Two views of Alexander Haig; talking to the Dalai Lama; bigger, stronger athletes

The good soldier

Re “Alexander M. Haig, 1924-2010,” Obituary, Feb. 21

Just before the start of Operation Junction City in Vietnam, Lt. Col. Alexander Haig gave a pep talk to the troops of the 1st Infantry Division. I was there, and I felt energized, to say the least.

A few days later, we were in the thick of it. Haig did not hesitate to call in airstrikes and artillery, very close to our positions. His actions helped save GIs’ lives and produced a successful operation.

Because of this, I was not surprised to hear of Haig’s claim that he was in charge when President Reagan was shot. He was providing that same leadership that had made him a confidant to Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan -- and to the troops.

I don’t feel he should be mocked for stepping up. For that instant in history, Haig filled in like any good soldier would. God bless him.

Robert Bacon
Big Bear City

Haig went to work at the White House as a colonel and came out a four-star general. His ability to disregard morals, the law or decency made him a natural for the cesspool that was the Nixon White House.

For President Obama to refer to Haig as a “great American” is troubling.

Jim Lynch
Cardiff, Calif.

Talking to the Dalai Lama

Re “Casual conversation on Tibet,” Feb. 19

I am sick and blasted tired of hearing about China’s “internal affairs” and “sovereignty.”

Reagan, both Bushes, Bill Clinton and now Obama all feel the need to kiss China’s proverbial behind for fear of the potential economical repercussions, yet China continually does what China wants and basically flaunts it in our faces.

Guess what? The United States of America is a sovereign nation too. If we choose to formally recognize the spiritual leader of Tibet, we have every right to do so. It’s time we began confronting China with its human rights issues man to man, country to country.

As a huge Obama supporter, I’m very disappointed that he chose to deal with this opportunity in such a weak-kneed fashion.

Kurt Mahoney
Laguna Beach

Re “Dalai Lama launches his L.A. visit,” Feb. 21, and “Dalai Lama’s unusual stage: Universal Studios,” Feb. 22

Recently The Times conducted an interview with the Dalai Lama in his -- was it the presidential suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel? Or some other deluxe establishment?

And now you write that he told an audience, at Universal Studios of all places, to “spurn the material world”?

Is this some kind of holy double-speak?

S. Scott Mayers
Venice

Faster, higher and stronger

Re “Have athletes done all they can?,” Column One, Feb. 17

The Times has presented an excellent article on the future of athletic performance.

Based on 40 years of research on that topic, I conclude that there are no limitations on athletic performance. Each past generation also thought its athletes could hardly be improved upon. Each later generation proved them wrong. We are different only in that the next generation has yet to show us that we are rather ordinary by future standards.

Because athlete fitness, technique, coaching and equipment are likely to continue to be improved, look for “Citius, Altius, Fortius” to describe the future of athletic competition as long as there are athletes and competition.

Ray Stefani
Lake Forest, Calif.
The writer is a professor emeritus at Cal State Long Beach.

Thoughts on a GOP ‘tea party’

Re “The ‘tea party’ dance,” Opinion, Feb. 21

I read with interest Jacob Heilbrunn’s article on the delicate attempt the GOP is making to recruit “tea party” members with a conservative manifesto, the Mount Vernon statement.

I always find one of the main points both groups make to be incomprehensible: the need for small government. How is it possible for a country of more than 300 million people, with the world’s most advanced military and with millions of miles of interstate highways, sewers and interconnected electric grids, to be overseen effectively by a small government?

Are we going to forgo educating children? Scientific research? Policing our streets or putting out fires? Building roads, power plants and providing medical care to millions of seniors and the disabled? Are we going to remove our troops from all corners of the world?

I have no interest in aligning myself with the inchoate rage of the tea party or the GOP, but I would like to know how they really think they can run our county with a small government. I fear they know they can’t and are using this simplistic but appealing pitch for cynical political gain.

Thomas McGovern
San Bernardino

I wonder how many of those implacable foes of government have ever received benefits in the form of Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, farm subsidies, education grants, etc.?

Darrel Miller
Santa Monica

Evan Bayh’s retirement

Re “The Bayh message,” Editorial, Feb. 17

The Times calls “compelling” retiring Sen. Evan Bayh’s “exasperation with the way hyper-partisanship has sabotaged the legislative process.”

This pox-on-both-your-houses critique is absurd. The problem in Washington is not that the parties are too partisan. It is, rather, something more fundamental: the absence of majority rule.

The filibuster allows Republicans to stop legislation despite having only 41% of the Senate’s seats. And even without the filibuster, the Senate itself is grossly malapportioned: 500,000 Wyoming citizens have the same voting power as 36 million people in California.

The solution to our frustration with Washington, then, is not to wish that we could all just get along better, or to compromise principles and effective policy proposals more frequently because compromise is, somehow, inherently good. It is instead to end the filibuster promptly and, perhaps, to amend the Constitution to create one-person, one-vote representation in the Senate.

Gary D. Rowe
Los Angeles

Bayh says: “There is too much partisanship and not enough progress.”

I disagree. I believe that if Congress had more partisanship and less progress, it would produce fewer “successes” comparable to the post office, public schools, Amtrak, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

I’m hoping fellow pragmatists follow his lead.

Jim Johnson
Hemet

Learning from your mistakes

Re “College ‘ghetto’ party is criticized,” Feb. 18

Like many who heard about the “Compton Cookout” at UC San Diego, I was shocked, offended and saddened at the utter lack of respect, common sense and decency displayed by the event’s organizers.

I was heartened, however, that Pi Kappa Alpha President Garron Engstrom seems to understand some of the reasons why such an event was so offensive to so many.

I hope he will use this incident as an opportunity to grow as a leader of his fraternity, whose members, some of whom apparently helped organize the party, should resist the temptation to deride the community’s reaction as mere PC drivel. To do so would be to ignore the realities of their futures after college. It is a global village out there.

Everyone makes mistakes. It’s what you learn from those mistakes that makes all the difference.

Helen Choi
Manhattan Beach

Not to condone the event, but didn’t this picnic mock “gansta” rap culture and not the mainstream African American way of life? Is it any different than the TV program “Jersey Shore,” which mocks Italian “guido” life? Both mock less-than-desirable aspects of each culture.

Bob Therrien
Mission Beach, Calif.