Letters 09/19/12

What’s the rush?

    If the current superintendent of schools is as qualified and well suited for the job as is needed, then ask yourself this question--”What’s the rush to renew his contract before the election?” 
    Why do certain members of the school board seem intent on doing the contract vote when two districts are currently represented by appointed members and not by persons voted on by the taxpayers of their districts? 
    This is an important and expensive contract that directly affects the education of our children, and the largest line item of the County’s budget.  If you are a parent and or a concerned taxpayer, please consider this question.  Then ask your neighbors what they think.
    And call or email your school board representative and ask them that question. Call your supervisor also, see what they think the rush is.  
    September 27th is the next school board meeting.  If you can’t be there, make sure your representative know what you think of this rush to spend a great deal of money.

Kristy Milton
Bedford

Where’s grace?

    I must admit I was taken aback by the content and tone of Joyce Pedigo’s letter in last week’s edition.
     I felt compelled to write regarding my personal experience with HQs and our Chairman, Nate Boyer. 
    I managed Bedford County HQs last year and there have been several before me besides Ms. Pedigo.  First,  Nate is the Bedford County Republican Committee Chair and not the Fifth District Chair.   I can never remember a time when Nate was unavailable to me or unsupportive. 
    He is a very hard working chairman who was at virtually every event even when many of the membership where no where to be found.  I have personal and first-hand knowledge from working at and visiting other headquarters this year in Roanoke, Franklin and Bedford counties that we are all awaiting supplies. 
    I worked the call center this past Wednesday at the Lynchburg Victory Center and I learned they don’t expect Romney/Ryan supplies till possibly this coming Saturday and upon receipt they will then disburse to the districts.
    If the HQs manager had any concern about the information being received all that was needed was to place a call to the Field Staffer at the Victory Center who is extremely nice to deal with and all doubts would have been erased.
    I believe it is wrong to blame someone for something which is out of their control. I found Nate to be very intuitive, supportive, and involved.
    This election is so important for many reasons.  There is so much work to be done alongside each other.  What good does ridicule bring?  Life can be tough at times.    Where’s grace?

Jo Holden
Huddleston

War on Women

    It is an indisputable fact that Women’s rights and health are coming under attack by the Republican Party.  The evidence for this includes the following:
    House Republicans have introduced more than 30 bills that would restrict a woman’s reproductive health care. 
    Legislators in 39 states have introduced almost 500 measures that tell women what type of health care they can or cannot have. 
    The GOP has worked hard to outlaw abortion in all cases, no exceptions (such as gang rape, incest, grievous fetal impairment, or even the health of the mother),.
    They have sponsored “person-hood” legislation, which would criminalize (in some instances punishable by life imprisonment) all abortions, in-vitriol-fertilization, and many common forms of birth control. 
    The GOP has blocked measures to better address wage discrimination, and opposed increasing the minimum wage (2/3s of all workers earning minimum wages are women). 
    They have worked relentlessly to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood and Title X, which provides millions of women with birth control, lifesaving screening for breast and cervical cancer, and other preventive care.
    Republicans voted against and tried to seriously weaken the Violence Against Women Act, which helps protect women from domestic violence and tried to narrow the legal definition of rape to “forcible rape”, or “legitimate rape” vs. other kinds of rape.
    Mitt Romney chose as his running mate Paul Ryan, who has co-sponsored nearly 40 extremely anti-women measures with Rep. Todd Akins and others. 
    The GOP blocked an international treaty – the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women – even though the only other nations refusing to ratify it were Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Palau and Tonga.
    Republicans often decry an all-too-powerful government, yet they want a bunch of male politicians to decide how family planning, contraception, equal pay, protecting women from violence, and intimate health care decisions should be made for our daughters, sisters, mothers, and wives.  The Republican “war-on-women” is not a paranoid fantasy, the facts-are-the-facts.  Given the current direction of the Republican Party – why would any women want to vote for a Republican at either the state or federal level?

Greg Yowell
Huddleston

Flip flop
 
    So now Romney wants to keep parts of much-maligned Obamacare.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. 
    The only way the Affordable Care Act works is as a whole.  Scarey!  What would Romney really do?  He is sounding like a desperate man who will say anything to win the election.
    I will cast my votes for a team whose plans have not changed and I know what I will get.  That team is  Obama/Biden, supported by Kaine for Senate and Douglass for Congress.
 
Phyllis W. Conrad
Moneta

Changing the channel

    When former President Clinton appears on TV news, I change the channel.
    There are issues that occurred during his presidency. One was returning Eilan Gonzales back to Cuba. I believe he is the only person in U.S. history to be refused entry into our country. Eilan’s parents divorced.
    The Cuban judge hearing the case awarded Eilan to his mother. It was her decision to bring her son to America! Who in the world would object to her decision? Eilan was living with relatives in Florida when U.S. armed authority busted into the relatives home and seized Gonzales.
    Later, TV news showed Eilan being escorted to a Cuban plane, he stumbled walking and his escort prevented Eilan from falling. Then, going up the stairs, he missed a step. It appeared as if he was drugged! Compare Eilan’s case with the hundreds of cases involving East Berlin citizens that jumped out of East Berlin windows into the street below, being the American sector of West Berlin, or escaping by tunnel digging.
    All were asked what country they wanted. All got their wish. There is not one case where U.S authority in the American sector busted into a home to seize an escapee and return to East Berlin. None!

Walter F. Heydt
Bedford

Three types of votes

    There will be three types of votes cast in November.  A vote for Republicans, a vote for Democrats and a wasted vote. 
    A vote for Republicans is a vote for Christianity (Blackstone concept of Civil Law) and Capitalism (just reward for good work). 
    A vote for Democrats is a vote for Atheism (homosexuality) and Socialism (Obamacare). 
    A wasted vote is the person that does not vote or votes for a candidate that does not have a chance of winning.  There are many arrogant people that will cast a wasted vote, and the worst part is that they may decide the election in favor of the person they dislike the most.
    Two conclusions about Religion and Politics: 1) Christians will suffer in a nation run by Atheists/Unbelievers. 
    Proverbs 29:2 says, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” and 2) Prayer alone will not prevent a nation from becoming Atheistic.  James 2:17 states, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”
    Most churches are only interested in what is happening in the local area but I would suggest all churches develop a world view, based on the following verses from the Bible.
    Genesis 12:2-3 says, “And I will make of thee (Abram) a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shall be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”.  ...
    Matthew 28:18-20, “Then Jesus came and spake to them, saying, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen”

Clifford D. Russell
Forest

The issue behind the issues

    … The Republican Convention mentioned God numerous times. The Democrat platform initially wrote Him out. He was only added back over a chorus of boos and catcalls. Why is that so important?
    Regarding our origins, does it make more sense to say that no one made the universe out of nothing or to say that someone made the universe out of nothing? Science, by itself, can’t explain the origin of the universe, since nature, upon which the laws of science are based, did not exist before the beginning of the universe.
    That is, space-time and matter all came into being at the Big Bang and did not exist before that. Therefore, whatever caused the Big Bang has to be outside of space-time and matter. … This entity also must have had the capacity to make decisions and act, because the ingredients of the universe could not have just sat together for eternity past and then suddenly reacted to form the universe on their own.
    This decision implies there is a purpose for the universe and each one of us. We are not accidents, and our actions do have eternal moral significance.
    The non-God, secular view asserts, against all scientific principles, that the universe did just come into being out of nothing and by nothing. We are all just accidents. ...
    It is only in this context that the abortion issue makes sense, as it would be completely inconsistent to abort human life if it is eternally significant - to God; Ditto for gay “marriage”, cloning & reproductive & other ethical issues. The liberal positions on those issues are only consistent if life itself doesn’t make sense.
     However, liberals are in a pickle … Either life has no meaning or underlying moral order...or they can embrace life as meaningful.  But the meaning goes hand in hand with the underlying moral order of the universe, which speaks to the value of every human life, the sacredness of family and implies the existence of an Author of the moral order. The “trivial word” that was edited out of the Democrat platform is actually the most significant issue of all!

Alan Denekas
Roanoke