When Chuck Dryden, a Tuskegee Airman, was asked why he fought for America when it was still segregated, he said because it was still his country. Later he added, “I fought for this country because I believed the country had the capacity to change.”This came to mind when I saw the El Machete editorial cartoon honoring Navajo Code Talker Keith Little [Jan. 12-18]. His faith in America must have been equally deep to have endured being punished for speaking his own language.Let us thank the almighty that Mr. Little and his fellow code-talking Marines never forgot their native Navajo. Thank you Alibi for making his story known to us. And, by the way, thank you, Tuskegee Airmen, for escorting my father’s B-17 countless times over war-torn Europe.If I may, however, chastise you gently for saying Keith Little helped the U.S. win the Second World War. I have cousins in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, all with aunts and uncles and grandfathers who also fought. America did not do it alone. It seems it took almost all of humanity to defeat the Axis in WWII. Let’s just be proud America refused to merely standby and watch, and instead became a part of it.
Letters: Communism In America Communism In America
[Re: Blog, “Three of five N.M. congressmen cosponsored SOPA and PIPA,” Jan. 18] The logic given here is that if you stop someone from illegally downloading a TV program, they’ll go out and buy it, or subscribe to HBO or other premium channel. That argument just doesn’t make sense. A very small percentage of downloaders would actually go out and buy if they couldn’t get it for free, but most will move on and go back to playing video games. So the actual cost to the industry is far less than the estimates the TV and music industry claim. This doesn’t excuse piracy, but it puts the damages in perspective.Yes, measures need to be taken to stop piracy; but we need to recognize this won’t increase music or TV revenues by much. The measures taken need to be proportionate to the harm done by the illegal action, and the current laws are sufficient to control this activity. We don’t deal with it by allowing the wholesale blocking of foreign sites; that kind of censorship is a slippery slope leading to government control of the information U.S. citizens can access. It is exactly the type of method used in communist China, Iran and other oppressive regimes to control information flowing to the people of those countries. This cannot be allowed to happen in the USA; and it saddens me that these representatives think such a measure would be OK.
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