Maybe we CAN win Mississippi. Check out these letters to the editor!

[lebkuchen]

Lott has become a 'voice of past'

At the Neshoba County Fair, U.S. Sen. Trent Lott derided presidential candidate John Kerry as, "a French-speaking socialist from Boston" ("Lott fires up Neshoba crowd," July 29). Mr. Lott shared with the crowd that he had worked on the line for a while.

The characterization of Mr. Kerry plays on current anti-French sentiment — forgetting that if the French hadn't sailed into Yorktown at a strategic moment in 1781, the people of Neshoba County would be speaking with a British, not a Southern, accent.

But more seriously, what kind of message does this remark send to those students who are considering taking a course in French or even majoring in a foreign language — skills that might better prepare them to function in a global economy? The Mississippi Senator's brand of xenophobia and anti-intellectualism has stunted the growth of our state for far too long.

Neshoba County's partisan stump has become something of a political anachronism, just as Sen. Lott has become a voice of the past, not the future.

Steve Overman
Clinton

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040806/OPINION/408060305/1009

Lott should use language carefully

In response to Sen. Trent Lott's description of Sen. John Kerry as a "French-speaking socialist" ("Lott fires up Neshoba crowd," July 29), I would like to point out the following:

It will be refreshing to have a chief executive fluent in more than one language. The current occupant of the White House has yet to demonstrate a basic mastery of the English language.

If Mr. Lott had better control of his language, especially at birthday parties and neo-Confederate gatherings, perhaps he would still have power in the U.S. Senate.

He ought to be more careful about how he uses that word "socialist." Both his personal fortune and his political career have depended upon the liberal application of taxpayer money.
Rickey Cole
Ovett

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040806/OPINION/408060304/1009

Lott's comedie noire just embarrassing

While I am not an habitue of the Neshoba County Fair, I cannot remain blase about the gaffe that our envoy'e to Washington, Sen. Trent Lott, made when speaking about Sen. John Kerry ("Lott fires up Neshoba crowd," July 29). While I am used to Sen. Lott being rather maladroit, I found his little jeu de mots to have such an outre tone as to be highly offensive to this homme sensible.

It has become all too cliche for the petit bourgeois like Sen. Lott to ridicule a country like France that is sans pareil. He apparently lacks the savoir-faire to be our envoy'e to Washington. His little comedie noire embarrassed those of us who are connoisseurs of good taste and all things chic.

I would like to have a little te'te a te'te with Sen. Lott to let him know that education and culture are not passe in Mississippi. Au contraire! They are de rigueur! Bon voyage back to Washington, Sen. Lott!

Robert J. Raymond
Mississippi State University
Starkville

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040806/OPINION/408060307/1009

GOP 'did a number' on U.S. psyche

I am a Department of Defense civilian stationed at Leighton Barracks, home of the Big Red One, 1st Infantry Division, currently deployed to Iraq. Sen. Trent Lott is telling Americans not to vote for Sen. John Kerry because he's "liberal" and speaks French ("Lott fires up Neshoba crowd," July 29).

What next in America? Chantilly-laced labels sewn onto the clothing of America''s French speakers, liberals being forced to wear little donkey patches?

Earlier this week C-Span2 broadcast the Democratic Convention speeches of 1948-64. Truman was occasionally rousing, Stevenson was tepid, Kennedy was eloquent, but the oratory of LBJ and Humphrey was shocking by today's standards. They were talking about ending poverty in America. They weren't talking about "bringing more people into the middle class."

They weren't boasting about welfare reform, as President Clinton had done the other night; they spoke of ending poverty! It wasn't until I heard these earlier speeches that I remembered that Democratic leaders used to be liberal!

Once upon a time in America, you could advocate such "silliness" and not be burned at the stake of public opinion. A massive re-education program came in with the Reagan administration, and has taken serious hold in the public psyche.

Ideas that were pretty much a given when I was a child, like the idea that widespread poverty was a blight and a sign that our society was not living up to its ideals, were fairly widespread, as was the idea that being "Christian" actually had something to do with helping the poor and downtrodden, as opposed to "looking out for No. 1," worshiping supply-side Jesus, and yelling at people about their sex lives.

The GOP has managed to do quite a number on America's heads. Next on its long-term agenda is the wholesale discrediting of FDR and the sliming of his legacy. Just you wait.

Michele Winter
Wuerzburg, Germany

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040806/OPINION/408060309/1009

[gasperc]

1. sure we can, but we invest nothing there

we spend so much of our time and money just trying to hold on, while the GOP contests every statewide office everywhere. There's even a GOP gov. in Vermont. I know the realities, money, but I believe we have the voters in the south, they just don't turn out on election day because hardly anyone courts them down there. Kerry won't run any ads and the 527s can't either.

[wicket]

2. Wow!

Those are great!!! I especially liked this:

It has become all too cliche for the petit bourgeois like Sen. Lott to ridicule a country like France that is sans pareil. He apparently lacks the savoir-faire to be our envoy'e to Washington. His little comedie noire embarrassed those of us who are connoisseurs of good taste and all things chic.

Hahahahahahaha! :)

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. good letters to the editor, they reflect the sentiments of the majority

[Jacobin]

4. VERy nice set of letters

[lebkuchen]

5. *

They are nice, aren't they. :)

[luaneryder]

6. Those are heartening to read

I've even seen a spattering of them in extreme NE TN which is heavily Repub. Those kind of letters give me a little lift especially with all the smear going on my mood swings from hope to despair. Thanks!

[TeacherCreature]

7. forget the letters, what are the poll numbers?

It is about votes not letters. I would like to see democratic candidates spend time in the red states because local democratic races can be helped and perhaps we can energize the base in these states. However unless the polls are with in 5 points or some major event changes the whole landscape, we are not going to win MS.

[lebkuchen]

8. Poll numbers say 61% for Bush

So, money being short as it is, dems tend not to spend too much time there.

Personally, I think Kerry ought to head to the south and show off his bilingual skills.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

9. Ahh. That Mssr. Raymond is obviously a real bon vivant!

:toast:

[harrison]

10. The letter from the guy at MSU is too rich. Great job!