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Bombs are nothing to joke or sing about

I had the displeasure of seeing presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain make a joke of bombing Iran. He even tried to sing about it by referencing a Beach Boys song, then singing, "Bomb bomb bomb Iran."

To have a person who actually believes that he should be president of our country joke about bombing another country was very troubling to me. No one should ever joke about destroying human lives.

When bombs are dropped on a country, they hardly ever kill those who we are going after. Those bombs kill innocent women and children who have no choice as to what their leaders preach against the United States.

Hopefully, people who support McCain will look again and place their support with another candidate who would never sing about bombing another country. How very sad.

Smith steps up to challenge Bell

We salute Ralph Smith for his Republican challenge to Sen. J. Brandon Bell in the 22nd Senate District.

The Virginia Senate needs less conservative lip service and more conservative leadership, and the people of Buchanan deserve someone who's willing to go to bat for us.

Smith doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walk. That's the kind of integrity we want representing our community in Richmond.

We're concerned about illegal immigration, eminent domain and our Second Amendment rights, and we trust Smith to do what's necessary to protect our freedoms.

Please join us in voting for Smith on June 12.

Roanoke's evolution: Weak ideas survive

In his letter to the editor on Roanoke's fear of change (April 19, "Not much good comes from all these changes"), James Guilliams made some excellent points.

But he neglected to mention Roanoke's largest ongoing physical change. We're changing a pretty good river into a ditch.

I'm surprised we didn't commission a study on leveling Mill Mountain to build some levees.

The more I watch Roanoke evolve, the less I see of intelligent design.

Diverse beliefs are our greatest strength

In his April 15 commentary "America's Christian principles," Jim Ludington fails to mention an important person in our nation's founding: Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson and Madison wrote the Bill for Religious Freedom in 1777 for the state of Virginia.

Ludington's opinion is irrelevant when one considers what was actually written into the U.S. Constitution. It doesn't matter what our founders said elsewhere. If they felt that foisting the Christian religion on the people was the right thing to do, then they would have written that into the Constitution.

The Constitution says three things about religion:

First it states, "but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

Second and third, it states quite clearly, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Thank God our Founding Fathers had this wisdom about them. Thank God that a Christian, Jew, Muslim, Jain, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, secular humanist or Falun Gong practitioner can practice his or her beliefs here. It is one of the greatest strengths of our country. To say that we are a "Christian" nation erodes this strength that we can all be so proud of.

No evidence nation was founded on Christianity

In his April 15 commentary "America's Christian principles," Jim Ludington, a professor of history at a Christian college, finds some quotes from our Founding Fathers seemingly supporting the notion that America was founded on Christian principles.

Unsurprisingly, non-Christians find a great number of quotes refuting that, and historians without a religious agenda overwhelmingly find that the majority of our Founding Fathers, including the ones Ludington quoted in support of his notion, were not Christians in any sense (they were Deists) and that our government was conceived as a secular body.

Nobody wants to read a long list of dueling quotations, though, so let's settle the matter by issuing a simple challenge: Since we find no mention of Jesus, God or Christianity in our Constitution, let's find the answer in the Bible.

Name one principle unique to the Judaic/Christian religion, one that didn't exist long before in more advanced societies, upon which our country was founded. This should be simple enough if the "Christian nation" idea is true, yet I have never received an answer supported by biblical or historical evidence.

Tune out stations that carry Boortz

I am writing to express my concern over radio personality Neal Boortz's declaration that the Virginia Tech shootings are an example of the "wussification of America."

He questions why there was allegedly no attempt at disarming or otherwise disabling the killer during the course of his rampage.

His grossly insensitive comments are not just inaccurate, but serve only to diminish the honor of the fallen.

There have been several accounts of hero attempts in the news media, including the much-publicized story of the professor who lost his life preventing the killer from entering his classroom.

Boortz, and others like him, are free to promote insensitivity and attempt to link unfounded theories to deeper seated problems in our culture, but free speech does not imply that we must listen.

I urge anyone with a soul to reject his comments and to express their disapproval of his thoughtless remarks by tuning out any network, station, Web site, etc., that chooses to give a voice to Boortz.

Sanjaya cartoon was insensitive

Talk about media poor taste. I am embarrassed for The Roanoke Times that it would print such a cartoon by Mike Lester of The Rome News-Tribune regarding Virginia Tech and Sanjaya (April 23 Opinion page).

What were you thinking? Obviously not about the Tech victims, families or any caring human being.

Truly disgusting.

McCloskey's cartoon warms the soul

I opened the newspaper to the April 24 Opinion page and found an awesome tribute to Virginia Tech -- the Prayer of St. Francis (a peace prayer). How heart-warming and comforting to read this prayer again. It is one of my favorites.

Jim McCloskey of The Daily News Leader in Staunton seems to have a talent for locating the right things to say, and he certainly did again this time.

Much of the world has mourned what happened in Blacksburg. They are not alone, and goodness still reigns. May they heal through this prayer.

Thanks, Jim McCloskey.

This is not the time for a pep rally

On April 20, I witnessed a woman in a gigantic orange Virginia Tech T-shirt, adorned with its cartoon maroon turkey, accost a co-worker, saying to him disapprovingly, "You're not wearing the right colors."

Touching his green shirt, he apologized, "It's not that I don't care. I just don't have anything maroon." She absolved him, pinning a little orange and maroon ribbon to the offending shirt. She turned her judgmental glare onto my gray polo and moved on.

I did not proclaim to be a Hokie on that day, just as I did not don the Rebels' Blue and Silver in 1999.

I feel an immense sadness. The deaths of these 32 human beings is indeed tragic. To turn this tragedy into a college pep rally trivializes the lives of these dead people.

We are not all Hokies. This was no big game. The shared thoughtlessness amazes and scares me -- really. This weirdness is beyond scary.