Politicians who served in military will be scarce
While philosophically I agree with a letter writer (“Fire lawmakers who give the military short shrift,” Readers write, Opinion, Jan. 8), realistically we will see fewer and fewer of our elected representatives with military experience.
Without a universal draft, there is nothing other than pure patriotism (or a closed job market) to induce an individual to enlist.
As we prepare once again for a redux of the Carter-era mass dump of military personnel, our only hope is for many currently serving to recognize the need and someday volunteer to run for political office.
Many have already been through a baptism by fire.
F.M. Ashmore, McDonough
Would-be bombers go against Islam’s teachings
Regarding “Muslim man from Kosovo charged in Fla. bomb plot” (ajc.com, Jan. 9), what Sami Osmakac was planning to do was completely against the teachings of Islam. On the contrary, those who reported his actions to the proper authorities showed loyalty and I applaud them for it.
As a Muslim, reading about his plans makes me upset. He has no authority to get “payback” on behalf of anyone. Who gave him the right to take the law into his own hands or to take innocent lives?
There is nothing “Islamic” about suicide bombing. Islam promises its followers the status of “martyr” if they die serving their faith.
I don’t get how blowing himself up while taking innocent lives and creating disorder becomes a service to “Islam” — or guarantees him the spot of a martyr.
To die this way would not only be shameful for him but also bring shame to the faith he wants to defend.
Saima Ahmad, Suwanee
Luckovich will learn U.S. principle is alive, well
In Mike Luckovich’s cartoon world, he has now buried “democracy” (Opinion, Jan. 8).
Over the years, he has done his part to encourage its demise. Now, he has drawn death to democracy.
When Luckovich discovers that our “democracy” is alive and kicking, he will be very, very disappointed.
Catherine Boone Shealy, Atlanta
Death-with-dignity options should be legal
Regarding “Ensuring death with dignity” (Opinion, Jan. 7), Wendell Stephenson importantly decried Georgia’s felony call if an “outsider” provides information about final options. The Legislature undermines my pride in my state’s providing an advance directive form.
Too many of the terminally ill and their families needlessly suffer because they haven’t executed advance directives. Should I reach a point of total incapacity, I trust my medical providers to honor my advance directive. I wish that I could also expect them to assist me in ending my life earlier if to do so would prevent useless suffering for me or my family.
Georgia should legalize not only free discussion of end-of-life issues and options, but also rational, medically assisted end of life.
Rubynelle Thyne, Woodstock
Right-to-die argument blurs a key distinction
“Ensuring death with dignity” (Opinion, Jan. 7) blurs the distinction between the freedom to end one’s own life, which cannot be denied, and the freedom to have others end one’s life, which endangers the lives of people less valued by society.
The elderly couple referred to in this column chose to inform their assisted-living facility of their intention to starve themselves to death (which the administration, unsurprisingly, could not support). They could have chosen instead to check out of the institution for a short stay with their children. I suspect organizational (rather than personal) advice led to this public confrontation.
Older and/or disabled people can be expensive to support. It is reprehensible to select them as the population encouraged to die before their time — rather than supporting them to live and making them feel welcome in the world.
Eleanor Smith, Decatur
Final Exit leader’s essay ‘inherently misleading’
The piece by Wendell Stephenson of the Final Exit Network attempting to link the philosophy of hastened death and assisted suicide — or, as he terms it, “self-deliverance” — with the ideals of dignity at the end of life provided through state-licensed and federally certified hospice care providers is absolutely wrong, inherently misleading and seems mildly predatory from my perspective (“Ensuring death with dignity,” Opinion, Jan. 7).
At the Georgia Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, it is our mission to provide education, information and advocacy to the public and to providers of end-of-life care to raise awareness of the options available to every person and improve on the quality of that care. Nowhere on the Final Exit Network’s website could I find where there was any support for families.
The couple mentioned in this piece made a decision about how they wished to spend the end of their lives. Hospice did not help them make this decision and did not help them carry it out. Hospice helped them return to their family’s residence and provided them with physical and emotional support and ongoing bereavement care for the family.
Jennifer Hale, executive director, the Georgia Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Response to “Taking shelter in the stacks,” Metro, Jan. 8
As a taxpayer in Fulton County, I was very happy to read that the people running a library understand that it is critical for the library to be open to the public — all of the public (not just those who have a permanent address or those with a job or whatever other qualifier would be utilized). We must all gather in public spaces. We must see each other, lest we lose our ability to connect. I do not ever want to walk into a public library and see a homogenized representation of the area in which I live. I go to the library to learn, to read and to have my children interact with other children of all walks of life. I would hope out of compassion that I would approach the 22-year-old woman pictured sitting by herself. I want to be faced with all types of people in public venues. I want my belief that we should help each other to be tested (and to prevail).
Rachel Biller, Alpharetta
