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PAGE6A ForsythOpinion Sunday, December 30,2012 Take a new approach in new year Should old acquain¬ tance he forgot, And never brought to mind? Should old acquain¬ tance be forgot. And old long syne? We're an angry society. Road rage. Political attack ads. Fighting over Christmas gifts on Black Friday. Anonymous online posts full of name¬ calling. Add to our anger consistent frustration with Washington. At the time of this writing, Congress and the president have yet to come to a deal on taxes and spending cuts. The “fiscal cliff’ seems inevitable. It’s a shame. If ever we needed leaders, it’s now. At the risk of sounding cynical, politicians tickle our ears because that’s what we want from them. ~ What if wanted we to hear this; “I'll fight for issues important to you, constituents. I'll also be willing to compro¬ mise on issues with those across the aisle, looking for a com¬ mon solution we can all agree on. We complain about political gridlock, yet continue to expect our legislators to par¬ ticipate in partisan bickering that looks like they're fighting for something. They’re fighting to keep their jobs. They want to keep the war isn’t content with In the fortnight since Chuck Hagel’s name was floated for secretary of defense, we have witnessed Washington at its worst. Who is Chuck Hagel? Bom in North Platte, Neb., he was a squad leader in Vietnam, twice wounded, who came home to work in Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign, was twice elected U.S. senator, and is chairman of the Atlantic Council and co-chair of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. To The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol, however, Hagel is a man “out on the fringes,” who has a decade-long record of “hostility to Israel" and is “pro appeasement-of-Iran.” Lest we miss Kristol’s point, Standard blogger Daniel Halper helpfully adds that a “top Republican Senate aide" said, “Send us Hagel, and we will make sure every American knows he is an anti-Semite.” The Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens continued in this vein. “Prejudice ... has an olfactory element,” he writes, and with Hagel, “the odor is especially ripe." Stephens is saying that Chuck Hagel reeks of anti Semitism. Send a letter to the editor to P.O. Box 210 Camming, GA 30028; fexitto (770) 889-6017; or e-mail it to editor(g>forsythnews.com. us happy, and an angry politician satis¬ fies an angry popu¬ lace. As 2012 comes to a close and we spend time with loved ones ringing in a new year, it's time for reflec¬ tion. It’s time for a little peace and hope¬ fully a little quiet. In these moments, let’s slow down and ask ourselves, “Do we have so much to be angry about? Don’t we have some¬ thing to be thankful for? • i Here in Forsyth County, we can’t help but count our blessings. A giving, engaged community. Fantastic schools. And economically we’re better off than many of our neigh¬ bors. International firms left and right are choosing Forsyth County for their U.S. home. Property taxes are still low here. This is not to say avoid passion for change. Some anger can be good, but it seems like America has had its fill. To change the tone in Washington, we have to change the tone in ourselves. For the new year, let’s each resolve to find it in ourselves to spread more kindness than frustration. A deep breath and a lit¬ tle perspective can go a long way. For auld lang syne, my dear, For auld lang syne, We ’ll take a cup of kindness yet, For auld lang syne. PAT BUCHANAN Columnist Hagel’s enemies contend that his own words disqualify him. First, he told author Aaron David Miller that the “Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of peo¬ ple up there" on the Hill. Second, he urged us to talk to Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran. Third, Hagel said several years ago, “A military strike against Iran ... is not a viable, feasible, responsible option.” Hagel has conceded he mis¬ spoke in using the phrase “Jewish lobby.” But as for a pro Israel lobby, its existence is the subject of books and countless articles. When A1PAC sends up to the Hill one of its scripted pro-Israel resolutions, it is whis¬ tled through. Hagel’s problem: He did not treat these sacred texts with sufficient reverence. “1 am a United States senator, not an Israeli senator,” he told Miller. “1 support Israel. But my first interest is I take an oath ... to the Constitution of 2.QIJS, ft « 1 ‘ 13 l /)%v vw jt 'J A s* * * % \N \\ You'll just have to wait. I can't afford to retire! n Jim Powell for the Forsyth County News LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Outgoing sheriff thanks community he served As my tenure as sheriff of Forsyth County draws to a close, 1 want to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve you dur¬ ing the past 12 years. With your support and trust, we were able to accomplish a lot dur¬ ing that time, and everything we did was done with your protection in mind. For example, as promised dur¬ ing my first campaign, one of our first goals was for the sheriff’s office to become accredited. We accomplished that in 2003. As a result, the county saves over $50,000 per year in liability insur¬ ance premiums. One side benefit of accreditation is that during my 12 years as sheriff there was not one successful lawsuit filed against the sheriffs office. In fact, the sheriff’s office was just re¬ accredited last month and was awarded “accreditation with excellence.” It has been my pleasure to see our sheriff’s office grow into a professional law enforcement organization, one with vastly improved training and account¬ ability to our citizens. On numer¬ ous occasions, our sheriff’s office has been recognized nationwide for its professionalism. Our neighborhood watch pro¬ gram was greatly expanded and now has over 300 neighborhoods actively participating. We started a business watch program and have seen it grow to cover virtually every Forsyth County business. As a matter of fact, the National Sheriffs’ Association picked our the United States. Not to a president. Not to a party. Not to Israel. If I go run for Senate in Israel, I’ll do that.” Hagel puts U.S. national interests first. And sometimes those interests clash with the policies of the Israeli govern¬ ment. In 1957, President Eisenhower told Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to get his army out of Sinai. Would that disqualify Ike from being secre¬ tary of defense because, to quote Kristol, this would show Ike was not “serious about hav¬ ing Israel’s back”? If a senator or defense secre¬ tary believes an Israeli action — like bisecting the West Bank with new settlements — will kill any chance for a Palestinian state and guarantee another inti¬ fada, what should he do? Defend the U.S. position, or make sure there is “no daylight” between him and the Israeli prime minister? As for talking to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, what are we afraid of? Harry Truman talked to Josef Stalin and read Vyacheslav Molotov the riot act in the Oval Office. Ike invited Nikita Khrushchev to tour the United This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and others. Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the writers and artists, and they may not reflect our views. neighborhood watch program as a model for sheriffs across the country to follow. Our crime scene unit is second to none in the state of Georgia and has been recognized for its suc¬ cess in solving several high profile crimes in our area. In addition, our efforts to curtail impaired and dangerous drivers have won doz¬ ens of awards both from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety and nationally. 1 plan to remain in Forsyth County and 1 will remain active in the community. I’m not planning to ride off into the sunset. After all, in the General Election, 47.6 percent of you who voted voiced your support for me. I will be here to help you in any way 1 can. Please feel free to call me on me whenever 1 can be of assistance. And to the men and women of the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, thank you for your support and the excellent job you’ve done for the past dozen years. You are true professionals in every sense of the word. May God bless each and every one of you and keep you safe. Tad Paxton Sheriff Tired of conservative slant on opinion page After two and a half years of reading the Forsyth News 1 have grown so weary of the conserva¬ tive slant of the content on your Opinion page that I felt the need to comment myself. One need to look no further than Friday the 21st Forsyth Opinion page chock full of 1) car- States three years after he sent tanks into Budapest. Richard Nixon went to China and toasted Mao Zedong, 20 years after the Chinese were killing U.S. soldiers in Korea and brainwashing our POWs, and at the same time they were conducting their maniacal cul¬ tural revolution and shipping weapons to Hanoi. Israel negotiated with Hezbollah to retrieve the remains of airman Ron Arad and traded 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in a deal with Hamas for the return of Pvt. Gilad Shalit. And we can’t talk to them? If Hagel’s view that a war with Iran is not a “responsible option” is a disqualification for defense secretary, what are we to make of this statement from Robert Gates, defense secretary for Bush 11 and Obama: “Any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as Gen. (Douglas) MacArthur so delicately put it.” If Hagel were an anti-Semite, would he have the support of so many Jewish columnists and toon slam on Time magazine pick of President Obama as their man of the year; 2) Columnist Malkin’s pro-gun piece; or 3) Columnist Garvin’s anti-union piece to see an all too common example of your newspaper’s apparent avoid¬ ance to provide any balance when it comes to its choices to fill the Opinion page. But, hey, I do get it — I’ve cho¬ sen to live in a conservative Republican county within a con¬ servative Republican state and 1 recognize that progressive liberal opinions might be scarce. Still, there are many, many cartoonists and columnists for you to choose from in the national arena. Please consider presenting at least one minority opinion piece in every Opinion page and not just the token one every so often. It elevates the collective community conversation when thoughtful intelligent readers have multiple views to consider. Marybeth Magallanes Cumming Fairness an important part of our society In [Vince Coyner’s column, Dec. 23] we were told fairness isn’t in our U.S. Constitution. The implication was that to seek fair¬ ness is un-American. I am so naive that 1 thought the right to a trial by a jury was an effort to inject fairness into our system. 1 thought freedom from state-spon¬ sored religions was an effort to create fairness. See LETTERS 17A writers? If he were really “out on the fringes,” would national security advisers for presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I and Obama be in his camp? Neocon hostility to Hagel is rooted in a fear that in Obama’s inner councils his voice would be raised in favor of negotiating with Iran and against a preven¬ tive war or pre-emptive strike. But if Obama permits these assaults to persuade him not to nominate Hagel, he will only be postponing a defining battle of his presidency, not avoiding it. For Bibi Netanyahu is going to be re-elected this January. And the government he forms looks to be more bellicose than the last. And Bibi’s highest pri¬ ority, shared by his neocon allies, is a U.S. war on Iran in 2013. If Obama does not want that war, he is going to have to defeat the war party. Throwing an old warrior like Chuck Hagel over the side to appease these wolves is not the way to begin this fight. Nominate him, Mr. President. Let’s get it on. Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of “Suicide of a Superpower. Will America Survive to 2025?“