Letters to the Editor

Re: "McCain too old for the presidency," Sept. 12:

Steve Chapman's frank and, frankly, meaningless attack on John McCain's age serves to demonstrate Chapman's own prejudice, not McCain's liabilities due to his age.

As Chapman himself points out, counter to his own argument, Ronald Reagan was 69 on his inauguration day, and the man never once drooled in public, his advanced age notwithstanding.

More to the point, Chapman's contention that severe mental impairment increases with age is itself countered by a Mayo Clinic study demonstrating that 10 out of 11 people age 70 and 79 suffer no cognitive impairment. Not bad odds, considering the level of mental impairment suffered by the current occupant of the White House.

Let us remind ourselves that people grow infirm, become impaired and yes, even die at every age. As our ancient ancestors knew from experience, anyone who, like John McCain, survives life and reaches the age of 71 should be venerated for his or her wisdom, not pilloried for having lived long and learned much.

Raymond Varisco

Philadelphia

Gen. David Petraeus testified he was unsure whether our occupation of Iraq was making the United States safer. That candid comment only confirms that the mission creep in Iraq has overtaken the primary purpose of our armed forces - to protect and defend our country against foreign aggression.

Instead, our military's mission is to secure a splintered country that is facing inevitable collapse since its government could not meet President Bush's and Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's benchmarks for political progress during the surge of troops.

It is time for Congress to assert its constitutional authority to set in motion conditions that will force Bush to disengage our military from Iraq. And to do so before we become allied with the deposed Sunnis over the failed Maliki Shiites, and Iran's saber-rattling draws us into a Middle East civil war with nuclear consequences.

Joe O'Neill

Newtown

When I was editor of my college newspaper and we faced a deadline and a blank editorial page, we used our fail-safe, the "something must be done" editorial.

We would set forth a problem, wring our editorial hands, and then self-righteously proclaim, "Something must be done." It was lame and we knew it, but we were in college and desperate.

The Inquirer's equivalent of that maneuver is the series of editorials where you create a fictitious and arrogant State Sen. Seymour Boon, allow him to have a fictional conversation and then gleefully nail him with some snappy rejoinder.

It's beneath the dignity of a newspaper trying to be great.

If you have names, name them. Let the voters do what Beaver County's voters did to former State Rep. Mike Veon. If not, find something else to write about.

Your fictitious Sen. Boon does nothing for the reform debate and does add to the cynicism and mistrust of the voters. That's not good for our democracy.

State Rep. Kate Harper

Blue Bell

I have been manufacturing paints for industry for 25 years. When I first started, our industry voluntarily banned the use of heavy metal and phased them out with lead-free, environmentally friendly alternatives.

We have also voluntarily reduced harmful ozone-depleting volatile organic content, carcinogens and odiferous chemicals in all paints. We have established guidelines for safety implemented by our trade organizations and the Environmental Protection Agency. We follow workplace safety requirements set by several other regulatory agencies.

Contrast this with China, where workers are treated like Kleenex, the environment is abused, and there is no ethical regard for human safety. Americans get Chinese-made toys for our kids that are a dollar cheaper but cause irreparable harm to them.

As a manufacturer, I am ever hopeful that the U.S. consumer will wake up and recognize that cheap and value are not the same. Consumers must ask themselves whether they are purchasing a superior product for a fair price or buying on the cheap and taking chances?

Benjamin S. Breskman

Sentry Paint Technologies, Inc.
Darby
benbreskman@comcast.net