Glorified violence
Most of us recognize that — because it sells — the broadcast media glorifies violence. Routinely and relentlessly. When we, as a society, play fast and loose with deadly weapons, we should consider the consequences. We should think hard about vigilante psychology, self-styled and self-appointed, turned loose among us — media cowboys or cool public avengers — who "compensate" for (usually outgunned) law enforcement. Is this really what we want for our children and our grandchildren? Where everyone must go armed for fear everyone else is? A video-game world where disagreements escalate to fatality, where "disrespecting" or traffic infractions carry lethal consequences?
Public opinion in this newspaper and elsewhere makes clear the General Assembly acted against the public interest by permitting weapons in public parks. The Winston-Salem City Council acted rightly in protecting us against this wrong-headed policy. But now Forsyth County commissioners talk about guns at Tanglewood and other county parks. What responsible adult would subject a child to this danger?
The arguments, the same old vigilante stuff, are championed by an ambitious official with an imperfect record of obeying the laws that inconvenienced him.
We deserve better than this. We shouldn't have to live in fear of violent people — whether they're bent on hurting us or "protecting" us. The gun lobby will always tout the Second Amendment, but the real issue is quiet enjoyment of public parks for our children.
A civil society comes from more law enforcement and in better education about violence, not from loose cannons in public parks.
GAIL G. McNEILL
Winston-Salem
Things have changed
In the course of my 71 years, I have witnessed a significant change in the interpretation of "separation of church and state" among Southern Baptists. My earliest understanding of the relation between church and government was taught to me by my Southern Baptist Church. Because of the religious persecution suffered at the hand of Colonial, theocratic government entities, Baptists became champions of religious freedom. In keeping with this history, I was taught that being a determined advocate of the separation of church and state was one of the distinctive features of our denomination.
In 1946, what is now the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Freedom opened an office in Washington. The Southern Baptist Convention was one of the denominations instrumental in establishing the joint committee. The mission was to be an advocate for the separation of church and state. For years the SBC was one of the primary financial contributors to the agency, and in 1980, a Southern Baptist became the executive director.
Beginning in 1979, a strong fundamentalist minority in the SBC began a movement to gain control of the denomination, and by the mid 1980s that control was secure. Everything in the denomination changed, and in 1991 all funding to the joint committee ceased. The SBC is now one of the greatest opponents of the concept of church and state separation.
If the issue of sectarian prayer at government meetings had been raised 40 years ago, the Baptist position would have been very different than it is today.
CHARLES FRANCIS WILSON
Winston-Salem
Sum It Up
The Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Are you satisfied with North Carolina's gun-control laws?
North Carolina firearms laws are on the web in a PDF file of 45 pages. It's a great set of laws, just wonderful, really marvelous and so well crafted, but while scanning this document, I detected as many exemptions as laws. No gun law makes us safe.
KAM BENFIELD
Rural Hall
North Carolina's gun laws have finally more fully recognized the Second Amendment. Like those laws of 30 states, we now have a "Castle Doctrine" law, and like 49 states, we have "concealed carry" (the state of Illinois being the only exception). There is no greater basic right than to protect yourself and your family from harm by the criminal and crazy elements of society.
To all those anti-gun folks, I would ask them, would you put a sign in your front yard saying, "There are no guns in this house?" Remember the adage, "With guns we are citizens, without guns, we are subjects."
BRUCE GUSTAFSON
Winston-Salem
Yes, they are justified with the exception of not allowing out-of-state concealed permits in North Carolina, which I feel they should. The charge for the course is way too high.
LOWELL NUDD
Kernersville
Good afternoon folks! Where is everyone today?
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: I am reminded again of the high school girl who submitted an LTE a couple of weeks ago stating how she had no qualms about standing outside the new Career Center early in the morning while dark in constrast to those adults who feel the need to carry a gun where ever they go. I hope common sense will rule over paranoia.
LTE 2: It's tragic what has become of the Southern Baptists. I attended Southern Baptist churches growing up until fundamentalism reared its ugly head and tore the church I was attending in two. I have been attending Methodist churches ever since. The Southern Baptists have gone from being about winning people to Christ to now being about gaining political influence for themselves.
Sum it up: Mr. Benfield sums up my feelings quite well. If Mr. Gustafson believes his gun collection adequately safeguards him from anything the govt can do, perhaps he should look up the Branch Davidians and see how well their arsenal fared against a single tank. It ain't 1776 anymore. If your neighborhood is so unsafe that you need a gun, then move somewhere safer.
Guess everyone is interested in other story lines:
ReplyDeletePlanned Parenthood vs Susan G. Komen
Mike Muse vs Scott Sexton
Gloria Whizenhunt vs SCOTUS
Patriots vs the Giants
Rather than:
Guns vs Roses and Church vs State.
That appears to be the case. At least PP vs SGK and GW vs. SCOTUS have been resolved and P vs. G will be resolved on Sunday. The Muse saga is most unfortunate. This a case where counting to 10 (or 100 if necessary) then thinking of a calm and rational approach to handling the situation would have saved a ton of grief. Looked like on the news last night that the boy's parents are out for blood. I do hope this can be resolved with Mr. Muse able to resume his career and the students involved able to resume their lives without harassment.
DeleteI'm afraid that there may be more to this unaMuseing tale than currently meets the eye. Having listened to snippets of his tale told by an idiot rant, full of sound and fury, signifying, perhaps, something...the lady doth protest too much, methinks.
DeleteCoach Muse is not some hot headed youngster; he is, rather, about 50 years old. Yet he Tweets all over the net a string of Jesus talk and self important babble MuseTwitter and has been known to display a bible on his desk in class while peppering his lectures with profanities.
His "excuse" for texting the girl is that he was trying to keep her eligible to play softball. Not a bad try, but why was the SRO also texting her? This is the same SRO who recently tasered an unarmed student, clearly a man of courage and good judgment.
I'm afraid that something is rotten in the state of East Forsyth.
Not to mention the locale of this little lynching. A table in the school lunchroom normally reserved for "adult" staff and containing at least one vice-principal.
DeleteWas there no one there who is enough of an adult to stand up and say "Cool it, Mike" and bring the whole sorry affair to an end? Apparently not. As the Journal pointed out, other faculty members can be heard in the background directing sarcastic remarks to the 15 year old boy. So much for leadership.
For once, even Scott Sexton seems to be pulling his punches. Let's see if the school board has the guts to get to the bottom of this mess.
As to the Komen v PP debacle, this from Twitter:
ReplyDeleteFrom now on, going on a two-day bender and then trying to make it up to everyone after will be called "pulling a Komen".
Good evening, folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE1: redneck sissies want to strap on manhood and go to parks. 80 years ago, similar oafs donned brown shirts and strutted down strassen.
Just finished reading Alan Furst's The Spies of Warsaw. Sometimes fiction is truer to life than non-fiction. In Furst's case this is true, because he allows you to see the world of the NAZIs as if you were there yourself.
DeleteRead all of his WW II books, in order:
Night Soldiers
Dark Star
The Polish Officer
The World at Night
Red Gold
Kingdom of Shadows
Blood of Victory
Dark Voyage
The Foreign Correspondent
The Spies of Warsaw
His newest is Spies of the Balkans, published in 2010. I'll try to wait until next year to read it in hopes that there will be a new one by then. I dread the end of this series.
LTE2: far too many "Christians" resemble the ayatollahs whom they decry.
ReplyDeleteMr. Wilson's letter sounds like an echo, echo, echo of what I have been hearing for years from my old line Baptist friends. His history of the Baptist faith is dead on.
DeleteThe current fools have no idea of where they came from.
Roger Williams was one of America's great heroes, yet is virtually unknown today. He became the pastor of the Puritan church in Salem, MA, but argued that the Puritans should pay the local Indians for land and should also completely separate themselves from the English Congregational Church.
For that, he was expelled from the Plymouth Colony. He ended up founding the Providence Colony (now Rhode Island), the first place in the New World that welcomed all religions by specifically separating civil law from church law..
And he founded the first Baptist Church in the world. He soon left that church because he was deeply suspicious of any organization that purported to speak for any individual...he was a true free will Baptist.
The fundamentalist fools who call themselves Baptists today have no idea what they are talking about.
OT, I have no confidence in the school board's guts.
ReplyDeleteNor do I.
DeleteHello, Folks! Been working 12 hour shifts, not had a chance to show up here. As a matter of fact, I'm so tired right now that I'm sleeping while I'm typing.
ReplyDeleteLTE #2 has ommitted the final timeline: In 2007 Christians in Forsyth County, NC claim persecution for not being allowed prayer in non-sectarian county government meetings.
Note that the commissioners have now chosen to lead "non-sectarian" prayers themselves. They still don't get it.
DeleteLeave off the prayers entirely and get to work on the real problems facing the county.
But now they've opened up a whole new can of worms by deciding, without thinking, to sell the old courthouse.
Watch the fur fly over the Confederate monument and the time capsule. Maybe we'll have a new look on the board in November.
FYI: The window for filing for a seat on the county commissioners or the school board will open at noon on February 13, 2012 and will close at noon on February 29, 2012.
DeleteGoogle the Forsyth County, NC board of elections to see the specific requirements.