Online only letters

The Wright problem

To love and hate in a time of kinship and politics

Editor, The Times:

Media coverage of the controversy concerning Sen. Barack Obama's pastor ["Reverend Wrong," Times editorial, April 30] has largely failed to make one significant point: Husbands and wives often have completely different opinions about politics or religion, yet they stay married and committed to each other. Brothers and sisters are often diametrically opposed on a wide range of issues, but they continue to love each other unconditionally. Boards of nonprofit organizations sometimes have priorities that differ from those of their volunteers, but the volunteers continue to bust their butts for the group because of the overall good it does. American citizens largely disagree with the way our current administration represents us, yet we continue to love the country in which we live.

The fact that Obama has continued to have a relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, even though the pastor has said things with which he disagrees, is no different from any of these other examples. To treat it as such is nothing more than spiteful, bigoted, dishonest politics.

— Gary Del Mastro, Carlsborg

Minds that think alike aren't great

During the 2000 presidential campaign, Democrats were outraged when Republican candidate George Bush delivered a speech at Bob Jones University, a conservative evangelical school with a history of racial discrimination and a strongly anti-Catholic theology. Bush's one-time appearance at the school signaled tacit support for bigotry and intolerance.

Now, many of those same Democrats are trying very hard to distance Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama from the numerous divisive, bigoted, and inflammatory comments of his longtime pastor and self-proclaimed "spiritual mentor," the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It seems that two very different standards are being applied.

Bush's speech at Bob Jones University was no more an endorsement of racial or religious discrimination than would a speech at the National Press Club be an endorsement of the liberal views of the press corps. However, Barack Obama sat in the pews of Wright's church for 20 years, and it stretches the imagination to believe that Obama was not sympathetic to the views he heard expressed there, week after week, year after year.

Some of us believe that the words of the Rev. Wright do indeed give us an insight into the real beliefs of Obama. As the old saying has it, "Birds of a feather flock together."

— Stephen Triesch, Shoreline

Character assassination

For the last six weeks, Rev, Jerimiah Wright has been depicted as an extremely angry man and a liability for Sen. Barack Obama. Most of this has been a result of the three short video clips shown again and again on the Internet and TV.

What appalls me is that no one in the media has tried to learn the truth about Rev. Wright. Has anyone bothered to look at the full text of these three excerpts? Has anyone written about the truth about Trinity Church and what Rev. Wright has done over the last 30 years?

"Bill Moyers Journal" had an hourlong interview with Rev. Wright. What comes across is a man who is very learned and deeply religious, whose focus has been on getting his congregation to participate in the world around them. The church has many ministries to help people less fortunate than those in the congregation.

The full clips of his sermons show that his comments are not as extreme in the context within which they were said.

The media plays a major role in communicating to the public about the world. The character assassination of Rev. Wright is the worst kind of media malfeasance. It has created a pall over a good man and has distorted the political reality of the presidential race.

Hopefully, Rev. Wright will continue to speak out to rectify the distortions about him and Sen. Obama.

— Lucy Gaskill-Gaddis, Seattle

What do you believe?

If Rev. Jeremiah Wright was quoted correctly -- saying, " I'm not running for office, but I am open to being vice-president" --then all his efforts and being kept in the media eye have a lot to do with envy on his part.

Not being an expert on the Bible, I believe there is a place where it says envy is a sin?

— Harriet Benjamin, Seattle

Political loyalty

Don't bite the hand that votes for you

Sen. Hillary Clinton should be careful what she asks for. She might get it. Her current argument to the superdelegates is that they should give her the nomination because the people who are voting for her may defect to Republican candidate Sen. John McCain rather than vote for Sen. Barack Obama ["Clinton declares victory in Indiana," News, May 6].

But what message does this send to Obama's supporters?

If the superdelegates do this, they will be sending the message that the way to gain power in the Democratic Party is to be willing to withhold support. Winning the nomination is nothing: What counts is winning in November.

How do you coalesce the party behind you after sending the message that loyalty gets you taken for granted and that power comes from being willing to defect?

— Bryan Kesterson, Kent

Whose care? Not yours

Health plan: matter of life and death

All three presidential candidates are proud to promote a "health care plan" -- universal or otherwise. All three of their health-care plans are really health-insurance plans -- and there is a difference. With health care, sick and injured people actually receive the care they need to get better. With health insurance, people pay lots of money to a corporation, then that corporation does everything in its power to deny claims for health care.

Sen. John McCain's health-care plan is the worst of the bunch. He wants to take away employer tax breaks for providing coverage to their employees so those same employees can shop for their own insurance with a $5,000 tax credit for families. What McCain fails to say is: A) individual policies are substantially more expensive than group plans; B) group policies are generally "guaranteed acceptance," which means that pre-existing conditions become a nonissue; and C) whether families can actually afford to pay the $12,000-$18,000 annual premium, deductibles and co-payments that will qualify them for that $5,000 tax credit.

McCain says he wants to "encourage" states to set up high-risk pools to cover consumers rejected in the open market. My experience with high-risk pools is that coverage is far more expensive for much less benefit.

As the son and grandson of U.S. Navy admirals, who himself joined the Navy, then ran for Congress, McCain has enjoyed taxpayer-funded health care his entire life, never worrying that his care or coverage would be canceled or that claims would be denied. How dare he expect that same American taxpayer who subsidizes his care to accept any less for themselves?

Let's just bite the bullet and put in place a true universal health-care plan, funded by the government and accessible to all. Many will cringe and writhe at the very thought of "socialized medicine," yet our fire and police departments are funded by government and available to all; hence "socialized." Fire and police services are a matter of life and death -- and so is health care!

— Paula Joneli, Des Moines