Winston-Salem Journal LTE's WE 12/28/11

Commission on family relations

Much of our success as a nation has been based on family teachings and protections. Because of serious declines in family relations, I am proposing a federal Commission on Family Relations to help define, clarify and implement equal rights for women and to help advocate for better care of children and young adults and for improved marriages, morality, civility and other areas. It must be a small organization staffed by highly qualified, experienced, dedicated individuals.

Not only do many women often have full workloads at home and on the job, they also must have time to look for jobs. As a result, much of their home responsibility may be constrained, imposing serious difficulty on family relations. Strong families are decreasing, and unprepared children, crime and other undesired consequences are rampant. This hardly provides the long-sought equal rights for women. More must be done.

The commission would require and oversee studies of selected families and make recommendations for improvements, when needed, particularly in areas of children and young adults. Most mothers with ample time and freedom will naturally teach their children to be healthy, productive and respectful citizens. Accordingly, some of the billions spent on education could be redirected, in a highly controlled manner, to caring and able mothers who desire to stay home with their families. While improving the well-being of our young, this could significantly reduce our overall national expenditure.

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WEBSTER B. BAKER

Winston-Salem

Perspective

It took a while, but now I understand the conservative perspective:

No marriage for gays; unlimited marriages for Newt.

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MARK B. HOWARD

Winston-Salem

Good deeds

I read with sadness the Dec. 22 column by Cal Thomas, "Death of an atheist," in which he says that his belief in God is grounded in fear and a leap of faith and that the only reason we should do good deeds is because one needs a "source" to inspire charity. These are some of the exact arguments by Christopher Hitchens for why "religion poisons everything" and why he was an atheist.

Why does there have to be a "who" that gave it, when someone is gifted? Then there had to have been a "who" that gave a child a deadly disease at the age of 2. God? How does a religious person "know God"? They certainly have not been properly introduced, just as no life on earth has. Belief is not proof.

Yes, we must live this life as if this is all there is. Good deeds come from within one's true self. People do them because they enrich life on earth, not because one must get to a better afterlife.

To credit religion for all the good that is done on earth must be followed by giving credit to religion for all the death, destruction, disease and sadness on earth. This is not the image I want to have of an almighty "God."

I am grateful this Christmas season for writers like Christopher Hitchens who can tease out truth from fiction. Religious beliefs are just that, belief — ungrounded in anything real on this earth.

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LESLIE LUNDQUIST

Winston-Salem

Can't force patriotism

I enjoyed the hysterical answers to your Dec. 22 Sum It Up question, "Do you think public-school students should be able to opt out of saying the Pledge of Allegiance even if their families have no religious objections to it?" As one of your respondents pointed out, there's really no choice; it's against federal and state law to force or coerce students into reciting the pledge, whatever their objection. And so it should be. You can't force patriotism; you can only force reluctant compliance.

Another respondent suggested that students should be required to say the pledge, adding, "Do we want robots or do we want adults with convictions and strong beliefs?" One wonders if it's reciting the pledge that has led her to such an obvious lapse in logic, thinking that being forced to do something turns one into an adult with convictions and strong beliefs, while being left to the dictates of conscience turns one into a robot. In language she may understand, "That does not compute."

Others suffer this same dissonant confusion, thinking that liberalism is compatible with fascism. It is quite the other way around: Requiring one to perform recitations (brainwashing?), even in the name of patriotism, is the practice of fascists.

If we want children to love America, let's give them more than platitudes. Let's give them a nation with policies, practices and discourse worthy of admiration.

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PHIL RONALD TURNER

Winston-Salem