Tradition, good thing?/

Letter of mine on answring about is tradition such a good thing

Letter writer James Wilson makes several claims which aren't true.
He states that the values that makes America great are traditional. Well, at one time they weren't. At one time, the right for women to vote went against tradition. The right for non-property holders to vote went against tradition. The very nature of democracy went against tradition. Tradition of these times opposed all these things as tradition usually does. We are not a nation based on tradition but one based on change, a rejection of the Divine right of kings for example. Mr. Wilson talks about Objective truth. Saying you have objective truth doesn't mean you have objective truth, it just means you think you have it. Saying your values are reflected be a deity doesn't make it so. Muslims say the same, is their religion objective truth? What about that of Hindus? Did Joseph Smith speak objective truth too? Debate in the arena of ideas, do not hide behind religion.


Letter on Romney being a Mormon

Some people are questioning former Massachusetts Governor and current Presidential candidate Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon. It doesn’t matter that much to me what his beliefs are but it does matter to the extent that those same religious beliefs might or would impact the policies he would support as President. After all, religious beliefs are beliefs. No person would state that because a candidate is a communist then the fact that they are a communist isn’t relevant to should they be voted into office. If one’s religious belief leads a person to take a stand one way or another on abortion, the death penalty then it becomes relevant. If a candidate is not forthcoming on their positions on these issues but they belong to a church that takes stances on those same issues then it is relevant. On a second topic I wish to mention, Citigroup lost $8 billion in one quarter in 2007 while the CEO of Citigroup received an exit package worth at least $40 million. I thought that CEOs deserved high compensation for the skills and value they bring to companies, as Americans are often told. Maybe we need to outsource CEOs and executives because if an American worker working an assembly line making $12 cannot compete in the global marketplace neither can nor should CEOs who make $40 million and lose $8 billion in a quarter. Somehow I don’t think this will come to pass. Lastly, why do Americans buy tennis shoes from companies like Nike that charge $100 for many of their shoes while paying their workers less then $1 an hour in working conditions that haven’t existed in this country since the 19th century. If these conditions and wages are intolerable for American workers (as they should be) then why do we allow products made under these same horrible conditions into the US? Would you want your 12 year old daughter,, grandson or niece working in a sweatshop? No, so why do we tolerate it if the 12 year old is from Malaysia?