[Peace-discuss] Reponse to Criticism of AWARE?

[Alfred Kagan]

I think this can be part of our discussion at our next meeting.  For  
now, I would caution against a quick response.  I don't think we need  
to reply to every letter.  This might be a case where silence is best.


On Aug 26, 2005, at 8:31 AM, David Green wrote:

> This column in today's DI clearly deserves a response
> reagarding the statement about AWARE. Since I have a
> letter in the hopper and wasn't there anyway, I'll
> leave it to somebody else.
>
> David
>
>
> The Daily Illini - Opinions
> Issue: 8/26/05
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> ---------
>
>
> Column: Barack Obama: a falling star
> By John Bambenek
>
> Last week, U.S. Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill., came to
> Champaign for a town hall meeting. Having attended it,
> there are two perceptions I came away with: Obama is a
> brilliant politician and speaker and that
> Anti-War/Anti-Racism Effort can't help but be
> disruptive and rude at anything they show up to.
>
> The senator can give a good speech, that's for sure.
> He certainly doesn't have the foot-and-mouth problem
> that Senator Dick "The Troops are Nazis" Durbin seems
> to have. He teaches a valuable lesson for Democrats,
> namely, that you can advance your views by methods
> other than seething hatred toward Bush and all things
> Republican. However, there are several things that the
> Senator did get wrong: stem-cell research, Social
> Security and education spending. On those three
> issues, the Senator displayed either negligence or
> deception on the facts.
>
> The stem-cell debate has been dumbed down by the media
> and politicians to the point where most of the public
> doesn't understand the basic facts of the issue. You
> have adult stem cells, and you have embryonic stem
> cells. Adult stem cells don't need government funding;
> private industry is dumping money into it because
> thousands are being cured by adult stem cell
> treatments. Embryonic stem cell research (excepting
> stem cells in umbilical cord blood) is shunned because
> of the ethical dilemmas involved, and the lack of any
> discernible progress. Therefore, it requires
> government money.
>
> The embryonic stem cell activists would have you
> believe that there is no other source of stem cells
> and that we must begin treating human life as a crop
> to be harvested for parts. They believe that any moral
> argument is a repeat of Galileo, the perceived, yet
> non-existent, "attack" on science by religion. They
> conveniently ignore that adult stem cell therapies
> work and embryonic ones don't.  People are walking,
> being cured from diseases like Parkinson's and living
> better lives because of adult stem cells taken from
> fat and other parts of the body. In fact, with
> Americans getting larger all the time, you can
> consider the supply of adult stem cells limitless.
> Either Senator Obama doesn't know this (negligence) or
> he is willingly ignoring it (deception). Considering
> that there have been Senate hearings that included
> testimony from people cured by adult stem cells, it
> appears to be the latter.
>
> Senator Obama doesn't peddle the deception that Social
> Security is about "intergenerational responsibility"
> because it isn't - despite what Professor Leff says.
> The 45 percent benefit cuts that organizations like
> MoveOn peddle are for people who retire in 2075. Those
> individuals are also known as the unborn, and, for
> that matter, unconceived. Though it is refreshing to
> see the left and their new-found concern for that
> demographic.
>
> But Obama says Social Security is not broken. When I
> talk to financial planners, they tell me to expect $0
> in Social Security benefits. A retirement system that
> will not be there when you retire is a problem. Saying
> differently is deceptive or, at best, negligent. And
> while he has a point in implying that state pensions
> won't be available, that's mostly because his party is
> running the State Universities Retirement System into
> the ground.
>
> Lastly, Senator Obama discussed No Child Left Behind
> and the usual line about how President Bush has not
> funded it. The simple fact is that there never has
> been and never will be a government program that is
> "fully funded." Money is like cocaine to a bureaucrat:
> they can never get enough. Under Bush, education
> spending went up almost 20 percent (even after Sept.
> 11, 2001, two wars and a recession). The fact is that
> states left $17 billion of appropriated federal money
> unspent last year.
>
> Senator Obama is a refreshing departure from many of
> his hyperventilating colleagues. However, until the
> influx of deceptive information stops, intelligent
> political discourse and bipartisanship will not be
> able to succeed.
>
> John Bambenek is a university employee and a graduate
> student. His column appears every Friday. He can be
> reached at opinions at dailyillini.com.
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> ---------
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> http://lists.chambana.net/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
>
>


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801

tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu