One thing
I've seen many letters in The Reader's Forum on the subject of same-sex marriage. And after sifting through it all and trying to digest the good, the bad and the ugly of it, it all comes down to pretty much one thing: Change. It's time for change.
The religious right wants to "change" every homosexual into something "normal." Guess what? Homosexuals are normal. They also want to "change" the views and choice of lifestyles of homosexuals, and again — it's not a choice. Would homosexuals choose not to get tax breaks, not to be able to get married? It is a choice to be bullied and harassed, to be thought of as abnormal?
Homosexuals are truck drivers, school teachers, bankers, painters and doctors, just like everyone else. Homosexuals are urged to "see the light" through a church or a pastor, but it's really difficult to embrace something that doesn't embrace you.
Until we all see each other — all of us, as we really are — as black, white, fat, skinny, old, young, straight or gay, whatever, the problem will continue to be just that: a problem.
Change. Change is what we need. Change in hearts, change in minds, change in attitudes. A change in ourselves. Change is good. Change is needed. Change is coming. I hope.
TONY HARTGROVE
Winston-Salem
A global economy
The Sept. 28 letter "Hostility" repeats the "nobody likes Obama because he's black" complaint. Disgust exists because he is the most ineffective president in history. Also, when you sound like a snake oil salesman, expect informality in return.
We failed to prepare for a global economy though we saw it coming in the 1970s. Remember the first Hondas that few expected to succeed? Japan figured out that making quality, low-priced cars would enable it to compete with and eventually outsell the Big Three automakers. As salaries and benefits grew in Detroit to more than $60 per hour, our garages filled with Toyotas and Hondas.
Two-income families in the '70s worked at the local mills and raised children bound for college and a better life than their parents. When Japan and China realized there was gold in socks, clothing and furniture, they opened factories and buried small-town America.
Investors were the first to realize what was happening, and they sold American stocks and bought foreign stocks. If Japan faltered, sell it and buy India, if India faltered, buy the next country du jour.
The present administration/government has no clue to a much-needed long-term solution, and I do not see any solutions from this president and few from his would-be successors.
TOM D. JONES
Winston-Salem
Good moral guide?
It appears that the Journal's favorite conservative letter writer has found another topic for judgment, pointing out that we must condemn homosexuality because the Bible says so, and "the Bible is the best guide for moral behavior" ("Name-calling," Sept. 29). But followers of the Bible have used this moral guide to defend such behavior as going to war, committing genocide, and practicing slavery and segregation. If it were such a good moral guide, how could that happen?
One might say that people misuse the Bible. But if the Bible can be so easily misused, how can it be a superior moral guide? And how do we know that it's not being misused now to condemn homosexuality? The Bible endorses slavery, a practice that harmed many, to say the least, every bit as much as it condemns homosexuality, a practice that harms no one.
Giving one's will and judgment over to a 2,000-year-old tome written by people who were limited in experience and understanding seems to me like a convenient way of surrendering one's own responsibility for using one's mind.
BOBBIE R. LACKEY
Winston-Salem
Borrowing on the future
I'm writing in reference to Gene Conti's guest column "Urban loop plan: How it will drive N.C. forward" (Sept. 22). Several words and phrases caught my eye, such as, "bonds to borrow money now against future federal funding." Isn't this the very thing that has this country so upside-down now? Many of us would prefer a "JAIO" (Job Anticipation and Income Opportunity) rather than the GARVEE (Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle) bonds to further burden us citizens into greater and greater national debt. I do hope we citizens have a chance to vote on these bonds.
Also, the part about the $45 billion investment promise sounds as if Conti has a crystal ball. Could he please look into it and tell us when the real-estate industry will become healthy again, or the unemployed in North Carolina will have jobs again? Give us a time-stamp with that, please.
Lastly, Conti says, "Strong links make a strong chain." I believe borrowing on the future is a weak link, and a very problematic one at that, and I'm just not buying that the urban loop is the answer.
DEBBIE EMBLER
Winston-Salem
I've seen many letters in The Reader's Forum on the subject of same-sex marriage. And after sifting through it all and trying to digest the good, the bad and the ugly of it, it all comes down to pretty much one thing: Change. It's time for change.
The religious right wants to "change" every homosexual into something "normal." Guess what? Homosexuals are normal. They also want to "change" the views and choice of lifestyles of homosexuals, and again — it's not a choice. Would homosexuals choose not to get tax breaks, not to be able to get married? It is a choice to be bullied and harassed, to be thought of as abnormal?
Homosexuals are truck drivers, school teachers, bankers, painters and doctors, just like everyone else. Homosexuals are urged to "see the light" through a church or a pastor, but it's really difficult to embrace something that doesn't embrace you.
Until we all see each other — all of us, as we really are — as black, white, fat, skinny, old, young, straight or gay, whatever, the problem will continue to be just that: a problem.
Change. Change is what we need. Change in hearts, change in minds, change in attitudes. A change in ourselves. Change is good. Change is needed. Change is coming. I hope.
TONY HARTGROVE
Winston-Salem
A global economy
The Sept. 28 letter "Hostility" repeats the "nobody likes Obama because he's black" complaint. Disgust exists because he is the most ineffective president in history. Also, when you sound like a snake oil salesman, expect informality in return.
We failed to prepare for a global economy though we saw it coming in the 1970s. Remember the first Hondas that few expected to succeed? Japan figured out that making quality, low-priced cars would enable it to compete with and eventually outsell the Big Three automakers. As salaries and benefits grew in Detroit to more than $60 per hour, our garages filled with Toyotas and Hondas.
Two-income families in the '70s worked at the local mills and raised children bound for college and a better life than their parents. When Japan and China realized there was gold in socks, clothing and furniture, they opened factories and buried small-town America.
Investors were the first to realize what was happening, and they sold American stocks and bought foreign stocks. If Japan faltered, sell it and buy India, if India faltered, buy the next country du jour.
The present administration/government has no clue to a much-needed long-term solution, and I do not see any solutions from this president and few from his would-be successors.
TOM D. JONES
Winston-Salem
Good moral guide?
It appears that the Journal's favorite conservative letter writer has found another topic for judgment, pointing out that we must condemn homosexuality because the Bible says so, and "the Bible is the best guide for moral behavior" ("Name-calling," Sept. 29). But followers of the Bible have used this moral guide to defend such behavior as going to war, committing genocide, and practicing slavery and segregation. If it were such a good moral guide, how could that happen?
One might say that people misuse the Bible. But if the Bible can be so easily misused, how can it be a superior moral guide? And how do we know that it's not being misused now to condemn homosexuality? The Bible endorses slavery, a practice that harmed many, to say the least, every bit as much as it condemns homosexuality, a practice that harms no one.
Giving one's will and judgment over to a 2,000-year-old tome written by people who were limited in experience and understanding seems to me like a convenient way of surrendering one's own responsibility for using one's mind.
BOBBIE R. LACKEY
Winston-Salem
Borrowing on the future
I'm writing in reference to Gene Conti's guest column "Urban loop plan: How it will drive N.C. forward" (Sept. 22). Several words and phrases caught my eye, such as, "bonds to borrow money now against future federal funding." Isn't this the very thing that has this country so upside-down now? Many of us would prefer a "JAIO" (Job Anticipation and Income Opportunity) rather than the GARVEE (Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle) bonds to further burden us citizens into greater and greater national debt. I do hope we citizens have a chance to vote on these bonds.
Also, the part about the $45 billion investment promise sounds as if Conti has a crystal ball. Could he please look into it and tell us when the real-estate industry will become healthy again, or the unemployed in North Carolina will have jobs again? Give us a time-stamp with that, please.
Lastly, Conti says, "Strong links make a strong chain." I believe borrowing on the future is a weak link, and a very problematic one at that, and I'm just not buying that the urban loop is the answer.
DEBBIE EMBLER
Winston-Salem
LTE #4....Maybe, just maybe the future would like some nice roads, safe bridges, more efficient and clean energy, and they won't have it unless we start working on it now, and by doing so we can give the future what it deserves and give the present what it needs: JOBS! We could easily start paying for it now too, except for a few of the job creators threaten to stop creating jobs if we do.
ReplyDeleteThe future is what's gonna use this stuff after all, and it's a shame we have to borrow from the future to build for future, but we messed up by entering two wars that weren't paid for, and well, the economy tanked, but if the future wants good infrastructure, we really need to get started on it now. I'm not an economist but it seems rather clear to me that infrastructure would be one of the keys to commerce.
ReplyDeleteIf the future could come back to today, what might it say: "Great Grand Parents, please stop fighting amongst yourselves, first and foremost; and then stop being so damn greedy. Instead of buying things for yourselves, build things for the future."
ReplyDeleteLte2....The Obama administration has become a house of mirrors.
ReplyDeleteWall Street is the wicked enemy.
Geithner is Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs is everywhere in the Obama admin.
Rise up against the evil bankers
Pay off the evil bankers!
The evil bankers must direct our economic policy or we are doomed.
I hope the new President brings in economic advisers from the mid-west.
there is a lot of money running the hard right and a lot of money running the hard left and that is exactly why we need to get money out of politics.
ReplyDeleteLte1...you are correct about homosexuals appear in every profession. Did you have to mention truck driver? Years ago I did field work in heavy industry. All up and down the highways of America, the trucking company JB Hunt was accused of hiring just that very driver. I never knew if it was true because...how could anyone tell?
ReplyDeleteBob...yes, that's why I wondered if these Occupy Wall Street types would find their way to K Street in Washington,DC. That is where the lobbying firms hang out. Gucci Gultch it was once called.
ReplyDeleteK Street, C Street, hmm, there have been a lot of youth protest movements in the past, after about 10 years of the Vietnam War,as I recall :) big difference today, youth may not own the means of communications, but they've learned to command it.
ReplyDeletePolitical power and means of communications,take Rupert Murdoch, for instance, have you ever seen so many former presidential candidates working for one man and quite beholding to him?
ReplyDeleteYep, young people have more communications but their biggest set back is they have NO decent music!
ReplyDeleteMurdoch does seem to hire talent. He has to, the other news outlets are dying.
ReplyDeletestardate 2211: Telepathic History bestseller:
ReplyDeleteThe 1990's and How the Internet fundamentally changed civilization.
Yes, news outlets are dying. Did you hear about the one in England that closed after 168 years?
ReplyDeletethe computer and the internet are for the most part putting paper products out of business anyway
ReplyDeleteThe internet truly has and will. That outlet in England had to close because it became too expensive to pay salary and benefits for people that old. That was before they got in trouble.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope that doesn't include toilet paper products. I can't afford that many laptops and ipads.
ReplyDeleteno worries, there will be digital bidets with 10terras of wireless connection
ReplyDeletecareful what you ask for, Bucky, lol
ReplyDeleteHeeeeeeeeeeeee Heeeeeeee Heeeeeeeeeee I've always like ya Bobby. Oh man...that's a trip!
ReplyDeleteSchatzman is a fine example of why our country is going down the tubes. What a worthless piece of......... It's too bad most of citizenry of Forsyth County don't know what he's all about.
ReplyDeleteHe's a big gay supporter. He worked for J Edgar and his chief deputy is gay. So he should be just your kind of man, Bobby.
For the record, his obviously stance on gay issues have NOTHING to do with my feelings about the man.
His poor treatment of his employees, as well as his knowledge of the job as sheriff are my chief gripes.
He'll be leaving soon. His age is catching up to him quickly. He's already crashed a county car into some poor souls.
ReplyDeleteI HOPE he doesn't carry a gun anymore.
Sheriff Schatzman has just been named "Southern Sheriff of the Year" by the Robertson School of Government at Regent University.
ReplyDeleteM.A. Whippersnapper, Dean
The Robertson School of Government
Regent University
Virginia Beach, Virginia
AH, yes, Regent University. I've heard of them. The Robertson School of Government:
ReplyDelete"Jesus didn't come to take sides, he came to rule."
A fine institution and an award I richly deserve. Thank you 60%
ReplyDelete:), I assure you I in no way chose this profile pic as a show of support, I just figured as long as I have to look at that gawd awful picture of Mr. Frank
ReplyDeleteRegent University? Never heard of it. What do they do? Educate and promote nitwits? If so, I can understand why they picked Schatzman as Sheriff of the Year?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous..could you give me the source of your information regarding the award?
Hey Bobby...why did you take down the picture of Schatzman A/K/A The worthless sheriff? He's too busy pounding down alcoholic drinks to worry about you and what you're doing.
ReplyDeleteOf course, it wouldn't take a whole lot of investigating to find you. Hee Hee...especially after what you've put on the 'net. Like your first and last name and your picture.
Bobby...Bobby...Bobby...What am I going to do with you?
Liberal since 1967. Man, that sounds like the wording of a beer company. Bobby, what happened pray tell in 1967 that made you into one of those god awful liberals? Noooooooo! Never mind. I don't think I want to know.
ReplyDeleteLTE1: I'm sure I vote differently from the writer, but I agree with his LTE.
ReplyDeleteLTE2: This LTE writer is correct about our current state of affairs, but most of the LTE is a blame game, and I infer that we are all to blame, a correct assessment. However, the LTE is long on blame and assessment, and short on suggestions re what is to be done to put us on the right road.
Hit the Post key before I should have . . .
ReplyDeleteLTE3: Skip most of the instruction in the Bible until "Do unto others." That will solve most issues. If not, try Ann Landers' advice: "MYOB, dearie."
LTE4: I don't buy that the urban loop is THE answer, either. It is, however, one of a number of partial answers that add up to a whole answer.
ReplyDelete