Allen on Obama; voting Democratic; Iran incident; rebel flags; Oscar boycott

Allen on Obama

Cynthia Allen charged in her Friday column (“Haley, Obama illustrate contrast on race, leadership”) that President Obama “rarely misses an opportunity to sow discord among his fellow Americans.” She cited not one example.

Did she not hear his appeals for harmony at Selma or his eulogy for those murdered in a South Carolina church?

Janell Ross has noted in The Washington Post that the last time attitudes about race were this negative was in 1992, after the Rodney King incident.

Before the turmoil in Ferguson, Mo., just 33 percent of Americans thought relations between the races were bad.

It was not President Obama who caused the increase. It was the failure of us all to make the United States fairer to everyone.

Cynthia Allen called the president a “divisive” figure, someone who brands his opposition as people who hawk war, deny healthcare to the poor and promote gun violence.

Obama tried to work with Republicans on foreign policy, healthcare and gun regulation. They rejected every offer.

Now conservatives cry because there is “discord.”

This president has bent over backward to work with people who say he is a Muslim, a socialist and compare him to Hitler.

Obama wanted to unite the races, but a large contingent did everything they could to sabotage his efforts.

When a politician yells “You lie” at the president during a State of the Union address, being the Great Uniter is not going to happen.

Voting Democratic

I was born and raised in a farming family during the Great Depression as the ninth of 10 children, and every day was a struggle.

Assuming that both presidential candidates are as qualified as Richard Greene suggested in his Sunday column (“The presidential candidate who will get my vote”), I’ll vote for Democrats because of their record of passing laws that benefit the poor and middle class:

Social Security, Medicare, the minimum wage, a 40-hour work week and overtime pay, all of which Republicans opposed.

My vote goes to the person/party who has helped most. We need to elevate the middle class, not the top 2 percent.

Iran incident

I was amused to read letters that suggested the capture and release of U.S. sailors by Iran was a “minor incident” taken care of in “just a few hours.”

This “unprecedented” action by Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama has possibly sentenced America and every Christian and Christian country to death!

Rebel flags

My great-grandfather was a Confederate soldier who was severely wounded at Vicksburg.

My wife’s great grandfather, also a Confederate, was killed at Vicksburg.

If the official Confederate national flag were to be flown, very few people would probably even recognize it.

Just switch flags.

Oscar boycott

It seems to me that black movie stars who boycott the Oscar awards ceremony because they weren’t good enough to win is about like white National Basketball Association players boycotting their games because they don’t get to play enough.

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Allen on Obama; voting Democratic; Iran incident; rebel flags; Oscar boycott."