A BETTER CHOICE: TASINI

Wake up, Democrats! September 12 is our primary, and we can
take back our party from the enablers of the right-wing Bush agenda by voting
for someone who truly represents us: Jonathan Tasini for US Senate.

If you still haven’t heard of Tasini, the courageous and articulate
challenger of Senator Hillary Clinton, it’s time for a quick crash course in
grassroots democracy in action. Tasini, longtime president of the National
Writers Union and expert on labor and the economy, decided to challenge Hillary
because of her ongoing support of the war in Iraq.
40,000 Democrats petitioned to assure Tasini a place on the ballot. Dozens of
Democratic organizations around the state have endorsed him. In a recent poll
from among MoveOn members in New York,
Tasini garnered 44 percent of the vote, falling short of the 2/3 required for
an endorsement. Given Clinton’s
celebrity, this is an impressive number.

Tasini is a strong advocate for single-payer health care for
all and standing up against the abuses of large corporations. Tasini will work
to represent us in the Senate, while everyone knows that all Hillary intends to
do with her Senate seat is to attempt to launch her campaign for president.
She’ll continue to ignore constituent’s questions and concerns while she
ponders what might appeal to swing voters in Ohio
in 2008.

Check out Tasini’s website: www.tasinifornewyork.org. Get out
and vote on September 12. It’s time for real leadership and courage: Jonathan
Tasini.

Janet Siegel, Park Avenue, Rochester

A CRUTCH?

Another instance of the “religion is a crutch for weak
people” analogy! Dayna Papaleo includes it in her whimsical commentary on
organized religion (“Put Your Faith in the Internet,” August 16), but we hear
it all the time.

It’s a poor analogy. Are we really such staunch creatures,
impervious to hardship and disappointment? How does that view square with
incontinence? Or cancer? Or Alzheimer’s?

In his day, Ronald Reagan was arguably the world’s most
influential person. Ten years later, he didn’t know who he was. One would think
that such realities would instill humility into people.

The premise that better fits the analogy is not that of an
upright pillar of strength and virtue rightly disdaining a crutch. Rather, it
is that of a person groveling through the mire on his belly, too proud or
stupid to acknowledge that a crutch would be useful. (Or, more typically,
unaware that such a crutch exists.)

In the Bible are found answers to age-old questions such as:
Why do we grow old and die? And why does God permit suffering? True, you must
thread your way carefully and avoid the ever-present religious hucksters, but
such intellectually satisfying answers can be found.

Sure, it’s possible to trudge through life without a clue to
these answers, but why would anyone choose to do it? They add meaning to life,
even more so than the political, social, or educational solutions typically
embraced by society.

Tom Hartlieb, Erie Station Road, Rush (Hartlieb is a 30-year member of
Jehovah’s Witnesses.)

VAGUE VALUES?

Jennifer Loviglio’s lament
(“Apocalypse When?” The XX Files, August 9) about being a secular humanist
focuses on our having no “deity or helpful tome… playbook (or)… messiah’s
return to earth.” But the lament also points out that secular humanists must
come to conclusions about personal and other issues based on what Loviglio identifies as “the vague values of secular
humanism.”

Are these values so vague? So we don’t have commandments,
gospels, sura, or sutras to interpret! But we do have
both reason and experience as sources for our ethical wisdom.

Reason and experience help us to decide how we should act.
We develop these values for “the here and now.” Both our acceptance of personal
responsibility for all our actions and our expectation of the freedom to make
these decisions are reflected in respect, compassion, and fairness extended
toward all others. An expression of our integrity is retaining the possibility
of altering our beliefs and subsequent actions as we continue to gain
experience and knowledge.

Being a secular humanist may seem to be difficult. But the
use of reason and experience allow us to identify what we should do to make the
world a better place for everyone.

Barry A. Swan,
Laconia Parkway, Brighton;Madrikh (leader), Beth
Haskalah, Rochester Society for Humanistic Judaism

DIXON’S QUALITIES

As the community conversation about the varied societal problems
and potential solutions facing the residents of the City of Rochester
rages on, voters must not forget to look closely at those running for City
Court Judge.

City Court Judges will have the most direct impact and
interaction with those who are dealing with the judicial system. Democratic
City Court Judge candidate Maija Dixon is a city school district, University
of Rochester, and BuffaloLawSchool
graduate who has represented both civil and criminal clients in County and City
Courts. She was strongly endorsed by the Democratic Party at its convention in
her first-ever run for office.

She is someone who has defended the rights of children in
foster care, represented people who have been discriminated against, and fought
for the rights of domestic-violence victims for a decade, while raising two boys
as a single mother. Maija Dixon has a unique and vital insight into the fundamental
issues facing our community, and we would be well served by her election to
City Court.

Larry Knox, Rochester (Knox is a volunteer with Maija Dixon’s campaign.)

NY’S DISEASE

Thanks for the great job of re-raising the Dysfunctional New
York issue (“New York’s Lej: Still Dysfunctional” and “Rochester Reformers,” August
16). Our fine state has a disease that is causing young people of leave in
droves, breaking up families, and causing an undue tax burden on those that
remain. We need businesses that pay taxes, not just residents.

David M. Lum, Wolf Trap, Pittsford (David Lum
is a volunteer for CBGNY but submitted this letter personally, not on behalf of
the organization.)

This article appears in Sep 6-12, 2006.