Party loyalty beats values

Written by: Megan Foster on Sep 27, 2006 8:55 AM EDT

Dear Member,

Jack Sandler's excellent LTE was published in the St. Pete Times today. Have you written a recent LTE that you would like to share with us?

Here is Jack's LTE:

www.sptimes.com/2006/09/27/Opini...

Re: They compromised away our basic values.

Thank you for your lead editorial clearly describing the ramifications of this "compromise." After all the sound and fury, the final outcome reveals that loyalty to party trumps loyalty to our nation's fundamental values.

The rapid turnaround by the three senators suggests that this entire episode was nothing more than a sham designed to convince the public that there were at least some members of Congress willing to stand for what was correct. Now we have, astonishingly, granted the president the prerogative to ignore not only the international treaties to which we are signatories, but also our own laws banning torture and human rights violations.

We have indeed dispensed with two basic values that define a civilized society, complying with the law of the land and our sense of morality. The result is that we have now placed our own soldiers at risk for similar treatment by their captors.

Jack Sandler, Tampa

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Location: Tampa, FL 33618