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Past opinions provide perspective

Tue., Sept. 6, 2016

Military draft, Sept. 7, 1956

Presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson caught the ire of the editorial board.

An S-R editorial began: “Adlai Stevenson’s comments in Los Angeles on the military draft form an astonishing new chapter in the strange political campaign by which the Democratic candidate hopes to become President of the United States.”

“A net result of his remarks is to hint to all American families that he is proposing to stop drafting their sons for military service, a proposal shrewdly calculated to woo many of a certain type of voters in November. He hedged the proposal about so thoroughly, with ‘ifs’ and ‘ands’ and admissions that he cannot be expected to defend such a position if he should happen to be elected: but in the meantime his carefully worded speech may have accomplished what he wanted – to make all who fear having to serve their country vote for him in November in the faint hope that he will save them from inconvenience.”

It concluded: “The strategy that dictated this type of speech-making does no credit to Mr. Stevenson.”

Women’s liberation, Sept. 5, 1976

An editorial reprinted from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted the phenomenon of single women purchasing homes.

“An interesting outgrowth of the Women’s Rights movement is a trend among single women to buy their own homes – primarily condominiums, townhouses or apartments – and their ability to do so because of new laws, better incomes and altered social attitudes.

“As recently as 1974, only one out of every 35 mortgage loan applicants was a single woman. Many were rejected outright as a matter of routine credit policy. Others were asked to provide a male co-signer, or to agree to a shorter loan term with higher payments than usual.”

The editorial pointed out that the number of female applicants was expected to rise dramatically, thanks to 1975 legislation banning credit discrimination on the basis of gender or marital status.

Terrorism, Sept. 11, 2006

An S-R editorial reflected on the five-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on America.

“The sadness of the day compounds when you reflect on how little common truth there has been to cling to since the horrific events five years ago. Almost immediately conspiracy theories pounded the Internet with ‘evidence’ the United States government engineered the whole thing.

“Five years later, citizens are still in search of the truth about what Sept. 11 has meant to our country and the world. And still our nation grieves, as it experiences grief’s complex emotions: denial, anger, sadness, cynicism and resignation.”

The editorial went on to say: “In the five years since Sept. 11, citizens have accepted that a country founded and grounded in personal liberty will always be at risk, will always be a target for others who do not share the same values of freedom. The country’s citizens are not as trusting or as naïve as they were before Sept. 11, and that is a good thing.”