Benghazi cover-up is a GOP fairy tale

Date: May 20, 2013  Author: John Foster Way Leave a comment
column

What happened in Benghazi Sept., 11, 2012, was tragic — and so is the Republican political grandstanding.

The preposterous claim that the Obama Administration lied to the American people about who perpetrated the attack in Benghazi because he failed to address it as a “terrorist” attack is absurd.

I’m pretty confident that most Americans could care less what the nationality, ethnicity or political beliefs of the murderers are — back in September, today, or if at all.

Does anyone care if these terrorists were a group of protesters angry over a derogatory film or if they were the scarier and notorious Al Qaeda terrorists? One group of terrorists doesn’t make you any deader than another group of terrorists?

It is absurd, with a capital A. Continue Reading

Libertarians are too extreme for Norwich

Date: May 13, 2013  Author: John Foster Way Leave a comment
column

Could Libertarians candidates fix what ails Norwich? Perhaps, but these  so-called “authentic liberals” first need to win the hearts and minds of Norwich  residents, and that won’t be easy.

Libertarians basically share the doctrine  that freedom requires limited or no government at best, a life-less Constitution  interpreted as originally conceived, and champion and protect individual rights  to life, liberty and property rights.

If the aforementioned tenet were the  end of their story I might even consider voting for one or two Libertarian  candidates, but there’s more.

I don’t know exactly what their positions are  on segregation, affirmative action, etc., but Libertarians believe all human  relationships should be voluntary. That would be all well and good in a perfect  world, but the world’s not perfect.

For Norwich voters who might consider  voting for Libertarian mayoral and City Council candidates after reading their  collective dogma, they’ll also need to meander through a throng of individual  libertarian philosophies to decipher exactly what they’re selling. Continue Reading

Affirmative Action is as vital today as ever

Date: May 6, 2013  Author: John Foster Way Leave a comment
column

Affirmative Action is needed as much today as it was in 1961 — if not more.

It’s been over 50 years since President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925 establishing the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, and introduced us for the first time to the enigmatic term Affirmative Action.

In a 1998 interview, former Labor Secretary Willard Wirtz, who served both Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, said that the term had no detailed meaning outside of “taking the initiative” to help the disadvantaged.

Kennedy’s aim was to ensure that government workers, subcontractors and their employees, along with future applicants, were treated equally and without regard to race, creed, color or national origin. He said, “I have no doubt that the vigorous enforcement of this order will mean the end of such discrimination.”

Since echoing those words, many other forms of discrimination have been outlawed. And today, more than ever, “the vigorous enforcement” of civil rights should never subside. Continue Reading

Let’s not use terror for political gain

Date: April 29, 2013  Author: John Foster Way Leave a comment
column

The fear machine that thrived with its color-coded Terrorism Threat Advisory Scale during the Bush Administration is again gassed up and ready to go, and using the Boston Marathon as a springboard to further legislate our liberties away in the name of security.

I’ve grown tired of so many elected representatives, men and women, playing us, the America citizenry, for fools.

When I hear Members of Congress accentuating the negative — especially with untrue negatives rather than building on and eschewing the positive — my color-coded scale chart goes red.

Naturally, when innocent human beings are directly touched — or worst, maimed or killed at the hands of terrorists — fear ripples throughout the country. Fear can rule our days and weeks as we work, together as a society, through the various stages of grief. Continue Reading

Who Are The True Terrorists Today?

Date: April 27, 2013  Author: John Foster Way Leave a comment
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Death happens daily in this country. In the United States a plethora of American’s die in automobile accidents, shooting accidents, medical and hospital accidents, and too many others to mention. Just this year 100’s of thousands of our citizens will die from things other than a terrorist or terrorist’s hand.

In over a decade, all the way back and counting 9/11, less than 4000 American citizens have succumbed to terrorist’s attack. That’s because we don’t count some as terrorists who are.

And some terrorists, defined as someone using violence for political purposes, we’ve elected to Congress! Continue Reading

Emphasis needed on public schools

Date: April 22, 2013  Author: John Foster Way Leave a comment
column

Ever since President George W. Bush’s Leave No Child Behind mandates began penalizing our failing public schools by partially defunding them, I’ve been very skeptical of anyone allied with private schools.

So when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy nominated someone closely associated with charter schools to fill a vacancy on the state Board of Education, I joined my cynical public school supporting friends in expressing our concerns.

Andrea Comer, the chief operations officer of Family Urban Schools of Excellence (FUSE/Jumoke Inc.), a charter school association, would, as a board member, oversee and approve education policy for Connecticut’s charter schools. I see a conflict of interest.

If that wasn’t bad enough, she’d also have the same oversight and approval of policy for public school systems.

Although concerned from an economical sense that this could be bad, I have to admit that her informational contribution of the inner workings of charter schools could also be quite instrumental in repairing our broken public school system. Continue Reading