Thursday, January 08, 2009
Freedom to pray and express ourselves freely unites us all
Letters to the Editor
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From the RoundTable blog
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Freedom to pray and express ourselves freely unites us all
Re: "Council prayer stokes emailer's ire," Dec. 31 news story:
Roots of we as a people may run deeper than many would care to admit, yet the fruit of our heritage does not blow to the ground by a political wind; it is pulled from the very vine from which it bloomed.
Though government and a minority of extremists try to extinguish the fire of our faith, the majority of us, regardless of race or creed, believe there is a God. We are individuals, and within our human weakness as individuals resides a united power that can be granted only by the source, its Creator.
The foundation of this country was not built by barbarians, but by a God-fearing people who based it primarily on a core of principles intended to free us from religious oppression, not put us back into the bondage of it.
When religious freedom is no longer a common benefactor, its absence will hasten our demise, not only by destroying a source of our unity, but by robbing every soul of his or her opportunity to express it.
Roanoke Vice Mayor Sherman Lea's invocation isn't as threatening as his inability to deliver it.
Justice system is as bad as its officials
Re: "The criminal justice system needs help," Jan. 5 editorial:
The second paragraph states, "It [America] has created a justice system that is erratic, arbitrary and, well, unjust." This is true of the justice system because there are too many people in the justice system who are arrogant, overbearing, capricious, inept and dishonest. And it will get worse before it gets better.
Lea is a man of faith;
prayer is commendable
Re: "Council prayer stokes emailer's ire," Dec. 31 news story:
I commend Roanoke Vice Mayor Sherman Lea for remaining steadfast in his belief in Jesus Christ in public prayer. Moreover, I commend Mayor David Bowers for supporting his vice mayor.
As Mayor Bowers stated, Lea is a man of faith. Undoubtedly, his faith has guided him to be a vice mayor whose performance is beyond reproach and has the courage to stand for his convictions.
Silencing prayers is nothing to celebrate
A phrase in the Jan. 3 editorial "Short takes" caught my attention: "For this we are truly grateful." How can anyone construe the loss of a clergyman's prayers on behalf of the city and its residents an event for which we would be grateful?
In the name of what kind of peace would we shut down the voice of a minister praying in the name of the god of the majority of people in our city?
On the same page, Karleen Page Cole, also writing on the subject of Sherman Lea's prayer in the name of Jesus to open the city council meeting, writes: "There is a vast difference between calling on [a] deity for help and forcing someone else to believe in that deity," ("Public prayer hurts no one and it shouldn't be stifled," letter).
For her words of wisdom and common sense, I am truly grateful.
No president has a perfect legacy
The Jan. 4 Roanoke Times stated that George W. Bush's legacy looks grim ("Even among his defenders, president's legacy is debatable," news story). Let's go back and take a look at the legacies of some former presidents.
Franklin Roosevelt: Getting us out of a depression and winning World War II.
Harry Truman: Dropping the atomic bomb, firing Gen. Douglas MacArthur and forming NATO. Stopping communist aggression in Korea.
John F. Kennedy: Bay of Pigs, NASA, Cuban missile crisis.
Lyndon Johnson: Vietnam War, Civil Rights Act.
Richard Nixon: Watergate, ending Vietnam War.
Gerald Ford: Pardoning Nixon.
Jimmy Carter: Nothing. In order to fail or succeed, first one has to do something.
Ronald Reagan: Restoring pride in America and bringing down the Berlin Wall.
George H.W. Bush: Gulf War.
Bill Clinton: Monica Lewinsky, first, regardless of anything else. Impeachment, lying on TV to the country and Whitewater.
George W. Bush: Keeping our country safe after 9/11, cleaning out the rats' nests in Iraq and Afghanistan. He will be blamed for the economy, even though it started with Bill Clinton and the Democrats.
None of our past presidents was perfect.
Heal the economy with clean energy
The challenge is the economy; the opportunity is clean energy. Environment Virginia recommends that Capitol Hill and the Obama administration enact a green economic recovery plan that invests in clean energy and green infrastructure to help rebuild the American economy and protect our environment.
Investments in renewable energy like wind and solar will create and sustain about 2 million new jobs. Investments in green infrastructure not only will bolster our economy, but also protect the environment and lay the groundwork for a clean energy future.
Energy efficiency alone can cover 90 percent of the increase in Virginia's electricity needs over the next 18 years of growth. By 2025, about 10,000 jobs can be created in energy efficiency jobs and 56,000 in renewable energy, and that also creates billions of dollars in savings. We all agree that we need to boost our economy, and clean energy is the way.
Environment Virginia
Congress isn't looking out for us
Re: "Political notebook: Planned pay raise called into question," Dec. 31 news story:
I read that members of Congress were going to give themselves a $4,700 raise this year. How can these people live with themselves when the American people are losing their jobs and their children are going without food?
What kind of people do we have working for us? They're sure not running our country and thinking about the American people.
I think they're not so nice. I call them heartless, with no feeling for us citizens of the United States. Let us wake up and stand for our rights. As citizens, it's time to speak up for our rights and freedom. Remember, Congress works for us, the people of the United States.
I'm 74 years old and live on a small income. I don't like what I read, how members of Congress are spending our money on themselves and not the people and their needs.
Welcome home, U.S. manufacturing
The true value of an idea or system of ideas is seen by observing how well it does when the chips are down. A lot of egghead types decided years ago they wanted globalization. What was their motivating force to reach that decision? Were they trying to make a better world or were they lining their own pockets?
We may never know the answer. When the cost of world crude oil shot up, globalization was suddenly under a cost-of-ocean-transport handicap. Now it isn't. So if they wanted a stable world, they found out their idea is flawed.
Then there are the totally unexpected curveballs coming from foreigners adding lethal garbage into their products destined to be sold here. The pendulum is returning back to making our stuff, here; our jobs, here; eating our cake, here; and being responsible to each other, here; which as I recall was also a minefield at times, but at least we could go to court, here.
