Winston-Salem Journal LTE's WE 12/14/11

My Christmas wish

Every Christmas people ask, "What do you want for Christmas?" Every year I really never know.

I suppose like any good, compassionate human being, I would like peace and harmony to spread throughout the world. I would like no one to starve to death, while I'm tucking into a luxurious Christmas dinner. I would like to think that while I'm surrounded by people who love each other, no one will be alone. I would like to think that the world will remember the meaning of Christmas in their hearts and in their deeds.

This Christmas I want to remember the people who still love when all hope is gone; the people who spread happiness, when their chance at it has been destroyed; the people who live peacefully when all around them is disharmony; the people who still share when they have little to offer; the people who survive day to day in places where human life has no value; the people who still see beauty and wonder in the world when all around them there are people who carelessly destroy it.

My Christmas wish this year is simple. That the real heroes of the human race are acknowledged by those of us who take it for granted.

---

NANCY HARRINGTON

Winston-Salem

Political favoritism

I was pleased to see the Journal advocate for the repeal of the "Choose Life" license-plate bill ("Can't play favorites on political messages," Dec. 7). The editorial was correct in pointing out that the Republican-controlled legislature was showing favoritism by not allowing a "Respect Choice" plate. But political favoritism is not the only reason the bill should be repealed. Some of the proceeds from the sales of the "Choose Life" plates are going to so-called life-affirming pregnancy centers across the state.

These centers are nothing more than anti-abortion clinics giving misleading information. NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina conducted an investigation of many of these centers and discovered that 92 percent of them had no medical personnel on staff and more than two-thirds of them provided distorted information about abortion risks and consequences.

What is equally troublesome in the NARAL report is the disclosure that a Jewish investigator who posed as a pregnant woman was told at five centers that she would not go to heaven unless she converted to Christianity.

By supporting these religiously sponsored pregnancy centers through the proceeds from the sales of the "Choose Life" plate, I feel that the N.C. legislature is violating the principle of separation of church and state. And as the Journal implied, the legislature denied equivalent freedom of speech to people or groups who hold different opinions about abortion. If the General Assembly does not repeal the "Choose Life" plate authorization, the courts should permanently block the sale of these plates.

---

RUDY DIAMOND

Lewisville

600 churches

The author of the letter "Stand up and fight" (Dec. 12) piqued my interest by quoting Joshua 24:15 and saying there are more than 600 churches in Winston-Salem, because it could have gone either of two ways.

It turned out that he wanted us to denounce Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech upholding gay rights in Geneva. It might pay us to remember what Jesus said about homosexuals. Wait. He didn't say anything. What he did was to go out of his way to heal the beloved "pais" of a Roman Centurion (Matthew 8:5-13).

This could have gone the other way. How many were homeless in Winston-Salem last night? What if 600 churches each took in one person or family? I think I know what Jesus would have said about that.

---

NEAL GROSE

Harmony

A national plan

Any well-run enterprise has short and long-term plans, and it is high time we ran our government as a more efficient enterprise. Each party owes the American people a clear vision of its plans for its first fiscal year, its entire four-year administration and, given the extent of the nations' problems, for the following four years as well.

Philosophical sound bites and political ideologies are distractions from the details "we the people" need to make an intelligent decision.

The plans should include their perceptions of the long-term challenges we face and the short-term actions needed to address those threats. They must identify where we are currently over or under allocating resources to the nation's investments in defense, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, Wall Street, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, education and welfare, among others. Few of these problem areas can be corrected in one four-year term, and a time-line for implementation and a clear picture of the sacrifices required should also be included.

Each party must nominate a vice president fully capable of succession and the proposed Cabinet and other key support personnel so "we the people" can have the information needed to make the most important long-term voting decision our country has faced since the Great Depression.

---

RICHARD B. HILTON

Advance