Require candidates to do hard labor

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

Friday, January 1, 1904

Require candidates to do hard labor

Republicans are doing everything they can to raise the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare. Almost all the members of Congress are millionaires who have never done a day of physical labor.

Most average people began work and paying into Social Security and Medicare at the age of 18 and continue to do so for at least 47 years. These are jobs that require hard labor. I wonder how long the likes of Gingrich, Wamp and their ilk would last on an assembly line doing the same movements over and over, day after day, as fast as possible? Many jobs require heavy lifting, working in all kinds of weather and are dangerous (roofing perhaps?).

I think no one should be elected to a public office until they have worked at hard labor for at least six months and required to live on the wages they make. Only then can they begin to represent the average citizen.

EDNA TAYLOR

Course of action for Iran insane

I read with interest your editorial (Monday, Dec. 26), "Reject the military option." Actually, I had to re-read it.

In the first paragraph you said, "All diplomatic efforts to halt the (Iranian nuclear) program have been rebuffed by Iran."

After your discussion of possible pre-emptive action by Israel, I was somewhat amused to read, in the last paragraph, "A carefully crafted, international diplomatic-economic initiative to isolate Iran and to neutralize its nuclear ambitions remains preferable to military action of any sort."

Albert Einstein once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

My friends, it would seem that if Einstein is correct, the course of action you are recommending is insane.

RONALD KOHLIN

Soddy-Daisy

Include others with Christmas

With the winter season and the various celebrations that come with it, including Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa complete, New Year's around the corner, it seems that we still have boundaries we're not as willing to cross. Christmas is clung to as the default holiday for all people in America.

Some Christian groups oppose celebrating it on the grounds of it not being something Jesus told his disciples to celebrate as opposed to his resurrection on Easter, and also the increasing secularity of it, melded as it is with the ancient holiday of Yuletide, which coincides with Christmas day on Roman calendars. There's also the verse in Jeremiah 10:2-5, which many take as a precursor to the Christmas tree of today.

But any differences between these different traditions can be eliminated with the use of the phrase "Happy Holidays" that so many conservatives bristle at the very sound of. No one's trying to remove Christmas as a celebration from our culture, but simply include others alongside it. Sharing the spirit of fellowship with humanity and generosity is something we should all do this time of year, Christmas or otherwise.

JARED COWAN

Sewanee, Tenn.