Dear Editor: It’s hard to keep up with everyone. I’m responding to Democrat Lib Rick O’Connell’s criticism (Nov. 14) of Republican George Weigel’s column (Nov. 7) supporting Paul Ryan. A plague on both your houses. Paul Ryan just voted with the RINO Republicans who teamed up with Obama to increase the debt on my grandkids by $1+ trillion dollars. Not only that, they signed a two-year deal, tying the hands of the next Republican President, Ted Cruz … extending Obama’s spending into the ninth year of his eight-year term.
Author: settinger
Reasons to Give Thanks
While the most recent terrorist attacks in Paris dampen our Thanksgiving season, we still can find reasons to give thanks this year. We give thanks this year for the great gift of Pope Francis and his visit to the U.S. and New York in September. Certainly, it was a highlight among the news events of the past year.
A Father Continues to Call by Name
Although he has been dead for more than five years, he is still so very present to me. Not a week goes by that I do not see his name in print somewhere. And a common name it is not: “Clemente.” My father, born in Brooklyn in 1923, was named after his paternal grandfather, whom Dad never met. My sister handed the name onto my nephew Christopher as his middle name. And I come across the name every few days, sometimes even several times a day.
The Tablet as Historical Record
Dear Editor: The letters to the editor during recent weeks had me thinking about this. The letters told of the effect of the sisters and brothers on the lives of their former students. Little is written about the effect of the religious on Catholic education. The present younger generation has a “skewed” opinion of the way education might have been conducted in those days. They think that we “learned or else” – facing certain punishment if we answered incorrectly.
The Truth About Feminism
Dear Editor: In her letter (Nov. 7), Pat D’Andrea summons the feminist myth that whenever there are not a lot of women present at a deliberation, such as the recent synod, there is some sort of implicit sociological disrespect toward women intended and where complete truthful propositions cannot possibly emerge. This isn’t true. At the […]
Politics
Dear Editor: George Weigel’s column (Nov. 7, “The Speaker and Social Doctrine”) in seeking to show his political preference for Paul Ryan and Republican Party economic and social policies, does a major disservice in misrepresenting Catholic social teaching.
Parade Never Discriminated
Dear Editor: I first participated in New York’s great St. Patrick’s Day Parade in 1938, became a delegate in 1958, was an Aide to Grand Marshal Paul O’Dwyer in 1974, and was myself the Grand Marshal in 1986. I can tell you without reservation that no one was ever prohibited from participating in this parade because of their sexual orientation. All this controversy is media made and totally untrue.
Curial Reform
Pope Francis, speaking in St. Peter’s Square, described the stealing and leaking of confidential documents at the Vatican as a “deplorable act that does not help” and a “crime.” The pope called the events of the past few weeks a “sad event” that does not help any reform effort that he and men like Cardinal George Pell have been very hard at work to deal with.
Grinch of Starbucks
The latest Internet outrage in the “war against Christians” is that Starbucks will no longer use a Christmas themed paper cup. No more “jazzy” Santas, no more snowflakes, no more reindeers — just a plain red, green, and white cup. According to Jeffrey Fields, Starbuck’s vice-president for design and content, “This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.” “We’re embracing the simplicity and the quietness of it. It’s a more open way to usher in the holiday,” he said. Bah, Humbug!
Goodness Never Dies
ON ONE HAND, I was very unlucky with respect to grandmothers. I was born in 1948 but both of my grandmothers died in the late 1930s. Whenever my classmates in school talked about their grandmothers, I always felt kind of sad because I didn’t have one, at least in this world.