Letters in the Editor's Mailbag.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Upside-down world

Each day it increasingly seems that we are living in a kind of Alice-in-Wonderland world, where everything is upside down.

Our compassionate conservative president asserts his support for the environment and yet derails regulations supporting clean air, water and (now) feedlot management by executive fiat, or by simple neglect. He argues that he is for the "little guy," while cutting funds for winter home heating for the poor. He claims that the economy is on the upswing, but it is clear to us here on the ground that our economy (and the economies of many other states) is heading south, and fast.

He who champions minorities has no compunctions about nominating for judgeships individuals who rank with Sen. Trent Lott in enlightenment. Our national embodiment of compassion expresses his concern for families, yet drastically reduces funding for family planning around the world. He appoints as steward of our treasury an individual who headed a corporation that paid no income taxes at all in the last four years and saw essentially flat profits - and that rewarded him with an obscene salary of $36 million.

And so it goes, crazier and crazier every day. This is compassion? Let's call a spade a spade. In my book, George W. Bush qualifies as an extreme radical who is bent on the destruction of our democratic institutions.

ESTHER JACOBSON-TEPFER Eugene

Protection unwanted

Let me see if I have this right: People doing work for Laughing Rabbit Inc. (Register-Guard, Dec. 23) were happy with their incomes and independence and had no complaints against their employer. The state saw it differently, and in a move to "protect workers from being exploited" have cost five dozen people their jobs.

Hmm ... I hope the state never feels the need to "protect" me or my family in that way!

LAUREL FOOKS Springfield

Meet Gov. Mugwump

Kudos to Monsignor Edward Kavanagh of St. Patrick's Home for Children in California for not allowing pro-choice Gov. Gray Davis to play Santa Claus to these children.

Because Davis thinks abortion is OK, it would have been all right with him if these children had been killed in the womb. But since they weren't, he would now like to bring them gifts. What a hypocrite. In World War II, Gov. Davis would have been called a "mugwump" - his mug on one side of the fence and his "wump" on the other. (He will probably be asking for these kids' votes some day).

Thank heavens Monsignor Kavanagh is pro-life. I bet the kids are glad, too.

THOMAS and ANN CRAWLEY Cottage Grove

Byrd belonged to KKK

I'd like to respond to Scott Lucas' Dec. 23 letter about U.S. Sen. Trent Lott's resignation as Senate majority leader. To set the record straight, the Democrats aren't white as the driven snow. Take a look at the speech and behavior of one Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd. Back in the 1930s, Byrd was a cross-burning, night-riding, sheet-wearing grand kleagle in the KKK, the ultimate racist organization in America. He's never apologized for his role in that organization, or condemned that hate group in any way. In the 1940s, he referred to blacks (in written statements) as "race mongrels." As recently as nine years ago, Byrd explained that he joined the group that lynched African-Americans because it "offered excitement."

Twenty years after Byrd proclaimed in a letter to the KKK's imperial grand wizard that "the Klan is needed today as never before," he spent 14 hours filibustering against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He also voted against Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas, the only two blacks ever nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court. In an interview by Fox News' Tony Snow on March 4, 2001, he bluntly said "There are white niggers. I've seen a lot of white niggers in my time; I'm going to use that word." You read that right: The man who was at that time the president pro tem of the U.S. Senate used the "N-word" on national television. Oh, he issued a written apology by the next day. But the episode barely got a mention in the major news media, and was never condemned by the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP, Rainbow/PUSH, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, or any other leading civil rights group or leader.

The Democratic Party presents itself as the friend to all people, especially the blacks. Please tell me - just how many black Democratic senators there are in our Congress? Names, please.

BETTY J. BARTON Eugene

CAPTION(S):

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