Don’t believe the lies

I fell sucker to the lie in the ’50s that Southeast Asia was going to succumb to the domino effect (Dwight Eisenhower) and become Chinese communist. That lie cost us 58,220 American lives lost in Vietnam, plus more than 3,000,000 Vietnamese lives lost.

When I was asked to teach in the University of Idaho English Department an honors literature class on the Vietnam War, I finally did some research and discovered how much Ho Chi Minh hated the Chinese for killing his father, a staunch Vietnamese nationalist. There was no chance in hell Vietnam would ever become Chinese communist.

So when I hear the orange idiot yell, “Comrade Kamala,” I want to yell back, “Enough American lives lost. Enough violence because of ignorance.”

I am a reformed Republican who became a Democrat because I was tired of the lies leading to wars overseas. (Remember also, the never-found “weapons of mass destruction,” another Republican president’s lie).

Remember this number — 58,220 — the next time the liar from Mar-a-Lago claims all us Democrats are communist. That’s almost as bad as some Democrats claiming all Republicans are moronic pigs for listening to such violent lies.

I am a Vietnam War veteran. I am a capitalist. I am a Democrat.

I am exhausted because of honest, hard-working, good people voting for Republican nominees’ lies after lies after lies. Please, for the sake of our country and God knows how many American lives saved, vote for Kamala Harris and not for the Mar-a-Lago liar.

D’Wayne Hodgin

Moscow

Defining journalism

Journalism is defined in dictionary as a style of writing with little attempt of analysis or interpretation. Well, so much for that old definition.

Today’s journalists seem to be searching for a word or comment that could label a person a racist or a bigot. Donald Trump’s recent comments about Haitians in Ohio were unnecessary and dumb. However, the main point should have been that one Ohio community had such an influx of immigrants that it put a real strain on local resources.

Then vice president candidate JD Vance made a comment that if Kamala were elected the White House would smell like curry. That comment was picked up by journalists who thought he was denigrating natives of India. He is married to one. I liked his answer to a TV mainstream media personality. He said it doesn’t matter if the White House smells like curry or fried chicken. It is the policies coming from there that should be a concern.

Finally, kudos to Major Garrett, major Washington, D.C., correspondent for CBS. He went out after the debate and talked to folks as a journalist.

Don Poe

Clarkston