December 3, 2023
Dear editor;
This is to present contrasting views to statements appearing in the November 23, 2023, edition of The Voice.
Imbedded in a paragraph between a sentence on children returning home from universities as “brainwashed soldiers of the Left”, and ending with Biden “destroying our energy independence … bankrupting the Nation … by design”, we read: (the FBI) “spies on Catholics and parents speaking out at school board meetings concerning CRT and the 1619 Project” implying the FBI was up to some nefarious deed, perhaps to stifle free speech, an implication that is decidedly false.
Concerned for the safety of school employees and school board members, the National School Board Association sent a letter to the White House requesting assistance. October 4, 2021, attorney general Garland, by memo, directed the FBI and DOJ to conduct Nationwide meetings to address criminal threats to school employees, acknowledging a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” toward school officials; it focused, and this is important, on tracking criminal conduct, not parents’ views on school curriculum. One day later, however, Republican Rick Scott tweeted:” Joe Biden’s attorney general wants FBI to go after parents speaking at school board meetings to protect kids from radical curriculum like Critical Race Theory”. Scott’s disinformation had legs that are still walking; Sixteen months later, another Republican, Scott Perry, resurrected the disinformation campaign and it grew wings, eventually landing at the Catholic News Agency and other dissemination outlets including The Voice. Readers can access a more detailed account at Politifact.com.
Next, back at our Reader’s Commentary, a few lines down we read: “Biden has destroyed our economy by shutting down drilling and fracking for oil. We are energy dependent in a world turning to war”; and then: “It is Biden making us weak by destroying our energy independence and tanking our economy”. However, if we check with Energy Information Agency.gov, or another helpful site, Our World in Data.org, we will find the U.S. produces more crude oil than Saudi Arabia; if we check with Forbes.com we learn: “U.S. Energy Independence Soars to Highest Level in 70 Years” from an article in May 2023. But then—HAZZAH! – Reuters News Agency reports: “U.S. crude oil production in September rose to a record 13.24 million gallons a day” in an article by Stefanie Kelly and Scott Disavino, November 30, 2023.
Finally, concerning Biden’s Israel/Hamas war policy, I direct interested readers and commentators(?) to Foreign Policy.com for a cogent discussion written by Steven Simon and Aaron David Miller, “Grading Biden’s Israel-Hamas War Response”, December 1, 2023. They write,” For a crisis with so many moving parts, the U.S. president has fared fairly well”. The article describes divisions within the Democratic Party, attempts at preventing war escalation and limiting damage to U.S.-Arab relations, creating humanitarian pauses, sending two carriers to discourage Iran and Hezbollah intervention. They highlight Biden’s speech pledging U.S. support giving Israel time and space to do what it needs to against Hamas.
In conclusion, zigzagging through the Commentators scatter-gun prose, two thoughts continually ricochet through my head: “Really?” and “Please Explain”!
Go in peace.
Dave Hoehne, Aurora