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Wednesday, March 30, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I N I O
N
Rachel
Marsden
American Voices
Letters to the Editor…
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ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
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To the Editor:
In response to Dave Marlow’s March 23
letter to the editor on a $15-per-hour minimum
wage, I agree 100 percent.
We’re seeing an unprecedented number of
goodies that liberal Democrats are promising
without a single thought given to unintended
consequences. Liberals’ new “purchase votes
initiatives” include $15 minimum wage, free
college, free medical, and entitlement to what
they determine as their fair share.
My first job at 12 years old picking beans
paid .025 per pound, and you made what you
worked for. There was no splitting up the total
at the end of the day to make sure everyone
was entitled to “his or her fair share.” When
I turned 16, I was able to land summer jobs
at minimum wage of $1 per hour to $1.25 per
hour. Of course that was 50-plus years ago.
However, I NEVER imagined minimum wage
was going to entitle me to a “living wage,” buy
a house, raise a family, and live the American
dream.
America is the greatest country in the
world when it comes to self-directed oppor-
tunity. The stories are endless of those who
made good choices, worked hard and “earned”
their success. Oprah Winfrey is one example.
How is it that I’m entitled to one cent of what
she worked hard for in the name of fairness?
Michael Jordan is also very rich, and he
earned it by hard work and utilizing his God-
given talent. So help me understand why I’m
entitled to one cent of his fortune in the name
of fairness? Bill Gates and his partner started
Microsoft from nothing. Today it’s a multina-
tional company providing thousands of high-
paying jobs. Again, tell me why I would be
entitled to one cent of their amazing accom-
plishment in the name of fairness.
Those aiming to turn our country upside
down in the name of fairness and entitle-
ment may have noble goals, but the results
will be disastrous. What our country needs
is competent leadership that will unleash the
power of free enterprise by eliminating stifling
See lEttErS on page 20
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What do you get when
you ignore a hotbed of jihad-
ism located just a few miles
from the base of European
government? Tragedy.
Belgian authorities
have labeled as terrorism a
series of attacks March 22
in Brussels that killed more
than 30 people and injured
dozens of others. Not long
after two explosions ripped
through the Brussels air-
port, there was a rush-hour
explosion at the Maalbeek
metro station near the driv-
er’s seat of Europe itself:
the European Commission,
where meetings were can-
celed as soon as this political
boomerang crashed through
the window.
It’s not a stretch to imag-
ine that this latest wave of
attacks had something to
do with the arrest of Salah
Abdeslam, 26, a suspect in
last year’s coordinated Paris
terrorist attacks that killed
130 people and injured hun-
dreds more. Following the
attacks, authorities report-
edly believed that Abdeslam,
whose brother detonated a
suicide bomb at Le Comptoir
Voltaire restaurant, had fled
to Syria.
Although I’d like to think
the admission that a danger-
ous terrorist had somehow
dropped off the radar of
authorities was just a ruse
to make the suspect think
they’d lost his scent, perhaps
it’s not wise to attribute to
wile what could be easily
ascribed to incompetence.
Abdeslam was arrested
less than a half-mile from
his mother’s house in the
Brussels neighborhood of
Molenbeek, a notorious
jihadist nest that was tempo-
rarily placed under martial
law in the wake of the Paris
attacks. Molenbeek has been
tied to a number of terrorist
attacks, including the 2004
Madrid train bombings and
last year’s Thalys train attack
that was thwarted by several
passengers.
The mayor of Molenbeek
from 1993 to 2012 was
Philippe Moureaux, a mem-
ber of the Socialist Party
known for his hands-off
approach to the radical jihad-
ism that was festering right
under his nose. Socialist
policies often seem designed
to not make local minority
populations feel uncomfort-
able — which in itself is an
inherently racist worldview
toward law-abiding citizens
who happen to be minorities.
By not imposing the sort
of safety standards that are
common in other municipali-
ties, Socialist leaders expose
law-abiding minorities in the
area to a greater threat. Why
should they have to suffer
the consequences of policies
that pander to the criminal
element?
But it’s not just social-
ist policies that have fed the
jihadist threat in Molenbeek.
European policies and the
incompetence of the Belgian
government are also to
blame. (Belgian politics,
much like Belgian society,
is so fractured that the nation
went 589 days without an
official government in 2010-
2011 because opposing par-
ties were unable to form a
coalition following the fed-
eral elections. Nothing says
“hey, we’ve got this” quite
like being unable to form a
government.) After French
President Francois Hollande
indicated that some of the
Paris attackers were from
Belgium, Alain Chouet, the
former head of France’s
foreign intelligence service,
was widely quoted as saying
that the Belgians aren’t up
to snuff in terms of security
efforts.
Belgium’s proposed solu-
tion to terrorism is to just
jack up the budget. Last
year, shortly after the Paris
attacks, the Belgian govern-
ment announced a plan to
reach into taxpayers’ wal-
lets for 400 million euros to
combat the threat. Instead,
Belgian leaders might want
to consider taking a stroll
down the street to European
Union headquarters and
explaining that the nation’s
security resources have been
stretched to the breaking
point by European EU poli-
cies that effectively erase
national borders and sover-
eignty, and by the perpetual
push to import even more
newcomers from terror-rid-
den countries.
Brussels has become a
point of convergence for
jihadism, socialism and gov-
ernment ineptitude — with
tragic results. The city also
now serves as a cautionary
tale for other places sliding
in the same direction.
© 2016 by Tribune
Content Agency, LLC.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.