It's Saturday and time for my favorite letters to the editor of the Wall Street Journal this week.
School Reform Talk Is Good, Now Let's See the Walk
While Mr. Duncan opines that "Teachers above all want a professional learning environment that supports them and recognizes and rewards excellence," he fails to acknowledge that this unique group of "professionals" has chosen to form blue-collar unions rather than professional associations.
The sole purpose of these blue-collar-type unions is to further the interests of teachers against the taxpayers and the unfortunate public school students who cannot afford private schools. Other professionals, such as lawyers, physicians and engineers, form "professional associations" such as the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association and make no attempt to foist incompetent association members on to taxpayers, clients and patients.
Don W. Crockett
Washington
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He Was the Most Likely to Succeed
Regarding Daniel Henninger's "Obama Among the Dictators" (Wonder Land, April 23) and related articles: Since so very many of President Obama's foreign gambits and domestic policies and directives (including the CIA outing) are so astonishingly far-out, one can only be bemused by the thought that this is what can happen when the campus radical you might have known decades ago somehow gets elected president.
And in a wonderfully ironic role reversal, it's middle America that's now doing the protesting.
Morris Levitt
Boston
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How Much CO2 Can EPA Control?
Well, excuse me for breathing. My carbon dioxide is the new bad breath, even though it is totally odorless and is life-giving to the plant world ("U.S. in Historic Shift on CO2," page one, April 18).
All that will happen if the Environmental Protection Agency successfully cuts off much of the carbon-dioxide production in the geographic U.S. is that we will import the gas from the other 97% of the earth for free.
Under the concept of equal protection of the laws, the EPA can't limit its victims to coal, oil and natural-gas users. Other categories are obvious: wildfires, which produce as much CO2 as most autos in the country; yeast products, like baked goods and beer; and all soda drinks. Bring it on!
Carl Olson
Woodland Hills, Calif.
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The Interrogation Pictures Are Worth a Million Words
Your editorial about the ACLU victory in bringing pictures of so-called American mistreatment of Jihadi suspects is correct in that the photos release will damage the image of the U.S. The proper response, however, should be the publication of the long-blocked pictures of people jumping out of the World Trade Center on 9/11, the ones of people with their clothes on fire as they fall through the air.
The U.S. has nothing to be ashamed of and has reacted with remarkable restraint in the face of the murder of 3,000 Americans, and ongoing terrorist activities.
Joseph Feldschuh
New York
The Obama administration's decision to release prisoner interrogation photos is beyond disturbing. It will inflame our enemies and further jeopardize our troops conducting "overseas contingency operations."
How does this contribute to national security, which should still be President Obama's number one job? How does this action accomplish anything other than aiding the enemy?
After 9/11, a second or third-wave attack was a real possibility. It would have been irresponsible for the Bush administration to be less than aggressive in finding out what al-Qaeda was up to.
President Obama needs to end this witch hunt now. Both America and the world need to know that an adult lives in the White House.
John Leuenberger
Mary Esther, Fla.
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