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Published on April 22, 2008

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The Nation

Using yet more of his carefully crafted campaign-speak, the freshman senator sought desperately in last Wednesday night's debate to convince a sceptical public that they'd somehow heard him wrong. He tried to make it clear that our religious beliefs, our love of our flag and what it represents, and in fact all else held dear to our hearts - are now equally precious to his. But being forced by network news moderators to endure tough questioning normally reserved only for Republicans must have left Obama feeling suddenly far, far from the comfortable anti-Americanism of his favourite racial polemicist or of his fellow travellers on the academic left.

One who would be heir to George Washington's legacy cannot be transparently hostile to American values which are the pride of its heartland. Yet, each new thing learned about Barack Obama seems only to add to mounting evidence that he doesn't at all share our perception of an America overwhelmingly just and munificent.

And therein lies perhaps the final price to be paid for his Reverend Wright years.

Ron Goodden

Atlanta, GA

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Enforce the laws of the road year-round

I have read various comments concerning the loss of life caused annually at Songkran and although, yes, restricting alcohol sales may have an effect, will this reduce the resulting deaths?

People aware of any impending ban on alcohol sales will just stock up prior to the event, rather than buying on a daily basis - and having that stock available may well increase their consumption!

Surely there are other measures that need to be taken generally every day of the year and enforced more stringently during the festivals.

Firstly, the Ministry of Transport has to enforce the wearing of crash helmets for all motorcycle riders/passengers at all times. In addition, restricting the number of people on motorcycles to two, which is what the equipment was built to carry, not the three or even four you see generally in the countryside!

Secondly, speed limits must be enforced.

Thirdly, why aren't "breathalizers" introduced to enable the police to test drivers for drunkenness?

It would be interesting to know, of all the deaths over the period, how many involved people under the influence of alcohol, how many involved badly maintained vehicles, and how many involved motorcycles.

Phil Oakley

Bangkok

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Pope's address to the UN underlines basic rights

I commend Pope Benedict XVI for his profoundly moving address to the United Nations which emphasised the need for universal human rights, based on natural law, as a condition and foundation for world peace.

The West, in particular, has largely accepted a public or social morality that emphasises terms like "progress", "freedom", "liberty", "equality", "justice" and "peace". But these concepts are decidedly vague and largely confined to party politics, where they are open to all kinds of abuse. Moral consciousness is now, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI, "purely a species of functional rationality. In such a world where calculations are the norm, it is the calculations of consequences that ultimately determines what is moral and immoral". Nothing is good or evil in itself. There are no absolute values.

When human interests and values are based on reason alone, apart from the truth that transcends them, the individual and his human rights, dignity, worth, and capacity for self-realisation are at the mercy of caprice. Religion, on the other hand "favours conversion of heart" which provides the proper context for commitment, dialogue, authentic human rights and ultimately peace.

Religious freedom, therefore, must be considered a fundamental right that precedes the state and which cannot be severely curtailed or denied by it. Put more broadly, and as Pope John Paul II put it, religious freedom is the "first freedom". It is "the premise and guarantee of all freedoms that ensure the common good".

Paul Kokoski

Hamilton Canada