Letters to the Editor: America owes much of its greatness to three presidents
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To the editor: I do not agree with the author’s statement that “America’s greatness has never rested on the brilliance of its politicians” (“What a 700-year-old Italian fresco can teach America today,” July 9). Three presidents come to mind.
George Washington established the tradition of a two-term presidency when many people wanted him to become king of the new United States of America. Abraham Lincoln insisted that the country stay as one united nation when the issue of slavery leading to the Civil War almost tore it apart. Franklin D. Roosevelt got this country through years of the Great Depression and led a victory over fascism with our allies in World War II.
If this is not political greatness, I don’t know what is.
Ann C. Hayman, Westwood
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To the editor: Contributing writer Veronique de Rugy’s argument that the government impedes prosperity raises two questions: What constitutes prosperity, and prosperity for whom?
These are especially pertinent questions in regard to climate change. Sticking with fossil fuels is more appealing to stakeholders in the short term, as opposed to converting that infrastructure to a renewable energy model. Leaving the free market to its own devices, De Rugy’s ideal, means that investors will gravitate toward subsidizing more extreme heat, droughts, floods, crop failures, mass migrations and hunger, all costs not accounted for by laissez-faire economics.
Governments must “interfere” with the market by investing in non-greenhouse gas energy to bring holistic prosperity for all, not just the investor class.
Richard Lyon, La Crescenta
