Stepping up
Thanks to Heather Leach, Dawn Nelson and the other caring adults who are stepping up to feed our area's hungry children ("A 'backpack' hunger fight," Sept. 24). And thanks to Dawn Nelson for voicing the feelings of many other hard-working parents who hurt for these children.
When low-income families are wasting
disproportionate amounts of their modest means on N.C.
lottery tickets ("The lottery remains a loser," Sept. 24) instead of meeting the
basic needs of their children, it absolutely should make us angry.
DAVE LASTER
Winston-Salem
A dangerous untruth
The letter asserting that homosexuality causes HIV/AIDS ("We have forgotten," Sept. 27) spreads a dangerous untruth. HIV is a virus; saying it is caused by homosexuality is like saying childhood causes chickenpox.
HIV/AIDS
is a serious medical crisis around the world. Anyone, regardless of sexual
orientation, can get HIV
if they have unprotected sex with someone who is infected. HIV
can also be transmitted through needle-sharing, and from mother to child during
pregnancy, labor and delivery or breastfeeding. Labeling HIV/AIDS
a "gay disease" has hampered prevention, treatment and efforts to find a cure.
It's well past time we stopped letting our fear and ignorance get in the way of
our compassionate caring for other human beings.
HIV/AIDS
has nothing to do with marriage. By introducing this irrelevant issue into the
discussion, the
letter writer shines a light on what the anti-gay amendment is really about.
It's not about marriage. Same-sex marriage is illegal by statute, and it will
still be illegal even if the amendment is defeated. This amendment is a
referendum on whether lesbian and gay people should be treated as equal to other
citizens under the law.
When we go to the polls in May, I hope we can look past the fear-mongering and sensationalism and remember that constitutions are meant to protect rights, not limit them.
JANET OWEN
Winston-Salem
Advocating lifestyles
I'm sure the writer of the letter "We have forgotten" (Sept. 27) misspoke when she wrote "homosexuality is one of the causes of HIV/AIDS." She meant of course that Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is the causative agent of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and that certain homosexual acts carry a high risk of transmission of HIV.
In many parts of the world — perhaps in the country where the writer's missionary served — the major route of transmission of HIV is heterosexual sex, so certain heterosexual acts carry a higher risk of transmission. Intravenous drug users, legal and illegal, are also at increased risk for exposure to HIV. Health-care professionals and first responders have chosen professions that potentially expose them to infected blood. There is a high risk of transmission from mother to baby during childbirth.
Of course, medical professionals, our police and firefighters take precautions to minimize exposure, such as the use of latex gloves.
Needle users practice sterility. Education about and distribution of condoms among all the sexually active would go a long way to cutting HIV transmission rates.
But it would seem by the writer's logic that health-care workers, active heterosexuals, insulin-users and others have chosen a lifestyle that increases their risk of exposure to HIV, and our government should not advocate these lifestyles. And all of these lifestyles affect the cost of health care because they carry a higher risk of acquiring AIDS and, again, should not be supported.
Or did I miss something?
BRIAN W. TAGUE
Winston-Salem
No 'Dreamers'
Silly me. I think I need to apply for a green card. This can't be the America I grew up in. I'm not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, but I always thought that "illegal" was a pretty simple word. Now they are called "Dreamers."
Well, I have a dream, also. I dream that my country will be returned to the days when "following the law" meant something. I have a dream that my country will welcome only those immigrants who come here the right way, apply for legal entry and get permission before entering.
While the young people cited in your Sept. 26 article "Church hears speakers for DREAM Act" may be an asset to any community, the fact is they are still illegal. The details are really a secondary issue and should have no bearing on what "entitlements" these folks are due. They are not entitled to special benefits that are denied those who have waited patiently to do things the right way — in other words, to wait until invited.
Look at it like this: Someone breaks into your home. You can't demand that they leave, so they stay and work hard. You have to pay them because they work hard. You have to make them feel welcome because they work hard. Then they demand that you also owe their children.
Never mind that I didn't invite them, didn't want them, didn't have the money to support them … they worked hard. You get the picture.
JOYCE KRAWIEC
Kernersville
Sum It Up
Do you think the 2012 governor's race will be between Bev Perdue and Pat McCrory?
Correspondent of the Week
He and Folwell
I voted for Rep. Dale Folwell and probably will again. But I have a question for him and his legislature colleagues: How much time and money is going into the effort to ban gay marriage or civil unions?
And why? None of my friends think it's worth the trouble. I've been married over 53 years, so I don't think it's going to affect me. Some friends think I'm just to the right of Atilla the Hun. They are right about some things, but this ain't one of 'em. Who somebody wants to marry is none of my business.
Now "Don't
Ask, Don't Tell" is no more. When I was in the Army
in the '50s, if a guy was found to be gay, he was shipped back to the states
before the sun set. I approved then.
But now my feelings are, if a guy can shoot and cover my back, I don't give a flip what his preferences are. Again, it's none of my business as long as he can soldier.
Those who want to ban gay marriage because it's a
detriment to family values need to reflect a bit. They should have thought about
that when they insisted on having more lenient divorce laws. In the early 1800s,
it took an act of the legislature to get a divorce. Now I look for a divorce
kiosk at Hanes
Mall.
CHARLIE WEAVER
Winston-Salem
LTE1: Yes, parents blow grocery money on lotteries, booze, drugs, cigarettes, electronics, and so on. Get mad about that, fine, but feed the kids, first. Then figure out how to take a blowtorch to the slack parents. Feeding the kids is several orders of magnitudes higher than worrying about lottery tix purchases.
ReplyDeleteLTE2 and 3: By the logic of the cited LTE, heterosexuality causes all kinds of STD's, including AIDS. Propose an amendment abolishing heterosexual marriage on those grounds and see how far it gets.
When I was a registered Republican, I complained about Dem social engineering (still do). Then, I saw that R's are also social engineering. That is one of the reasons I reregistered as Unaffiliated.
LTE4: "Illegal" children are here. They are part of our society, not that of Central America. We need motivated people to power our economy. Many of these DREAM children are indeed motivated. They are a resource. We are foolish to vindictively refuse that resource.
SIU: I have no idea.
Correspondent: I agree.
Ms. Krawiec: Your analogy of illegal entry is too simplistic. When someone breaks into my home, I don't HAVE to give them ANYTHING. I don't know what YOU would do, but I call local law enforcement.
ReplyDeleteYes. It IS illegal entry. We know that. They know that. The issue that I have with YOUR use of “illegal” is that it's USED as a cloak for your own fear and bigotry, much in the same way ENTITLEMENTS is used to discuss the same issue. We blame a segment of the population for OUR problems, and go as far as demoralize and desparage their existence to assuage OUR misery; we have done this throughout history. I say that needs to stop.
Illegals are to blame for many of our problems.
ReplyDeleteWe use and have laws in this country for the betterment of all mankind. Just because you don't think Hispanics should have to follow our immigration laws, doesn't mean that we should just throw them out the door.
So quit calling wolf with your silly 'bigot' and 'racist' name calling, La Sombra.
If you continue, I'll be forced to rejoin this forum to add a balance to your ridiculous, nonsensical jibberish.
Bucky: Your comment is just EXACTLY what I'm talking about.
ReplyDeleteNot all HISPANICS are illegal, and not all ILLEGALS are Hispanic.
Bucky, bring it on. I would LOVE to FINALLY have an intelligent and RATIONAL discussion with you.
And I know you CAN, Bucky. Your last comment on FCSOWATCH was spot on!
test
ReplyDeleteWhat is FCSOWATCH?
ReplyDeleteWhitewall:
ReplyDeleteFCSOWATCH is a forum that just recently earned PAC (Political Action Committe) status around the time that Sheriff Schatzman WON re-election, and also AFTER the forum was HACKED. The forum's focus is to highlight the shennanigans of the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office, thus FCSO.
LindseyGraham is a member of that forum.
ReplyDeleteLaSombra....thanks.
ReplyDeleteDe nada, whitewall.
ReplyDeletetest
ReplyDeleteYes, Lindsey Graham a member FCSO. I've followed a few threads there. .......... I just wish they would stop using children to get to the parents.
ReplyDeleteWell said, Bob.
ReplyDeleteOn the Sum It Up question: Are we sure that Governor Perdue is going to even allow an election next year?
ReplyDeleteBo...good one!
ReplyDelete"Those who want to ban gay marriage because it's a detriment to family values need to reflect a bit. They should have thought about that when they insisted on having more lenient divorce laws. In the early 1800s, it took an act of the legislature to get a divorce. Now I look for a divorce kiosk at Hanes Mall."
ReplyDeleteMr. Weaver is right on target here. The divorce projection for a heterosexual marriage in the USA today is over 40%. For a 2nd marriage, well over 50%. 3rd marriage? Let's don't go there.
And who has the highest divorce rates? Let's start with states. Nevada is still #1, but then that is a function of state law, which has already become outdated because of "liberalization" of divorce laws in other states, particularly the South. Who comes next?
7 southern states, AL, AR, FL, GA, MS, NC, SC and TX are in the top 10, with rates around 50% higher than the national average. Hmm, that sounds like the bible belt to me. And sure enough, the only serious nationwide survey of divorce shows the following rates by religion:
Non-denominational Evangelicals (fundamentalists) 34%
Jewish 30%
Baptists 29%
Born-again Christians 27%
Other Protestants 24%
Catholics 21%
Atheists, Agnostics 21%
These numbers were produced by traditional survey methods involving individual questionnaires. Of course, there was a great outcry in christian-land, so the Associated Press did a second study based on the vast storehouse of statistics compiled by the government, which confirmed the results.
Since the great outcry against "homosexual marriage" is coming from the folks at the top of that table, maybe they should, indeed, "reflect a bit". It would seem that THEY are the biggest threat to "family values".
Good evening, folks!
ReplyDeleteOT, those poll numbers are interesting. I wonder at the factors involved, however. Could it be that more evangelicals and Baptists marry than do atheists/agnostics, who might be more prone to simply live together without marrying? Or are the evangelical and Baptist demographics such that those folks marry younger than atheists/agnostics, and are thus initially more unready for marriage?
Numbers by themselves may convey an erroneous picture, as you demonstrated with IL State Sen. Obama's Present votes. Mind you, I am not defending evangelicals or Baptists. I am neither.
People get married too young in the south...that's the problem.
ReplyDeleteAnd evangelicals get married young because they want to have sex.
I mean, just have a one night stand and get it out of your system. At least then you don't have to worry about divorce...but you may have to worry about HPV, among other things.
ReplyDeleteGood questions.
ReplyDeleteThis survey is about 10 years old. And some of your questions have already been asked, but so far there are no answers.
Perhaps the biggest problem is that other studies have shown that religion is a huge problem when it comes to surveys, because respondents are less truthful than in any other subject.
Part of that is that since the majority of Americans have been reared in the Christian religion, when they are asked about their religious preferences they tend to answer without thinking. We know that the percentage of real Christians is shrinking in all of the western world, including the US, yet because it is difficult to get straight answers, the figures are probably skewed.
One aspect has already been shown to be just that...church attendance. Small studies conducted around the country have shown that people tend to considerably overstate their rate of church attendance.
As to age, one stat is consistent. The higher the educational level at marriage, the lower the divorce rate.
"The higher the educational level at marriage, the lower the divorce rate."
ReplyDeleteI should have gone to grad school.
Membership in some traditional churches is dropping. I was a member of a Lutheran church here for a few years, and the national church was concerned then about the advancing average age of its members. Children of Lutheran parents were (and probably still are) leaving the church after HS and going elsewhere or sleeping in.
I liked the Lutheran church myself, but joined Mrs. Stab's Methodist church (the family that prays together, y'know), ending years of apostasy, as I had been raised a Methodist. The Methodist church is having the same problem, with a sharp drop in membership in recent years. The large local church to which we belong is addressing this with two more contemporary services, and by actively reaching out to the "unchurched."
That may help hold the line, as younger folk do not seem to like the traditional church service. I sing in our choir in the traditional service, so I look out on the congregation each Sunday. I'd guess the average age is about my age. I'll bet in another generation, traditional services on longer be commonly found in many churches. Doesn't matter: "Do unto others . . ." is the same, no matter what the music setting.
Well, here's some good news from the same survey. Married couples who adhere to different denominations have about the same divorce rate as the highest group. But couples who are of the same denomination, with the exception of the highest groups, have a much LOWER divorce rate than the national average, so moving back to the Methodist world was probably a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the Moravian Church, but because the Moravians preceded the Lutherans, their influence on Lutheranism was quite strong so their tenets are quite similar. Much of our Sunday school literature was Lutheran produced and we had many joint activities with Lutheran congregations.
As to level of education, grad school is not all that it is cracked up to be. As my undergrad professors constantly preached, education is YOUR responsibility, not some college or university's.
ReplyDeleteThe reason for attending a college is to learn how to learn, not what to learn. After that, you are on your own. I know PhDs who are very poorly educated. I know high school dropouts who are VERY highly educated.
Anyone who has a poor education has, for the most part, only themselves to blame.
The Lutheran church is also close to the United Church of Christ, to the point that a UCC pastor served as interim pastor for our church when our senior pastor retired. He served quite capably and was very popular, but declined to take the post himself, as he did not want to relocate.
ReplyDeleteAs for education, I think I have educated myself sufficiently and matured enough to navigate the uncertain shoals of a third marriage. I am so committed, anyway. The majority of what I know is what I learned on my own, so I agree with undergrad profs' preaching.
And yes, the Golden Rule, which is not a part of any particular religion, is the ONLY commandment that we need.
ReplyDeleteThe "religion" that comes closest to espousing that, Buddhism, is not really a religion at all, but a system of philosophy that has served its adherents well for many moons. If everyone followed that one basic rule, the world would be a much better place.
As Confucius said:
"Life is really simple; but we insist on making it complicated."
I set out to uncomplicate my life a few years back, after piling one complication after another onto my schedule. I thinned things a bit, did myself quite a favor, as I have had to respond to others' needs, which arose in due course. The needs will come and go. My intent to remain uncomplicated where I can will abide.
ReplyDeleteNighty night, folks! Tomorrow is Monday, but it isn't all bad. Neither the Steelers nor the Panthers will lose tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Lions came back and defeated the Cowboys. Maybe all this 2012 end-of-the-world buzz is not wide of the mark.
Just kidding.
Another thing that I learned as an undergrad is the great importance of literature.
ReplyDeleteHistory is pretty much what some historian says it was, based on limited documentation of "facts". Sociology is often painstaking in its methods but gives a dry view of what actually happened.
But literature transcends all that by trying to bring a personal view of human existence. For many years I abandoned literature for "facts", but eventually discovered that the facts are not enough. So, the Bible, especially the OT, a great work of literature. Shakespeare. Dante. Milton. Hawthorne. Twain. James Joyce. Fitzgerald. Faulkner. Updike.
Currently reading Donald Ray Pollock's 2nd novel, The Devil All The Time , a continuation of his 1st novel Knockemstiff , both set in a remote mountainous area on the Ohio/West Virginia border at mid-20th century which examines the tragic consequences of religion without enlightenment. Heartbreaking and highly recommended.