Top 10
To the Editor:
The Tennessee Conservative Union presents (with apologies to David Lettermen): The Top Ten Things Overheard During John Ford’s Arraignment (“Busted!” June 2nd issue):
10. Hey, being a Baby-Daddy ain’t cheap!
9. When they first slapped the handcuffs on me, I said, “Baby, not now!”
8. I’m resigning so I can spend more time with my families.
7. I always hated that “Tennessee Waltz” song.
6. I couldn’t let my nephew Harold get all the attention.
5. Being under house arrest makes me feel just like that guy on Desperate Housewives.
4. See if you can find some of those old Ray Blanton pardons laying around.
3. Where’s the justice? I’m in leg irons and that weasel Don Sundquist is out playing golf!
2. I swear, if they put me in a cell with Michael Jackson, I’ll kill the freak.
And the number-one thing overheard during John Ford’s arraignment was:
1. Johnny Cochran is WHAT??
Lloyd Daugherty
Tennessee Conservative Union
Knoxville
A Clue
To the Editor:
Here is a clue for Charles Gillihan regarding his letter (June 9th issue) complaining about being required by law to wear seat belts. Gillihan wrote that he could not see why the state thought we needed to “protect ourselves within our own vehicles.”
Mr. Gillihan, if you are in an accident and you do not have your seat belt on, you are unable to control your vehicle. And if your vehicle smashes into my vehicle because you are unable to control your vehicle, I’m calling the “Heavy Hitter” and will sue your pants off. So buckle up and shut up.
Jeff Golightly
Germantown
Love in Action?
To the Editor:
I am writing this letter in response to the Love in Action program provided by a local church to teach children how wrong it is to be gay. (See Viewpoint, page 13.) I am greatly concerned about the idea of legal discrimination, religiously approved prejudice, and the political endorsement of hate which is beginning to spread in the U.S. This disease is not unlike other campaigns of the past in which women, blacks, Jews, and immigrants were once targeted as being inferior, evil, or dangerous.
Discrimination against any group endangers all of us, even those who are the perpetrators of this hatred and fear. Have we forgotten that Germany’s legal discrimination of Jews, blacks, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gypsies, and others began with legal discrimination against homosexuals? Have we forgotten that the Nuremberg laws of Germany which forbade marriage between Jews and Germans were based on the laws of the United States, in which marriage between whites and blacks was illegal?
Why do we continue to repeat mistakes of the past? Is it that we refuse to face history and ourselves and admit that we are fearful of those who are unlike us?
I am reminded of a poem by Martin Niemoller, who was sent to a concentration camp because he dared to oppose Adolf Hitler. He wrote:
“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.”
Who will be in the next group? You?
Sheila Huntley
Memphis
Impeachment?
To the Editor:
It is time the American people held their president accountable for his lying ways. And why not an impeachment? After all, President Clinton was impeached for lying to Congress about a sexual affair. Doesn’t that seem quaint in comparison to the current president’s “foreign affairs”?
Despite the Republican Party’s control of all branches of our American government and its bullying influence over the fourth estate as well, more and more people, party affiliations aside, now see the need to challenge the powers. It is time for Americans of conscience to write to their congressional delegates and demand that impeachment proceedings for the president begin.
John Mark Kowalski
Canaan, New York
Correction: The name of the Cetacea company was misspelled in the June 9th issue.
