The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 404

THE PALM EEACH POST WEDNESDAY. JULY 23, 2003 9A MSL Leonard Pitts Jr. History must be faced, not fixed LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Bashing of blood bank makes it harder to ensure safe supply Remembrance, not guilt, is better balm. The other day, I received a letter from "Johnny." "I have read your article on slavery and the blame for it," he wrote. "I acknowledge that some branches of my family owned slaves and participated in that institution I acknowledge that my ancestors fought in the Civil War on the Confederate side.

I accept blame for slavery, and I apologue to you and your family for the injustice of African slavery and for any part my ancestors played in it. "Now, where do we go from here? "Will you allow my son to play with your son without his also having to apologize? Is there any other recompense I can offer? How can I help ease your pain? "I would be your friend if you let me. But rather than giving me a history lesson, how do we fix the situation? Where do we go from here?" Johnny, thank you for writing. Let me, by way of response, offer you a hypothetical scenario: A German guy and a Jewish guy are chatting in a Berlin bar. The Jewish fellow says: "My grandfather was a tailor.

His shop was on this site. He had a thriving business until the Nazis came to power. They spat on him. They made him wear the yellow star. They broke his windows.

And then one day, he disappeared. He and his wife and all his children. Except for my mother, they all died at Auschwitz." I ernment apology. I'm also not talking about you apologizing to me. You've never done anything to me, so why should you apologize? What I am talking about is what underlies those things: the simple recognition that we all are shaped and burdened by this history, all obliged to it.

So many of my white countrymen never quite get that, never are able to get past the stumbling stone of guilt. Johnny, I don't want their guilt, if only because that which makes you feel guilty inevitably becomes that which you resent. But I don't want and surely don't need them to tell me when, how and how often I am permitted to recall the towering tragedy that defined my people and, indeed, my nation. My hypothetical German felt attacked by the mere mention of the Holocaust. He instinctively sought to defend himself and ended up sounding like an insensitive boor.

Not unlike many of my white countrymen when talk turns to slavery. I wish they understood what the German did not. That sometimes, the "attack" is only in your mind. That it's not always about you. That not every silence demands a sound.

And that when your brother mourns, there is but one decent thing to do. Mourn with him. Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for The Miami Herald. His e-mail address is lpittsherald.com able to review by the federal Food and Drug Administration as well as Florida's health-care agency, as are all other blood-collecting facilities.

Regarding the need for a new building, all one need do is tour the existing building on 45th Street in West Palm Beach to recognize quickly that all of the facilities, including the laboratory where all donated blood units are screened, are in severely cramped quarters, long ago outgrown. Blood collections nationwide are far below a level adequate to ensure a supply within a safe range. This has been the sad fact since the 2001 terrorist attacks, and anything that further inhibits the willingness of the public to donate blood contributes to an increasing endan-germent of the public interest. The Post periodic and unjustified criticisms of the South Florida Blood Banks have an immediate adverse effect on blood collections in this area. RITA and GABE HELLER Palm Beach Gardens We have been volunteer workers at South Florida Blood Banks (formerly the Palm Beach Blood Bank) for more than 20 years.

It appears that The Post suffers from a chronic need to unduly lambaste this not-for-profit organization for reasons unknown. This time it is a news story blood bank seeks job furloughs," July 8), followed by a lead editorial negative revelation about a key blood bank," July 10), which excoriate the organization as well as its CEO, implying that the latter is overpaid and the former is wasting money on erecting a new, unnecessary service building. While we are not privy to the procedures that establish salary levels of the blood bank's staff we reasonably can assume that the bank's board of directors, recognizing its fiscal responsibilities as guardian of a health-related agency, will approve staff compensation levels consistent with those obligations. Moreover, the South Florida Blood Banks are fully answer The German man blanches. "Well," he says, "the Holocaust was a terrible thing, but remember, some Jews cooperated with the Germans." Or, but it's not like that was history's only genocide." Or, but it happened before I was born, so don't blame me." Johnny, if you understand why the German sounds defensive and offensive then you understand my point about the response of some Americans to the subject of slavery.

Could you and I be friends? Sure, but contrary to what I suspect you believe, you wouldn't be my first white homeboy. Wouldn't even be among the first 10. As for our kids playing together, why not? But Johnny, none of that addresses the issue at hand. Hie thing you have to realize about slavery is that it never will be "fixed." Not in our lifetimes, anyway. We may someday overcome its effects, but like the Holocaust, it always will be with us.

And it always should. It is a reminder of what happens when people forget to be truly human beings. So the question is not how we fix it but how we face it. No, that's not a coded reference to affirmative action, reparations or gov Richard Cohen The war they wanted caught in the act of fighting. Florida's former law actually protected cockfighters, people who engage in illegal activities and who watch birds wearing steel blades slice each other to death.

Thanks to a law signed by Gov. Bush a few weeks ago, these criminals now can be charged with a felony. Animal cruelty is against the law, and people who con mit that crime should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. KATHLEEN PHILLIPS Wellington Let Palestinians stop terror to get protection I take exception to the July Gulf Stream's 'tunnel' is biological pollution The July 8 letter "Kudos to Koch for stand on his town's tree tunnel" reflects a sad attitude toward the environment. The impacts of invasive exotic plants are documented, and this awareness is the reason that so many Australian pines are "being decimated" by governments.

It's not "at the behest of environmentalists." Australian pine is one of the most destructive and difficult to control on a long list of invasive plant threats to imperiled coastal habitats. It is easily spread by seed or by a voracious rhizome, which quickly outgrows and displaces native plant communities. These trees are a threat to structures through their rapid growth and are some of the first to come down in high winds. They are nice for shade, but the responsible thing to do would be to remove them and plant seagrapes, gumbo limbo, paradise tree and other native substitutes, which also are more suited to high winds. Even the smallest areas are suitable for habitat restoration, not as "Wal-Mart parking lots" but true sanctuaries for biological diversity.

The "decimation" is being inflicted not just by Is' George Bush the Iraq war's "useful The phrase was coined by Vladimir Lenin to refer to gullible communist sympathizers who swallowed whole the party line. They believed what they were told, and what they were told was mostly lies. It could be somewhat the same with Mr. Bush. He may well be the last person to believe that the Iraq war was waged, virtually in self-defense.

He believes that Saddam Hussein was on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons. He believes that he had other weapons of mass destruction and that he was linked somehow don't ask how to Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda and the events of Sept. 11. The evidence is nowhere to be found. No weapons of mass destruction have turned up.

An advanced Iraqi nuclear program seems to be, well, not so advanced. The evidence for it is either bogus or so tenuous as to be far from convincing. Ties to Al-Qaeda "bulletproof evidence," in the words of Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld have not been proved and never made much sense anyway. What evidence exists suggests, in fact, that the United States was han-keringfor a war no matter what. Intelligence no matter how fragmentary or inconclusive was shaped, molded and goosed until it could be used to prove that Hussein had to be taken out swiftly.

The bogus uranium from Niger is a mere detail in this regard a smoking gun, yes, but one in the hands of White House aides for That was a bogus argument. The war could have waited. But Mr. Bush could not. My guess is that his tendency to see things in black and white and an un-Clintonian determination to eschew micromanaging led him astray.

The president "is not a fact-checker," an administration aide told reporters last week in explaining why Mr. Bush used weak evidence in his State of the Union message. But neither is Colin Powell. Yet he went over the evidence carefully, discarding some of it before he made his own presentation to the United Nations. Mr.

Powell might have suspected what Mr. Bush apparently did not that some administration officials were so intent on war they were cooking the books. The proposals contained in the 1998 letter to Mr. Clinton were either bold or reckless, depending on your point of view. Whatever the case, Mr.

Bush essentially adopted them. But in choosing an unconventional course, he persisted in using the conventional language of self-defense. In fact, he opted for a totally discretionary war, one waged not so much to preempt terrorism although that was part of the mix as it was to reorder the Middle East. Had Mr. Bush made the same case for war as his aides did in 1998, that could have been debated.

But it was a hard case to make because Hussein, really and truly, did not pose an imminent threat to the United States. Now, Mr. Bush stands abandoned by events. His judgment as well as his competency are being questioned his honesty as well. But the president is no liar.

More likely, he merely is an uncritical man who believed what he was told. Lenin knew the type. some of the very same people who in 1998 wrote a letter to President Clinton arguing that America should abandon containment, "removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power." Ten of the 18 signatories including Mr. Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz are in the Bush administration and were among the most vigorous proponents of war. Mr.

Rumsfeld, Bob Woodward tells us, argued at the first Cabinet meeting after the Sept. 11 attacks for war on Iraq. They may have been right then, and they might be right now and in my view, a pretty good case still can be made for the war. But that's not really the case Mr. Bush made.

He raised the rhetorical danger to one of virtual imminence: Hit Iraq quick before Hussein could hit us. 11 letter "Israel's defenders seem blind to its provocations." The writer stated that he had read "all the horrible things Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is doing to the Palestinians" and neglects to properly characterize these actions as legitimate responses to Palestinian terror activities against Israeli and non-Muslim, innocent women and children. He also neglects to reflect that these responses result from Palestinian terrorists using civilians as shields for protection. The letter also stated that "it is only right for the Palestinians to protect themselves any way they can." It is not right to tolerate terror, especially if the terror was initiated when Yasser Arafat chose, as he has periodically for decades, to use terror to gain negotiating leverage with Israel. Most of the sad situation never would have happened had Mr.

Arafat signed the Clinton-sponsored agreements with Israel. I say "most" since some radical Palestinian terrorists will not stop until they either destroy Israel or are destroyed themselves. Calling both sides "horrible" and "blameworthy" ignores the true intentions of the Palestinian terrorists. SANFORD PEARL Palm Beach Gardens Post right: Pryor's bias makes him unacceptable Australian pine but melaleuca, Brazilian pepper, earleaf acacia, ficus microcarpa and many more plant cancers. I hope that Gulf Stream will join with many other responsible residents who are seeking to protect or improve the environment.

Safety for bicyclists and motorists is far more important than maintaining a tree tunnel of biological pollution. STEVEN BELL Lantana Macabre guessing game was highly distasteful Although The Post is to be commended for its support of the community, I must say that the front page of the Accent section on July 15 or was very distasteful. whom truth meant less than impact. The real mystery is whether Mr. Bush himself realized how weak the evidence was or whether he was being manipulated by a cadre of disciplined administration aides who long had sought a war with Iraq.

These are Richard Cohen is a columnist for The Washington Post. His e-mail address is cohenrwashpost. com E.J. Dionne Jr. 11 Street not paved with states' rights House Republicans eager to shield the industry.

Yes, it is disturbing that a lot of Hollywood greats have passed on, but Vie Post could have done an article on their celebrity, not a guessing game as to who is still among us. How would that make the editor feel if one of those pictures had been of him or her, and the headline read, "Are you dead yet?" CONNIE MALTIN Jupiter Thanks to The Post for the July 10 and July 22 editorials calling for the rejection of William he is an unacceptable candidate for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. As attorney general of Alabama, he has expressed opinions that make him a poster child for the conservative religious right. Ideally, judges are supposed to weigh the merits of a case objectively, using precedents and the facts presented.

By his statements, Mr. Pryor challenges the laws that set those precedents as unacceptable. He has expressed openly and without hesitation his contempt for the rights that women have fought so hard to attain. President Bush would serve our nation better if he did not nominate such hard-line, biased candidates for federal judgeships. JUDYC.

BURNETTE Riviera Beach States' rights are a matter of high principle1 except when they become inconvenient to some powerful interest group. Then they can be ignored or swept aside. That lesson, taught over and over, will be put to the test again, perhaps as soon as today. That's when the House Financial Services Committee may take up A proposal that would sharply restrict the power of state regulators to oversee the securities industry. The measure, introduced by Rep.

Richard Baker, would prevent state regulators from working independently of the federal Securities and Exchange Commission in seeking structural changes the way brokerage houses and investment banks work. In other words, if federal regulators are asleep at the switch, states won't be able to step in. No wonder the bill is being seen as a direct slap at New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who forced the securities industry to end stock analysts' conflicts of interests in a settlement last year. Mr. Spitzer embarrassed the industry when he released e-mails showing that research analysts privately were trashing stocks that they were recommending to the public.

States may have a lot of rights, but if they embarrass a few Wall Street firms, the power of big government in Washington will be brought in to stop them. So it seems to Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat. "The federalism of the Republican Party seems to apply when the issue is the rights of the poor, and they want to leave that to the states," Mr. Spitzer said in an interview.

"But when it comes to using power to help their corporate perrons, they bring it back to Washington." But somehow, that is not the view of Mr. Bush's SEC chairman, William Donaldson, where securities regulation is concerned. "You can't have a system in which there are 50 different structures," Mr. Donaldson told a group of Washington Post reporters and editors last week in speaking kindly of Rep. Baker's idea.

"It will paralyze business. When you get down to the remedy, the SEC must be supreme." So an administration that is eager not to have the feds be "supreme" when it comes to Medicaid or even Head Start wants to smash the test tubes in our laboratories of democracy when states try to protect investors in the face of Washington's failures. State regulators such as Mr. Spitzer and Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin say the proposal will have the practical effect of reducing their power to deal with abuses that Washington never will get to. Mr.

Galvin has been saying the bill would remove "the cop off the beat" where protecting investors is concerned. Being in favor of capitalism requires being against abuses that prevent markets from working honestly. "What I jun concerned about," says Rep. King, the Republican, "is the signal we're sending to the investing public, especially in these economically uncertain times, that we're easing up on corporate corruption." The cleanup of the financial industry is a clear case in which state officials pushed hard for innovation and justice. Why is this the issue on which states' rights should be thrown out the window? E.J.

Dionne Jr. is a political columnist for The Washington Post. His e-mail ad- dress is postchatniiaol.com Cruel cockfight stagers no longer beyond the law The sad ending for the roosters rescued from a Super Bowl day gamecock gala was reported in the July 12 article "Fighting birds saved in raid euthanized." Because these roosters had been trained to fight, it was felt they could not be, placed in someone's back yard. An equally sad part of the story is that the people who were arrested at the bloody ring containing a dead rooster will not face criminal charges because their animals were not Strong words? Some Republicans also are worried about the inconsistencies on display in this battle. "As Republicans, we do believe in states' rights, state prerogatives and state control," said Rep.

Peter King, who, like Rep. Baker, is a senior member of the Financial Services Committee. Before Congress trims state authority, he continued, "we need very compelling evidence, and right now, the evidence goes the other way. It's state officials who have been cracking down on corporate corruption." "I would never vote for Eliot Spitzer for any office," Kep. King added, "but he has made real inroads in uncovering corporate corruption and bringing a sense of justice to the market." You would think an administration that regularly sings the praises of state experimentation would side with the states.

'Texans can run Texas," President (and ex-governor) Bush once declared. Doesn't the same principle a-ply to, say, New Yorkers? While Bill Clinton was president, Tom Ridge, then governor of Pennsylvania and now the secretary of homeland security, declared of Mr. Bush: "George is more inclined than the current administration to trust state legislators and governors, Democrats and Republicans, to make decisions," Former spokesman Ari Fleischer once said of him: "He believes deeply that ihany of the nation's answers can be found in the state capitals." HOW TO WRITE THE POST The Palm Beach Post welcomes letters about issues of current interest and material that has appeared in the newspaper. All letters are subject to editing and must include the writer's name, address and daytime telephone number. Envelopes without a return address will be discarded.

Recommended length is a maximum of 250 words. Send e-mail letters to letterstfflpbpost.com, faxes to (772) 287-0241 and postal letters to Letters to the Editor, The Palm Beach Post Martin County Bureau, 2101 S. Kanner Highway, Stuart, FL 34994..