Republicans speak in prose, Democrats in poetry

Editor: 

I suffered eight years of George Bush and many months of Mitt Romney's campaign's words and ads. I may not live to vote again in a presidential election, but I have lived to rejoice President Obama's victory. And I have lived to read a paragraph from an article by Margie Burns in the Dec. 15 edition of The Progressive Populist. It's prose, but in my mind it becomes poetry, to wit:

"The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which spent at least $28 million against Democrats, lost. Karl Rove's American Crossroads, which spent $1 billion against the president and against the Democrats, lost. Karl Rove lost. Grover Norquist lost. Donald Trump lost. Rudy Giuliani lost. Rush Limbaugh lost. Charles Krauthammer lost. George Will lost. Bill O'Reilly lost."

This is poetry in the sense that it lifts my political being to heights that Shakespeare has, Keats has, Yeats has and Hardy has and many other poets have, but on a different plain.

The Republicans speak prose. Democrats speak poetry. At least to my ear and mind that's what I hear.

I except from prose the words of Abe Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and maybe Eisenhower. But where else does one look for poetry in the works of Republicans. Ah, Coolidge: America's business is business.

Read Jefferson, Madison, and FDR's speeches for the uplift of poetry. Or to the poets of this country. There is little poetry to find elsewhere in politics.

But the words of Margie Burns come to my hearing with the lilt and melody of a song in a dream.

Perry Mann

Hinton

Sign up to be an organ donor

Editor:

I would like to recommend one gift that is free and is the best gift you can give someone. Sign up to be an Organ Donor at organdonor.gov. It is quick and easy and I can tell you firsthand that it is a gift that will be appreciated.

I am alive only because someone took the time to sign up to be a donor. I am a liver transplant recipient who received my second chance at life on May 16, 2011 at The Cleveland Clinic.

Because of my donor, I am able to spend the rest of my life with my wife. I watched my son graduate high school and start college, and I will watch my grandchildren grow up. There are 18 people in the United States who die daily waiting on a donor. Would you please consider signing up today?

Organ donors save lives.

Bill Pinson

Ona

Facts of interest on U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter

Editor:

The obituary of former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter should include two facts of interest to most West Virginians:

a) It was his assistant prosecutor, Richard Sprague, who successfully prosecuted the Yablowski murderers, up to and including the then president of the UMWA.

b) Earlier, as a state attorney to the Warren Commission, he proposed the "single bullet" theory, adopted by the commission but deemed errant nonsense by every West Virginian.

H. J. Rogers

New Martinsville

Names of good people smeared in campaign

Editor:

The election and the rhetoric are over. This is to address the carpetbagger labels applied during the campaign. It happens that many people born outside West Virginia have been elected to high offices in our state. A governor born in the state of West Virginia was not elected until Henry Hatfield (1913-1917). A total of nine West Virginia governors were born outside of the boundaries of what became West Virginia, including Bob Wise, Jay Rockefeller and Bill Marland.

Two political icons, Robert C. Byrd and Ken Hechler were born outside West Virginia. To the politicians who used this tactic, keep in mind that your wide brush smeared the names of some good people.

Don Harmon

Red House