Through faith
Loneliness is a common affliction often suffered in "quiet desperation." The unconditional love we may have enjoyed in childhood can become elusive in later life. The Brotherhood of Man and the Lordship of God, at times, seem more fanciful than actual reality.
A meaningful faith experience can enrich mere existence and relieve the hunger for human approval. Faith serves as a testament to God's eternal presence in human affairs. It can establish a living relationship with spiritual reality and a peaceful kinship with fellow humans.
Faith is a response of gratitude to a God that loves. Through it, we are open to a spiritual experience felt as a personal "I-Thou" encounter. Faith empowers love with endurance. Without faith, love can fade. Whereas beliefs seek certitude in an uncertain future, faith abides in the mystery of the miraculous. It's a feeling of unity with life, transforming "a-loneness" into "all-oneness."
Through faith we can experience anew the hope and trust of a child. When we become as "little children," we can begin to trust life rather than fear it. Laws, wars and treaties have consistently failed to keep the peace. Faith calls forth the "better angels" of our nature to resolve contention and conflict.
Jesus said, "Love your enemy." This difficult commandment remains our most effective option to eradicate the enmity we humans harbor for people of other cultures and traditions. When respect for others replaces distrust and fear of the foreigner, who, then, shall we call our enemy?
JOSEPH J. CUTRI
Winston-Salem
Supports Coach Muse
Coach Mike Muse is quite possibly the finest man I know ("Student recorded coach's tirade," Feb. 2). I trust him. I respect him. I admire him. I believe in him. I love him. I love his family ... all the members. My children are better people for being in his presence.
Those who choose to disagree will do so, but rest assured, they don't know the man. I've laughed with him. I've cried for him. I've prayed beside him. I've rejoiced in his victories and suffered in his defeats. I watched him learn and listened to him teach. I've sought his counsel and contemplated his wisdom. And never have I known him to fail to do the right thing.
Let the shame fall where it truly belongs.
JEFFREY GRIFFIN
Winston-Salem
A terrible idea
I am a resident of the Washington Park neighborhood and also a fervent supporter of the UNC School of the Arts and all the wonderful things that it represents. Therefore, I initially found myself conflicted by the report that UNCSA wants to demolish the house at 2008 Sunnyside Ave. and replace it with a storage warehouse ("Historic house faces demolition," Feb. 4). But I soon found myself firmly on the side of the preservationists when I read that this house, built in 1910, has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1992. Since when is it permissible to tear down a house that has received this prestigious national historic recognition? What in the world is UNCSA thinking?
I urge the administration of UNCSA to backpedal away from this terrible idea as quickly as possible, because this is a public-relations disaster: an institution dedicated to artistic creativity now seen as the perpetrator of decidedly unartistic destruction.
ERNEST J. LUNSFORD
Winston-Salem
A teacher's bullying
In reference to "Student recorded teacher's tirade" (Feb. 2), it seems to me that a school system that is trying to control bullying among students must have zero tolerance for a teacher's bullying. Absolutely zero.
ROMAINE POINDEXTER
Kernersville
Shocking incident
Our community has made much effort to curb bullying in our schools. That makes it shocking that among the bullies at East Forsyth High School are two professionals charged with the well-being of their students ("Student's recording brings threats," Feb. 3).
Teen gossip does not give Couch Mike Muse and James Deeney, the school's resource officer, the right to confront a student in front of others in such an ugly way. Their behavior was so unprofessional as to be unbelievable. If the student, Dillon Tschnko, needed discipline, it should have been conducted privately, where his dignity (and theirs) could have been preserved.
Now there exists an unholy mess from which no good can come. The student is being attacked by other students and has had to change schools. It seems unlikely that this student will not sustain emotional damage.
If they believe that this incident has improved matters, then they may be surprised at the firestorm created.
SUDIE M. GOLDSTON
Winston-Salem
LTE 1: An LTE to proselytize?
ReplyDeleteLTE 2: Substitute the name Warrent Jeffs in place of Coach Mike Muse in this letter and see how much sense this letter makes.
LTE 3: A paradox indeed to see on one hand the public's outrage at the removal of an historic statue, and almost no reaction from the same public on the removal of another historic structure.
Nice Warren Jeffs analogy.
DeleteUnfortunatley I think Muse will surive because he is so popular with the "right" people and attends the "right" type of Chruch. All he has to do is ask Jesus for forgiveness and he can say, do and act anyway he wants becasue all is forgiven in Christ Jesus.
Ya know, we're all human. I get that. If anyone believes in a God, then we know He created us with free will, among other attributes. Having said that, I truly believe that at any time during the lengthy tirade both the coach and, especially, the LEO could have (and should have) thought about what each and/or the other was doing and take control of the situation. Both of them lost, or gave, control to the student when each of them should've been in control all along.
DeleteI ask myself, who's the adult here?
DeleteExactly!
DeleteThe worst of this is that it occurred at a table in the lunch room where other teachers and an assistant principal were sitting, yet none of them made a move to stop it. In fact, in the background, you can hear other teachers directing sarcastic remarks to the 15 year old boy.
DeleteWhat a sad lot of "adults". If such a thing had happened when I was a student in the public schools, all of these immature jackasses would have been fired on the spot.
Be interesting to see if the fumblementalist dominated school board has any cojones at all.
CNN has smacked the “ish” out of Roland Martin.
ReplyDeleteThe commentator has been suspended indefinitely for tweets he sent during Sunday’s Super Bowl that were criticized as anti-gay, according to a statement released Wednesday.
One tweet said, “If a dude at your Super Bowl party is hyped about David Beckham’s H&M underwear ad, smack the ish out of him!”
_______________
Gays can verbally and physically assault people, but nobody can say anything about them.
Guess I'm not the only one.
Bucky, it's verbal way your posts assault people that gets you in trouble, not the topic on which you choose to post.
ReplyDeleteCan I give you a "thumbs up" on this one?
DeleteZero has a problem understanding the difference between the rights of an individual citizen and the rights of an employee of a private company, particularly an on-air employee of a media company.
DeleteOnly an idiot would do what Martin did, because he tarnishes his employers image when he does so. The same would be true for a sports commentator who might say "You know, this whole Super Bowl thing is a joke." Even though he would be telling the truth, he would get into trouble, because sports commentators are supposed to promote the garbage that passes for sports today in the USA.
Most of the liberal posters in this forum are no more tolerant of other people's views than Klu Klux Klan members were years ago.
DeleteAnd it's funny how I'm most often on the receiving end of verbal attacks and assaults for my position on issues by the majority of people in here, and then yet people want claim victimization. Please.
Oh, boo, hoo, hoo...poor little Zero...victimized by the new KKK.
DeleteFunny how when someone presents facts to rebut his latest lie, it becomes a "verbal attack", a veritable "assault" on his high ideals and moral character.
Pardon me while I ROTFLMAO.
Well, pardon me KKK like person. I though you all were tolerant liberals. What a pathetic joke.
DeleteAnd I always get a kick out Rush refuting a point I didn't make. Rush makes up my point, then he refute it. What an absolute nitwit!
DeleteGood afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: I wonder how those who complain about the "liberal" Dr. Cutri will respond to this one. People are complex, the world is complex. It may very well be as one study suggests that a binary view of the world is due to the lack of intelligence required to see all of the different shades that exist between "liberal"/"conservative", "right"/"wrong", "us"/"them".
LTE 2: I'm sure Coach Muse is a fine person who has positively influenced many of his former players and students, but he was totally wrong in how he handled the situation.
LTE 3: A house that meets the criteria to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places deserves to be preserved.
LTE 4 & 5: The school board and K-ville police dept may want to quietly sweep this incident under the rug, but I'm not sure the public is going to let that happen. The image of a coach and a police officer in the face of a 15 y.o. boy while haranguing him for an hour in the cafeteria is not going away.
I know Mr. Lunsford and am usually in agreement with his reasoned ideas, but he has gotten a little lost here.
DeleteI don't know where he got his information on the house at 2208 Sunnyside, but it is completely wrong.
First the 1910 date is incorrect. In 1910 that property was occupied by the Forsyth Manufacturing Company, which manufactured chairs, and at other times, desks and other types of office furniture.
Their factory is still shown there on the 1917 Sanborn Insurance maps. The house was probably built sometime in the 1920s.
Second, it is not now, nor has it ever been (a great phrase from the legendary red-hunting House Unamerican Activities Committee days) listed in the National Register. It comes nowhere near the criteria, neither architecturally nor historically.
That being said, it is a nice old 1920s house and there is no reason to tear it down, especially since it sits next to a huge vacant lot on which the NCSA could build any size warehouse that it so desires.
Bad news for Obama haters. 2 months ago he hit the bottom in the Real Clear poll averages with a 40% approval rating vs 53% disapproval.
ReplyDeleteBut since then things have been running in reverse. Today his approval rating is 49% vs 47% disapproval, and he has hit 50% in 2 of the most recent polls, Rasmussen and Gallup, the two where he had been doing the worst.
Also in the most recent polls, he leads Romney and Paul by 6%, Santorum by 9% and Newty by a laughable 11%. Historically, those numbers are way better than they ought to be at this point, which reflects the low quality of the Republican field.
The worst news for Republicans is that 35% of Republican voters don't like any of the four remaining candidates, which has led to low turnouts in most of the primaries so far, not good news for November.
Closer to home, the radicals in the state legislature thought that they were being clever by scheduling the vote on their anti-gay marriage amendment to coincide with the May primary. They did that because they expected both the GOP presidential race and the gubernatorial race to be contested, while the Democratic ones would not be, thus giving them a big edge.
But now it is obvious that the GOP presidential hash will be settled by then, and that Pat McCrory will be unopposed, while, on the other hand, the Democrats will conduct a spirited primary for governor, thus increasing Democratic turnout in May.
Add to that the latest PPP poll that shows an approval rate for the current legislature of only 16%, by far an all-time record low and just 3 points above the US Congress, and the radical Republicans might find themselves being sent home in wholesale numbers. That will hurt McCrory as well, because it will be easy for whoever gets the Democratic nomination for governor to tie him to the legislators, especially on such matters as the extension of the 1% sales tax, which the same PPP poll shows was supported by a majority of North Carolinians.
Considering that they always have the racist vote in their pocket, this should have been a promising year for the GOP. But it is looking more and more as if they have shot themselves in the foot...make that both feet.
OT, your comment re Applebee's and its bar reminds me of our last visit to one. We ordered a pair of beers and scanned the menu. We waited for our beer. And waited. And waited. I inquired re the delay, to be advised that their computer was down. I asked if the computer was the entity that opened the cooler, uncapped, and served the beer. No, but they couldn't keep track of the orders. They lacked pens and paper? No, but they had to use the computer. We left, never returned. Same thing happened at Fox and Hounds sometime later, same result.
ReplyDeleteMy one and only Applebee's visit, when I was teaching up north.
DeleteMy wife and I were to meet friends there, but a time mixup led to our arriving a bit early, so to the bar.
"I'll have a martini," I said.
The sorority girl behind the counter said "Do you want that with gin or vodka, and what flavor?" pointing to the drinks menu.
"On second thought," I said, "I'll just have a Scotch neat." Her baffled look told me all I needed to know.
Fortunately, there was a real Chicago bar just down the street. We left a note for our friends and all ended up eating in the old bar. A lucky save.
And Fox & Hound at Thruway...many, many moons ago that was the locale of Sam's Gourmet, a very interesting place...sort of low end high end food, in that the food was much better than the prices might indicate.
DeleteToday, a sort of sleazoid sports bar.
I went there quite a bit with my parents when I was a little kid. They had a huge salad bar, as I recall.
DeleteBTW, the above history was typed in the River Birrch bar.
ReplyDelete