An experimental daily series randomly selecting editorial opinions from newspapers around the country.
Today's Pulse comes from Idaho, Cleveland, Nashville, Erie, Albequerqe, Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Arizona.
Richard Stallings, a former Congressman, writes a letter to the editor in the Idaho Statesman about Terry Schiavo. It is a response to an earlier letter defending Republican action by Idaho's Republican Congressmen:
Faulty logic in Schiavo case
I didn't want to have to write this opinion piece, but when the Republican Party turned the Schiavo family's personal tragedy into a political football, and Idaho's congressional delegation tried to defend their reckless actions, I felt compelled to respond.
Reps. C.L. "Butch" Otter and Mike Simpson's labored defense (Idaho Statesman, March 25) is riddled with contradictions, faulty logic, and hypocrisy. ...
And though they're quick to affirm state sovereignty, these supposed proponents of local control sing a very different tune when trying to appease their ultraconservative base. It's simply hypocritical to tout local control and then set such a dangerous precedent with a hasty, unwarranted and politically motivated federal intervention. The same people who want "the federal government off our backs" have now established that Congress can and should meddle in court decisions and state law whenever someone who's given due process is unsatisfied with an outcome.
In Cleveland, the Plain Dealer notes the fracas in Iraq's new "government," and questions the US actions re: Syria:
Iraq's circus hasn't folded
Despite Tuesday's embarrassingly tumul tuous breakdown in talks on forming a new Iraqi government, the process is not dead. Far from it.
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The bad news is that foreign fighters continue to flow over porous borders from Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The New York Times reports that coalition authorities now hold 325 fighters from 16 countries.
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At the same time, U.S. officials should take care that their desire for "regime change" in Syria isn't clouding their judgment on how to maximize cooperation from the secular Baathist government of Bashar Assad, who has an innate interest in suppressing radical Islamists.
The United States should take advantage of that interest. Instead, the State Department admits it hosted talks a week ago with a tiny Syrian opposition group that some consider a fringe assemblage.
Purportedly, the purpose of this meeting was "democracy," not the ouster of Assad. It must remain at that level. The manipulation of evidence on Iraq's weapons programs by exile groups should have taught this nation the danger of over-reliance on marginal sources for intelligence.
In Nashville, the Tennessean applauds Reserve and National Guardsmen getting increased health benefits:
Benefits for Reservists are due
A decision to lengthen available health-care benefits to National Guard and Reserve members is a fitting way to show appreciation for the commitment those members have given the nation.
Previously, Guard and Reserve members had health coverage available under the Tricare plan of the Defense Department for only six months after serving in active duty. Under a plan just announced by the military, members of the Guard or Reserve may keep coverage for at least one year. Depending on the length of their active duty and commitment to service, the benefits will be available for up to eight years. Only those who stay in the reserves after being demobilized will be eligible under the new plan.
In Erie, Pa, they think Tom Delay's a hypocrite:
Delay's history of hypocrisy
Remember when House Majority Leader Tom DeLay leaped up on his soapbox in the days after Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed? Who could forget DeLay's performance as he feverishly attacked Schiavo's husband, calling the tube removal, "an act of medical terrorism" and "barbarism"? Interesting -- here is the rest of the story.
DeLay was withholding his own personal experience in a situation similar to Michael Schiavo's. DeLay's father, Charles, was seriously injured in a terrible accident on a tram he'd built with his brother to carry riders down a 200-foot hill to a lake. His severe injuries included brain damage and organ failure. ...
So it's particularly hard to square all this when Tom DeLay shouts, "Murder is being committed against a defenseless American citizen in Florida." The term "shameless hypocrite" does come to mind.
In New Mexico, Bush's Social Security plan is a no-sale:
No sale for Bush's private accounts pitch
New Mexicans shouldn't be fooled by presidential flimflam. They should demand an honest fix for Social Security.
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Which prompts a really simple question: If Bush's proposal is so great, why is he having to sell it so hard and on ideologically friendly ground? Answer: The rhetoric doesn't match the reality.
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New Mexicans need to press their congressional representatives to pursue honest steps such as these, to take Social Security out of the ideological battle ground and adopt realistic numbers today that will ensure Social Security's promise tomorrow.
In Milwaukee, Barbara Miner, whose mother died recently, says the real lesson from Schiavo isn't get a living will, it's beware moralists:
The lesson from Schiavo
Amid all the complexities and heartbreak surrounding the Terri Schiavo case, commentators seem to agree on one point:
Make sure you have a living will.
I read the advice and shake my head. If only it were so simple. ...
The lesson that will stay with me forever is to beware those who interject their own personal moralizing about right and wrong into what are profoundly private and difficult decisions. ...
I believe in and honor a culture of life. But I want nothing to do with the way this slogan is being used to impose a particular religious perspective on all of society. ...
Religion is a profoundly personal and private matter, and it should stay that way. Which is why I am worried about the Schiavo case. Behind the scenes, extremely conservative, narrow-minded crusaders are shamefully using the Schiavo case to impose their particular religious perspective on all of society. ...
National Right to Life, meanwhile, says on its Web site that living wills are used "to condition public acceptance of assisted suicide, mercy killing and euthanasia." ...
My worry is that, fueled by the Schiavo case, they will press their true agenda.
Look at the issue from their perspective. If living wills are little more than assisted suicide, why should they and their supporters honor a living will if they disagree with its directives? Wouldn't that be complicity in suicide? ...
Old-fashioned religious virtues such as humility and tolerance would go a long way in today's overheated moral climate. So would allegiance to our nation's founding principles of the rule of law and the separation of church and state.
In Kansas City, the editors are concerned about out lack of good intelligence:
Too few spies, US is vulnerable
A report hitting the president's desk this week illustrates once again the high cost of faulty intelligence work. It raises serious doubts about U.S. knowledge of the nuclear programs of two countries that President Bush identified long ago as among the most dangerous in the world: Iran and North Korea. ...
Our knowledge on the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea has apparently been hindered by the same basic problem that blinded the United States in Iraq: a lack of spies.
And the Arizona Republic celebrates Cesar Chavez' birthday by reminding us of his morality:
High-minded morality
It is more than timely that the name of Cesar Chavez is being heard again in Arizona. ...
But as an Arizonan who knew prejudice and fought to stop it, who saw injustice and struggled to end it, who understood the values of America and worked tirelessly and sacrificed a more comfortable life to achieve them.
Arizonans need to recall Cesar Chavez's life to understand how far we've come since the 1960s - and how far we still must go. ...
Unfortunately, old resentments have resurfaced. New frustrations, legitimate and otherwise, have emerged. Loud voices and angry protests are winning converts, while Arizonans of good will seem mute by comparison.
One side of the debate angrily claims the country is being overrun by lawbreakers - aliens who threaten the fabric of the nation. The most frustrated of them are so intent on "stopping" illegal immigration that they are pushing measures that make the problems even harder to resolve. ...
If he were here, there is no doubt where Cesar Chavez would land in this debate. As Joseph P. Kennedy said in his stirring remarks Tuesday in Phoenix, "Wherever the poor sweat in the vineyards, wherever workers struggle in silence and hardship . . . there Cesar lives." ...
We need men and women of high character and deep convictions, with the courage to forgo temporary advantage to seek real solutions to real problems.