Dec. 8 Letters: Obamacare, Pearl Harbor

December 07, 2013

Moral imperative

A writer to the Dec. 6 Daily Press ("Wrong approach") suggested Republicans drop the hysterics and just get on board with Obamacare since it is the "law of the land." I suppose he would have had the civil rights activists of the 60's just accept the "separate but equal" doctrine since it was the "law of the land" at that time.

The civil disobedience of the 60's was justified by those involved as a moral imperative. Not only was slavery morally wrong but so were the Jim Crow laws that replaced slavery.

So where does the government obtain the legitimate authority to force its citizens to purchase a commercial product, i.e. health insurance. "The Supreme Court settled that argument," you say? Really? What the Court established in NFIB v. Sebelius is that Congress had no authority under the Interstate Commerce Clause to force citizens to purchase health insurance, but in the next breath the Court said Congress could produce the same effect by taxing anyone who dared not to purchase such product. No authority to force you to buy a product but authority to "tax" you if you don't. Does that make sense?

Does Congress in fact have the moral authority to tax us for any purpose under the sun? I think not, and I could come up with hundreds of examples of hypothetical "tax penalties" we would all find morally repugnant (ex: all mothers pregnant with a second child would be "taxed" $100K if they did not obtain an abortion).

So let's not suggest that Republicans who urge citizens to resist the tyranny of Obamacare are somehow being unethical. Tyranny is tyranny, no matter what form it takes. And tyranny must be resisted.

Gary Porter


Small world

Among all the rightfully deserved articles about Duke's football season carried in the Daily Press I might have missed any that mentioned a major event in Duke's football history — their participation in the 1942 Rose Bowl.

Because of the December 7 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and the resulting West Coast blackout, the game was moved to Durham where Duke played Oregon State. I had the privilege, as a 16-year-old, of attending the game. I don't recall who won, only that it was wet and cold. As an aside, when I joined the Navy in 1943, the former Oregon State quarterback was my boot company Chief.

Earl Adams

Newport News

Editor's note: Oregon State won the 1942 Rose Bowl 20-16.

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