Letters to the editor

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Oct 14, 2008

Cut the strings

Pat Roberts had been chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee for some time, including 2003 when Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent, was outed by the White House, most likely by Vice President Dick Cheney. That act was a felony. It degraded the CIA by identifying Plame and all of the undercover agents working with her, possibly putting them in grave danger. And this was done as retaliation for her husband showing that the Bush-Cheney administration was lying about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

The CIA was under the purview of Sen. Roberts' committee, and he said publicly that he would investigate and would find the guilty party. When asked about it a year later, Roberts said they wanted to be thorough and get it right. And the same again in 2005.

Roberts' committee, if it investigated at all, found nothing, or so they said. He and most Republicans have never crossed Bush- Cheney. Roberts was probably told what happened shortly after the crime and was also told to do nothing, so he did nothing.

It isn't Kansans that Roberts looks out for and never will be. We know we get nothing from Roberts because the national politicians are pulling his strings, and he does what they say. I am quite sure we will be better served by Jim Slattery. I hope you will vote for him. I certainly will.

DON ANDERSON,Topeka

The one to trust

The Friends of Police hosted a forum Sept. 24 between Eric Rucker and Chad Taylor, the candidates for Shawnee County District Attorney. I attended and came away with the impression that Mr. Rucker is a career politician, while Mr. Taylor is not.

It was obvious that Mr. Rucker is just looking for a job after getting kicked out of Johnson County and the attorney general's office. Mr. Taylor, on the other hand, has a successful private practice and sincerely wants to serve his community.

After the forum, I visited ruckerforda.com and looked over Mr. Rucker's "experience." Mr. Rucker seems to have held almost every government job available. He's worked in the secretary of state's office, as a Shawnee County commissioner and then later as Phill Kline's chief of staff in the attorney general's office and the Johnson County D.A.'s office. This is the resume of a carpetbagging politician, not someone committed to Shawnee County.

I have no worries about Chad Taylor and his experience and ability. As a pro tem judge at the Topeka Municipal Court, Chad developed a reputation for not being soft on crime. He imposed stiff penalties and received the nickname of "The Hanging Chad."

Chad grew up in Shawnee County, started his law practice here and now wants to serve our county as district attorney. I say it's time to elect a D.A. we can trust. That's why I'm voting for Chad Taylor.

WILL DICKEY,Topeka

Build up instead

The bailout. Scattered piles of dung are being gathered together, heaped near a special field for special folk and for export. Irrigation water is being brought in for this special field, which will receive a portion of the dung. The redolent fragrance of the heaped dung is carried by the wind to more ordinary folk on the windward side, folks whose fields lie parched and untilled.

There is an old saying, "The poor ye shall always have with you," and it can be said that we, within the capitalist system's emphasis on individual freedom to be accountable primarily to oneself, do indeed live within that tenet of acceptance.

The prevailing fear seems to be that the field to be dung-ed will, nonetheless, fail even to meet the needs of the special few.

But what if? What if, instead of that allocation of the gathered dung heaps to the few and to export, it were to be used instead to fertilize the surrounding fields of the more ordinary folk? Might that not produce a more equitable balance more fields tilled and producing, and -- yes -- fewer poor?

Yes, we would still have some of those with us. But incremental change from boom and bust, we can handle.

What if, indeed, we decided not to bail out, but instead to build up?

MARY SIMMONS,Topeka

It's better in print

There is an ad on TV in which a lady declares that she doesn't have to wait for her newspaper anymore. She sees everything she wants to know immediately on her computer -- one, two, three, boom! and she's outa-there.

Good heavens! What she and her ilk are missing! The wonderful whiff of fresh newsprint as you first open up your paper. Then, sorting through the ads and laying them aside, keeping the ones you want, and then settling back with hot coffee to begin scanning the front page (or however you approach your paper), checking first to see what day you're in, in this year of our Lord.

I know quite a few working people who get up early to enjoy their newspaper time.

JOELLA BROWN,Topeka

Working to succeed

This school year has been so rewarding at Robinson Middle School. For the first time in years, students have asked to come in after school on Fridays to work on their class work. This happens occasionally, notably by Amanda Weikel. But this year has been noteworthy for Darious Mixon and Marshawn White, two sixth-graders who have taken it upon themselves to learn more and improve their grades.