulles foreign policy is the perfect model after all, Barnie. At least they were smart enough to see the futility of a ground war in Asia , unlike the two administrations that came next.

Stephen D. Haner

VP for Public Policy

Virginia Chamber of Commerce

Richmond

s.haner@vachamber.com

Whose "Good Deed" Never Goes Unpunished?

debsdale@earthlink.net

Your column, "The Network of Space," (July 12, 2004) was right as rain. The return to Virginia taxpayers from providing incentives to businesses and individuals to telework, rather than to drive to work and require the building of more and more roads, would be much greater. It would also put more money into the Virginia hight-tech sector. (Here's a link to an op-ed piece that I wrote in 2001 for a local Fairfax County paper.) 

Do I smell some Paul Zane Pilzer ("Unlimited Wealth") in your most recent column? (See "One More Time...", June 21, 2004.)

As usual, well put. My old-school dad, whom I love and respect immensely, loves to talk about "those &^%# politicians and corporate fat cows taking jobs to Mexico and Japan to beat the working man," but he also loves talking about how he just paid $59.99 for a VCR. Go figure. We can't have it both ways.

Paul Zane Pilzer, if you're not familiar, was quick to talk about automation and how it didn't eliminate jobs, but more importantly, it freed a human mind to do what only a human can do. Take the simple case of the restaurateur who gets an automatic dishwasher instead of the guy with the towels. Now, the guy with the towels that used to wash the dishes can apply himself and learn some customer service skills and move up to a waiter or shift supervisor etc. The responsibility lies with the individual to take ownership of his career and pursue a path of opportunity.

Certainly seeing some of our IT jobs being taken overseas is a scary thought - who'd have imagined that would be a classification that should feel a threat from overseas? But we DO live in a global economy. We cannot play ostrich and hope that it will blow over. We have to play in the global arena and adapt and change with the marketplace.

A note for you: Right now in China, only 20 million to 30 million people have any level of disposable income. In the next decade, that number is expected to rise to 500 million people with some level of disposable income. Last I checked, that represents a potential TWICE the size of the current US market. So this global outsourcing thing just might be working. If we can globally help to create another market that is twice as big as one of the world's largest, what does that mean for the global economy?

Gordie Zeigler

Executive Director

New Century Technology Council

Roanoke

gz@TheTechnologyCouncil.com

Separate Marriage from Civil Unions

Do you think Virginia could in the future fully separate Church (holy marriage) issues and State (civil unions) issues and please both straight and gay groups? The Commonwealth of Virginia could give out civil union licenses which would allow two adults, who aren't related by blood, to act as a "Civil Union" -- entering into contracts together for houses, cars, insurance policies, etc. It would be like today's marriage minus the Church. If the various Churches follow this thinking, they could marry only people that their Church agrees to.

On the downside, this would allow for sometimes confusing combinations: