Letters for April 6, 2023
Inaction is deadly, destructive
Social psychologist Erich Fromm once wrote about the “necrophilous orientation,” the mindset of groups that desire death and destruction. The reason for this is counterintuitive. In brief, its adherents would rather destroy the world than go on living with the chronic fear of losing it. This seems generally to be true of the GOP leadership. Scientists, for instance, have warned us the planet is warming for more than a hundred years. Jimmy Carter began addressing this existential crisis in the 1970s by lowering the national speed limit, asking Americans to conserve energy and installing solar panels atop the White House. Ronald Reagan had them removed and ever since Republican leaders have lied, denied and blocked any meaningful attempts to address climate change.
Almost weekly, our children are gunned down in their schools while Republican leaders do everything to block meaningful gun control policies. They’ll prevent drag queens from reading to our kids in public libraries while letting the legal owners of military-style guns go on murdering them in their schools. When it comes to other life-affirming causes, like universal health care, fair taxes, social services and infrastructure investment, they give us nothing but gridlock.
Compensating for all of this with a holy war against women in the name of the “unborn,” even as those of us who are born go on suffering from their deadly and destructive actions and inaction, shouldn’t fool anyone.
Rev. Dr. Todd Eklof
Spokane
Further clarification on Israel needed
A letter (“Some clarification needed,” The Spokesman-Review, March 28) contained inaccuracies regarding Palestinians/Israel. The author stated, “Israel is the only democracy in the region and America’s ally in conflicts against Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union/Russia and Iran.” In regard to the latter, Israel was established in 1948 and was not our ally in the war against Nazi Germany.
As to Israel being a democracy, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu stated in 2019, “Israel is not a state of all its citizens … According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people and only it,” the Guardian reported.
The letter claims the current “climate” in the region puts the “Palestinian issue” on the back burner, an appalling opinion that ignores conditions under which Palestinians live. Amnesty International systematically examined Israel’s “fragmentation of the Palestinian population into zones of control, dispossession of land and property, segregation, restrictions on economic and social rights, home demolitions and forced evictions, family separations and other human rights violations. The report made a very strong case that such practices collectively constitute the legal definition of apartheid.” (Stephen Zunes, Truthout, Feb. 10, 2022) Further, Nkosi Zwelivelile stated in the Guardian, in October 2018, “Like (Nelson Mandela), and (Archbishop) Desmond Tutu before me, I see the eerie similarities between Israel’s racial laws and policies toward Palestinians and the architecture of apartheid in South Africa. We South Africans know apartheid when we see it. In fact, many recognize that, in some respects, Israel’s regime of oppression is even worse.”
John Ludders
Spokane
Gun show ad distasteful
In response to “Senate Chaplain says lawmakers must move beyond thoughts and prayers after Tenn. shooting” (March 29): It was extremely unfortunate and in very bad taste that this article appeared right next to an ad for a gun show.
It pretty much sums up the problem in this country, re: guns. Hopefully it was unintentional.
Annette Barfield
Spokane