LIADA Newsletter      June 2004

FROM CO-PRESIDENT JUDITH MAXWELL

In the past, when the United States was at war during a presidential election, the incumbent President had the overwhelming support of the American people. At the current time, although we are at war and we are in an election year with an incumbent President, that President is ever so slowly losing the support of the American people. However, it is always difficult to unseat an incumbent President during a wartime election.

Consequently, it is very important that the issues be clearly developed and the positions we take as members of ADA are clearly stated. The two major national issues are how do we leave Iraq and how do we improve our economy. Here on Long Island, the major issues are the economy, affordable housing, increasing voter turnout, and taxation.

Both President Bush and John Kerry support staying the course in Iraq. It is time to review this commitment. Today, we are an occupying power in Iraq. That was never part of the Bush Administration’s plan as put forth to the American public. I doubt that Congress and the American people would have supported the “active” war on Iraq if occupation was part of the announced plan.

The Administration knew or should have known that occupation of Iraq would be necessary after the “active” war stopped. Whether the Administration was mislead by the very people it chose to support as the new leadership in Iraq is an important question into understanding the lack of intellectual integrity in the people surrounding the President and therefore in the President himself.

We must turn over power to the Iraqi people regardless of the type of government that follows. It is not our right to impose democracy on another country. Doing that is nothing more than imperialism.

We need a free election in Iraq and then we must turn over the total government to whomever is elected. There is no other course to stay.

The economy needs to be helped with sound fiscal policies, not ones that tax the lower and middle income population. The current tax reductions need to be changed. American corporations that send money out of the country to avoid paying their fair share of taxes must be taxed. Americans who have incomes from dividends must be taxed at an appropriate rate.

Here in New York and especially on Long Island, there needs to be a change in the tax structure. Property taxes are one of the least effective and regressive taxes that make the area a hard place for people to live. LIADA supports a plan for legislation in Albany to permit each county to institute a 1% income tax only on that portion of income over $150,000 and a 2% income tax only on that portion of income over $200,000, wile reducing the county portion of property taxes by 20%. Since income tax payments are deductible on federal income, the amount of the federal income tax paid by anyone paying the county income tax is reduced.

FROM CO-PRESIDENT HOWARD WERNER

As if the imbroglio in Iraq were not enough to destroy our image and credibility in the Moslem world, we are now confronted with the specter of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. Secretary Rumsfeld has already warned the public that we haven’t yet been fully informed about the rape and murder which took place as well within that prison complex. This scandal has probably caused irreparable harm to our image not only within the Moslem world, but with our own former allies in the West. For now, George W. Bush is our President. He is the man with whom we must communicate and who is representing us in front of the world. So I would ask, and I ask only for myself personally that you either call the White House or send a telegram expressing the urgent need for Rumsfeld to resign or be to fired as soon as possible. That will not end this scandal and crisis overnight. But it will partly express our nation’s regret and feelings of contrition over these horrendous events. It will demonstrate how seriously we take these events.

Most people who have known me over my lifetime would be at least half in shock to hear me wish a Republican President well. But I do indeed pray (even as an agnostic), that the killing of our soldiers and contractors and of the Iraqi people stops tomorrow. I pray that Shia and Sunni and Kurd sit down at one table and form a cooperative and equitable Iraqi government. I say this even if Bush were to garner the credit and was hailed from the rooftops of the world. Am I optimistic about these things happening? I am not. But I hope beyond hope. We live today more than ever in one world- interconnected in many different ways. For the sake of our children and our children’s children- there must be some serious damage control. Heaven knows how long the healing will take, and we are not even close to the start of it. How can we be planting the seeds of democracy in Iraq when we are sleeping with repressive dictatorships in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, etc.? What kind of a sick joke is our foreign policy pretending to tell? It leaves me wondering about whether there are intelligent and responsible beings on Capitol Hill aside from Colin Powell and John McCain.

We must more than ever unite behind the candidacy of John Kerry. But for right now we must also urge our President to do the right thing in attempting to neutralize the poison that is now permeating our relationship with the Moslem world. What do you think? Let us hear from you, the membership of LIADA.