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Monday, July 6, 2009
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OPINION
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At nearly $34 million, the Legislature has sent us a telegram.
Message follows: There is no budget crisis.
U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany led a coalition of House Democrats and Republicans last week in calling for $4.7 billion in the Harbor Maintenance Tax Fund to be released. State Sen. Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge, is vague about why a prominent pastor in his district was not confirmed by the Senate for an appointment on an advisory committee in state government. “People will get whatever they take from it,” Claitor said when the Rev. Dino Rizzo failed — as did 19 more of the governor’s appointees to various posts — to get confirmation to serve. This is written in response to “Enhanced interrogation defended,” submitted by Mr. Ward H. Oliver (The Advocate, June 27). Contrary to the lengthy rationale to legalize torture and any expedient justifications to torture the devil himself, there is simply no defense for torture. Making it legal doesn’t make it right. Kudos to Jeff Robert (June 10, “Lawyer scorns professors’ letters”)! I feel like he is one of the few people to offer a balancing viewpoint to the steady stream of whining from academic officials and faculty members who parrot the opinion that their existence is the key to Louisiana moving forward. I am troubled by the criticism of the need for health-care reform and what that criticism says about our values as Americans. Perhaps it is time to examine our beliefs, both individual and collective. |
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