Speak Out

I am disappointed at the Alabama GOP's efforts to disenfranchise the voters of Cleburne County by attempting to nullify the votes that carried Ray Bryan to his victory against Mannon Bankson in the Calhoun/Cleburne circuit judge race. It is ironic that Bankson was not elected to serve the first time, and based on the vote, he would not be elected to serve again.

The image of "smoke-filled" back rooms and shady dealings may be the way of Hugo Chavez, but I would never have guessed that the growing Alabama GOP would shoot itself in the foot with this attempt to eat its own.

If Bryan's election is overturned, the Alabama Republican Party stands to lose ground in Cleburne County in the general election. I know several folks who had never voted in a Republican primary who voted GOP because of Bryan. Now they are watching this audacious attempt to overturn the will of the people.

This is a critical election for our state and our nation. These kinds of shenanigans may alienate even more people from the polls.

Ralph Cook
Heflin

Rural America's burden

Re "Paying for it, if you can: Inequality of gas prices" (Editorial, June 16):

The Star's editorial begins to get at the real burden faced by rural Americans, some of whom are spending more than 10 percent of their income on gasoline. And it should point to the fact that we're going into another election year with neither party offering policy that makes sense for the challenges faced by rural communities.

One in three of the nation's inadequately funded public schools are rural, doctors are in shorter supply, child-poverty rates are higher, and a disproportionately large number of rural Americans are wounded or killed in Iraq.

Apart from obligatory stops along the campaign trail or platitudes debating the Farm Bill, the media and politicians prefer to ignore the real needs of rural communities.

A new, comprehensive approach (RuralCompact.org) to rural policy is badly needed, one that addresses education, health, stewardship of the land and investment in our communities and reaffirms our shared commitment to the future of rural America. The absence of such an approach has served no one well — perhaps it's time we try something different.

Dee Davis
President, Center for
Rural Strategies
Whitesburg, Ky.

Justice in Babylonia

Around 2100 B.C., the Babylonian King Hammurabi developed a code of laws. One of these laws stated that if one builds a dwelling and that building collapses, killing the occupant, the builder shall forfeit his life. John McCain has beseeched Barack Obama to accompany him to Iraq and meet Gen. David Petraeus.

Obama could thusly ask Petraeus to explain why he rewards Kellogg, Brown & Root Co. with construction contracts when that company has consistently exhibited shoddy construction work with billions of dollars in cost overruns.

Recently, an American soldier on an Army base near Baghdad was electrocuted while taking a shower because the wiring in the shower room was improperly grounded. I wonder if Gen. "Be Tray Us" and Dick Cheney would be willing to lay their heads on the executioner's chopping block in martyrdom to their god mammon?

Paul Bowers
Anniston