Published: February 23, 2008 01:19 am            

LETTERS: February 23, 2008

Reader agrees with Salter’s column



In reference to the article, “It’s time to take ownership of our national sins,” by Stephanie Salter in the Feb. 10 issue of The Tribune, I am in agreement.

We, as citizens of the United States of America, must acknowledge the damage done by the wrong acts we have allowed. As outlined in her article, this will be very difficult for the nation to do.

She references Germany’s efforts to do this in acknowledgement of their country’s responsibility for the Holocaust. There were an estimated 11 million persons killed during that time, approximately six million just for being Jewish persons.

Other countries have had such killings: one million dead in Rwanda, seven million dead in the Ukraine, two million dead in Cambodia.

And in our U.S., there have been over 45 million killed. Who knows what we as a nation have lost? Maybe scientists, or artists, or inventors, or others who may have helped mankind.

They could be killed legally, not because of their race, but because they had no legal standing in the U.S.

In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott case that black persons from Africa had no legal standing in the U.S. and thus could be treated as property, that is, they could be legally killed. Later, this was corrected by a Constitutional Amendment.

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the unborn baby was not a legal person. Thus, in the U.S., these illegal persons could be killed. Since then, over 45 million have been killed in the U.S., the home of the free and the brave.

As Ms. Salter notes in her article, “we also have the choice not to make excuses, to be brave before we are forced to be humble. What history that would make.”

— William Johnson, M.D., Sellersburg



Reader has questions about PUF funds



The story a few days ago about the County Council and Clark County judges’ litigation, ruling that PUF funds belong to the court rather than the council, omits a couple of key points.

One, who gave the legal advice to the council that they could use those funds instead of the court?

Two, are not attorney fees of $250,000 a little high for that litigation? If an attorney charges $150 per hour divided into $250,000 that equals 1,666 hours of work. That equates to four people working 413 hours each for the work. Reasonable?

Looks like politics as usual. No one is held accountable and the taxpayer pays the penalty. If the same elected officials that made the decision to use the PUF funds are still in office an important question is why? The county council’s attorney involved should also be named so the public knows who he is in case he runs for office or wants to represent our county or city offices in the future.

— Pete Gibson, Jeffersonville



Young on Copperhead Legislature



I found it interesting that Brian Howey's recent column, "The Daniels Revolution coming to a town near you" compared Gov. Daniels' attempt to change government in Indiana to Gov. Oliver Morton and the suspension of his "Copperhead Legislature" during the Civil War.

Copperheads have interested me since Victor David Hanson, a military historian, compared them to today's Democrats. He could think of nothing else comparable to the situation we find ourselves in today with our anti-war left in control of the Democratic Party.

An archived New York Times article from 1865 said Gov. Morton said, ‘In raising, equipping and forwarding troops; in providing for their welfare in the field and their comfort while sick or wounded, and latterly in securing their prompt mustering out, and giving to each regiment a joyous welcome, he worked unflaggingly by day and night.’

Throughout the war, he said ‘He maintained the credit and financial honor of Indiana, which a Copperhead Legislature had attempted to destroy.’

Gov. Morton gave speeches supporting the "patriotic ardor of the State throughout the war" and was "often called to Washington by President Lincoln as an intimate friend and trusted advisor".

According to Wikipedia, Copperheads is what Republicans called “Peace Democrats.”

The most famous Copperhead was Ohio's Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham who "denounced King Lincoln," calling for Abraham Lincoln's removal from the presidency." Vallandigham was arrested for "uttering disloyal sentiments", denied "habeas corpus," tried by a military court, found guilty, and ejected to the Confederacy.

Gov. Morton is the only governor honored by his state's veterans with a statue in Vicksburg National Military Park.

— Jim Young, Jeffersonville

        

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