Letters: Money can't erase ignorance

Most Mexicans here are hard-working religious people and to classify them as criminals and rapists shows very obviously that money doesn’t make a person smart and is no excuse for Donald Trump’s ignorant comments.

John Corona, Niles

Let public see Trans-Pacific trade deal

It’s past time for the public to get a look at the proposed texts of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).The President of the United States has declared the texts “top secret.” He has now received Trade Promotion Authority, also known as Fast Track, which means our elected officials have given up their authority for input on these, and other “trade” bills and can only vote them up or down.One or more of our elected officials should leak the most recent texts of the agreements so the public can be made aware of them. Bring the documents out into the sunlight of democracy.

Tom Broderick, Oak Park

Time to move beyond Confederate Flag obsession

The Civil War ended in 1865. Since then, America has been involved in American-Indian Wars of the 1870’s, the Spanish American War, two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, and Iraqi debacle.

For those all so-concerned about the South’s fallen brothers, history, and traditions of that war and how these elements relate to the Confederate flag, how many of you can name the American general who was the Supreme Allied Commander in the invasion of Normandy? A clue: he later became President of the United States. What is Normandy? Why did the United States get involved in World War Two? Who were the presidents of the United States during both Korean and Vietnam conflicts? How many American GI’s were killed in Vietnam? Where and what is Kuwait, and what did the United States have to do with it? What was “shock and awe” all-about?

Given the average American’s ignorance of 20th and 21st Century events which have permanently changed this nation’s social, political, and economic landscape, why the concern over the long-since dead whom you never even knew in the first place? Why the emphasis on the archaic mid-1800’s, especially when these past events bear no relationship whatsoever to American life of 2015? In that context, to the those who argue the propriety vs. the impropriety of displaying the Confederate flag, or images of such on automobile license plates, just let the 1800s and the American Civil War go, and just move on!

Earl Beal, Terre Haute, Ind.