WHAT WE’VE DONE
Democracy has prevailed.
Democracy has delivered.
And now democracy must be preserved.
—Joe Biden, August 19, 2024
Draugas letter to the editor
Before the 2020 election, over 300 Lithuanian Americans signed a letter of support for Democratic candidate for President, Joe Biden, as “Lithuanian Americans and Friend for Biden” (LAFB) campaigned for his election.
The letter was published in the Lithuanian-American newspaper Draugas on June 13, 2020.
“For many years, Joe Biden has actively served the American public, encouraging a shared love for America, its democracy, and the values demanded of a just government. He considers ethnic values and traditions as unassailable and an important part of American life. As Vice President of the U.S., Joe Biden was always a good friend to Lithuania and a steadfast ally and supporter of NATO. Joe Biden has proven that he understands the value and necessity of American security and global cooperation. He is the presidential candidate whom we can trust to stand up to Putin’s threats and ambitions. Therefore, we encourage everyone to vote for Joe Biden this November.”
PUBLISHED IDEAS HAVE POWER
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It is true that most submitted comments are accepted if they are not clearly false or somehow offensive. However, we should not underestimate their value. Scores and often hundreds of people like to read the comments after opinion articles. . . .In the struggle to influence public opinion, they are the clashes of small battalions. You never can tell who and how many you will convince, but at least you know that what you have written will reach the public.
Make it stand out
Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Sir, do you have no decency?
Are we not a country that has welcomed others whether they be persecuted pilgrims to Massachusetts, prisoners who could not pay their debts to Georgia, immigrants from all over the world or refugees like my own family? Certainly America has also been unwelcome to many such as Africans being brought as slaves and American Indians conquered with remnants relegated to reservations. Yesterday, every Republican voted to stop aid to Afghani refugees. How can that vote have any sense of morality coupled with the hypocrisy of the attacks that the Biden administration has not done enough to help or “save” Afghanistan including Afghani refugees. How can I, the son of refugees, sit by and accept this rejection of refugees torn out of their country by forces of evil of Islamic extremism similar to how my own parents were torn out of their county by the takeover of Lithuania by Soviet communism?
We have a covid pandemic that has killed over 1 in 500 Americans and caused illness in many more. I know many who have suffered and died. Every Republican voted to stop any federal funding for the use of federal funds to implement vaccine requirements. What? Can we not come together as the US has done so many times to fight this war against covid?
During the beginning years of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the Obama administration companies paid billions of dollars into the US Treasury for numerous consumer fraud and other violations that affected all of us as Americans. Trump came in with Mick Mulvaney to head the Consumer Protection Agency and totally eliminated penalties to companies doing wrong. Now, a fellow architect with Elizabeth Warren(who was too controversial to select to head up the Bureau because Republicans feared that she would be too “demanding” of “right” behavior by American companies), Rohit Chopra, after 7 months of attempting to have him appointed, only gets appointed with no Republican votes. Do we not need a check on wrong behavior so that “good” companies can thrive and companies doing “bad” can stop doing that with impunity? The US designed a political system of checks and balances. Should not the same checks and balances apply with regard to our economy including punishing companies that do wrong? So why do 50 Senators seek to deny a strong consumer advocate to again get I’ll begotten gains for all Americans and instead let it stay with wrongdoing companies which then also hurts companies that act appropriately?
On the above do we forget what our friend, Claude Welch’s uncle, said about Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950’s- Sir, do you have no decency? Every day we let this happen in our current America, and this is our new normal? This is tragic.
Alexander R. Domanskis
