Traverse City Record-Eagle

Opinion

November 19, 2012

Letters to the Editor: 11/19/2012

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Political theater

Our ambassador and three other Americans were killed in Benghazi.

The description of the perpetrators varied over the following days and this variance provided much fodder for the political commentators. The president expressed his regrets and vowed to find the killers. Many congressional committees proclaimed oversight; public hearings politicizing the tragedy followed.

Meanwhile, a drug company in New England, nestled beside a junkyard, was in the business of mixing drugs developed by other companies. One of their mixtures for spinal pain contained a mold which produced meningitis and has now caused 31 deaths, almost eight times as many deaths as the Benghazi incident.

Some say over-regulation keeps small businesses from expanding and reduces their profitability. The current Congress seems in no hurry to fund regulatory agencies so they can do their jobs.

Two regulatory committees will shortly hold hearings on the meningitis issue, but this is after 31 people have already been killed.

Will there be television cameras and the political posturing as there was after the Benghazi deaths? Probably not. Maybe that's because little political gain can result "¦ maybe these lives don't count for as much in the purely political theater which Congress has become.

Henry E. Klugh

Traverse City

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