Letters to the Editor Policy

Turn The Other Cheek

Regarding Jason J. Legg's column in the March 5 issue, in which, if I understood his drift (which is sometimes difficult), he is supporting the use of torture. Why not just come out and say so directly? That it's okay to hang someone by the thumbs, blast water in his mouth and put cigarette burns all over him in order to get the information you want. I'll just take a wild guess that Mr. Legg is a "Christian." I know it's been asked many times, but somehow people on the right wing end of things never give an answer: what happened to turn the other cheek, to forgive seventy times seven and all that? Convenient how people remember what they want to remember to serve whatever their current desire is.

Yes, Mr. Legg, anyone would enjoy, in that primitive reptilian part of his brain, in his childish let's-get-even subconscious, seeing the serial killer get his. But what does that say about us humans? That we should listen to that part, go along with it? In the way of the teenager who claims that all his friends are doing whatever, so why not join them?

I would think that a goal of the human race would be to rise above these base urges. How else are we ever going to evolve into something better?

And don't bother calling me naive. It will fall on deaf ears.

Sincerely,

Margaret Karmazin

North Jackson, PA

Parents Can Help

Blue Ridge School District is asking parents to get involved in helping continue improving achievement scores on the upcoming PSSA. All students, grades 3-8 and 11 across Pennsylvania will take part in the annual Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) exams between March 31 and April 11. These tests are required by State law and the Federal No Child Left Behind act. It is extremely important for school districts to do well on these assessments. They have become one of the primary measures that the state uses to determine a school’s effectiveness. Test results can help schools determine if programs are boosting achievement and assisting students in building the essential content knowledge needed to be successful in the future. The results are also an excellent tool for parents to use for monitoring their child’s progress in core academic areas.

Blue Ridge wants parents to know that we need their help in encouraging students to do their best, now more than ever. Starting this year, schools must increase the number of students who score proficient on the exams to 63% in Reading and 56% in Math, with a goal of 100% proficiency by 2014. While this will not be an easy task, Blue Ridge has been showing marked improvement in recent years meeting or exceeding previous goals. Blue Ridge HS was recently recognized by U.S. News and World Report, with other top performing districts around the country, for outstanding achievement results working with economically disadvantaged students.

Parents can play a vital role in their child’s success on the assessments. The following list highlights ways that parents can get involved and boost student performance: encourage your child to do well in all of their school work; the school’s regular curriculum is designed to help students do well on the PSSA’s. Create an awareness about the test; talk about it, but don't create anxiety; encourage your child to work the sample problems and test prep work provided by the school. Encourage your child to relax before the test; make certain he or she gets a good night's rest. Provide a nutritious breakfast for your child. Remind your child to take the test seriously, listen carefully to instructions, and read the directions completely. Encourage your child to remain focused and do his or her best on the test. Read together regularly; model the life-long learning behaviors you want your child to embrace.

Sincerely,

Matthew J. Nebzydoski

Blue Ridge Middle School Principal

Tax Cut Challenge

Even though few of us are actually rich enough to receive them, politicians of one particular party keep trying to bribe us with tax cuts. It's the height of irresponsibility to cut taxes while we're running an annual deficit. Better we should be adults for a change and pay our bills, and not pass them on to future generations.

But if any candidate is still committed to tax cuts, I challenge them to prepare a list of $450 billion in spending cuts, the amount of next year's estimated deficit, and present it to the voters. Any amount over that justifies a tax cut of that amount. I would ask that these cuts not target the needy, but I'd be forgetting – this is the party whose tax breaks mostly go to the rich.

One more request of candidates: please specify which corporate regulations you intend to eliminate. I need to know so I can de-invest in those sectors. Ideology blinds you to the recurring reality that lax oversight opened the way to our current mortgage crisis, the ENRON and other corporate frauds, and to the Savings & Loan collapse of the 1980's. What's next? When will you learn?

Sincerely,

Stephen Van Eck

Rushville, PA

See The Truth

The emotional issue of abortion in this year's presidential election is not a new issue. It is as old as man, himself.

"Among the marks of the Christians within Roman imperial society," wrote George Williams, Hollis Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Harvard, "was their abhorrence of the then common practice of casting off offspring by abortion . . "

A 1970 editorial in California Medicine, the then official journal of the California Medical Association, said we are moving toward a new ethic - one in which, "it will become necessary and acceptable to place relative rather than absolute values on such things as human lives."

Since this is in defiance of long-held Judeo-Christian values, the editorial qualifies the position by saying, "It has become necessary to separate the idea of abortion from the idea of killing which continues to be socially abhorrent.

"The result has been a curious avoidance of the scientific fact, which everyone really knows, that human life begins at conception and is continuous whether intra-uterine or extra-uterine until death.

“The very considerable semantic gymnastics which are required to rationalize abortion as anything but taking a human life would be ludicrous if they were not often put forth under socially impeccable auspices. It is suggested that this schizophrenic sort of subterfuge is necessary because while a new ethic is being accepted the old has not yet been rejected."

Hardin and Garrett, in Biology: Its Principles and Implications, second edition (W. H. Freeman 1966) states, "The life of a new individual begins when two haploid gametes (an egg and a sperm) unite, forming a fertilized egg or zegott."

Science was ignored and abortion became legal. For many, a legal decision becomes a moral decision. The 1973 abortion decision has made abortion a morally acceptable choice. We must study and reflect on such court decisions or we are allowing our courts to legislate our morality.

"Every child a wanted child" was a slogan put forth for choosing to abort. Unwanted children were characterized as abused children and, later, obvious candidates for welfare. Statistics show, however, that child abuse has risen 500% since the 1973 abortion decision.

If this seems surprising, consider the fact that abortion is in itself the first violence a child can experience. Abortion is intra-uterine battering and beating, dehumanizing mistreatment in the womb that was always prohibited by law and all major religions before a very small minority began to make it a "right." This "woman's right," conveniently, has made countless millions of dollars for Planned Parenthood and doctors who can successfully quiet their conscience.

The right to dehumanize and dispose of the difficult, inconvenient or imperfect child in the womb and the tremendous rise in cases of child abuse could reflect a refusal on the part of some adults to relinquish this right once a child has been born.

Our society is in a dilemma. Either we must admit a mistake and stop the 55 million yearly abortions performed worldwide, or we must continue to justify ourselves. Our grandchildren will ultimately be our judges. Only when personal responsibility is removed can an intelligent assessment be made of any issue.

Where do we go from here? If man is unable to establish with scientific data that he was a human being at the time of conception, and if the abortion ethic has won, there will soon be no argument to continue a life should any individual cease to be worthwhile. There is little difference in the legal termination of an inferior human in the beginning, or the middle, or the end of life. Witness the creeping acceptability of the termination of those with serious health issues who fail to die. Again legality and courts make it acceptable.

It would seem the 1970 editorial was correct. The old ethic that each human life is valuable and must be protected is giving way to the schizophrenic subterfuge. The pro-life issue in this election is giving way, once more, to "more important issues." Three thousand babies die daily in our country on the altar of convenience and "freedom," and the abortion mills continue to make millions on the backs of desperate women duped by the "new morality." And we dare look back and judge the Germans, who stood silent as the final solution was imposed. There again it was a legal solution - it was an intelligent solution.

To justify support for a pro-abortion candidate for president, just remember abortion is legal - it is a woman's right - but never ask one of the growing millions of post abortive women worldwide who have been rescued by Rachel's Vineyard if they could or would vote for a leader who supports abortion rights. These are women who woke up and realized they had not solved their problem - they had killed their baby. Do not ask Norma McCorvey - the Roe of Roe V Wade, the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion for the first two trimesters, or Sandra Cano of the Doe V Bolton decision that legalized abortion throughout the full gestation for "the health of the mother" - an easily surmountable restriction for the right amount of money. Both of these women swear the cases were based on lies and subterfuge. Both are very active in the struggle to make America see the truth.

What good will it do our country if we elect a president who promises to bring the troops home or fix our economy if, like the Nazis, our country loses its soul in the slaughter of the most defenseless among us?

Sincerely,

Annette Corrigan

Jackson, PA

It’s Not Too Late

Election time again. I hear, "Ronald Reagan said this, and that’s how we are running our campaign.” Wait a minute, I believe Ronald Reagan is dead, haina?

Campaigns maybe should say, "I never tell a lie" like George Washington, “I chopped the cherry tree down, yep.” Or, “I never had sex,” well you all know that one, from Bill Clinton.

It's time to forget the past sayings and turn toward doing what we Americans need. Time to bond together as a nation and do what is needed to make our country prosper as a country.

My opinion is for all of us to stop buying anything made in some other country and demand our companies come back and put us, the millions of workers, to work. It’s not too late to start over!

It is beyond me how one small group of rich people can and do control the world. We, the people suffer. I mean, we, the people of the world, suffer!

We need someone who will say exactly what he or she will do, and mean it, or don't write checks that you can't cash and ask us to vote for you.

Sincerely,

Peter A. Seman

Thompson, PA

The Media Ignored It

I think most Americans are disgusted with the growing immorality in the major media, and if that’s not bad enough, they have chosen to omit coverage of major media events. The March For Life, February 22, 2008, with over 200,000 people, was ignored and on March 7, when a presidential candidate vehemently denounced an endorsement received from Reverend Hagel, an anti-Catholic bigot.

We need to get to the heart of our problems at home in America and reinforce our Constitution – all moral foundations, the right to life and the dignity of every human being to natural death.

Sincerely,

John Mann

Susquehanna, PA

Mark Your Calendar

Please mark your calendars for May 24 and join the Rotary Club of Montrose on the “Green.” We are planning “Rotary on the Green” as a fundraising event to benefit the drive for a new hospital.

Every Rotarian in the Montrose club has a job, including organizing a flea market/crafts, a bake sale and more, live and silent auctions, plant sale, a basket raffle and other raffle items, a pig roast, in addition to lots and lots of other foods, and entertainment.

Presently, in our planning for May 24, we are asking each of you to donate items that you do not need, or do not have space for, or just want someone else to enjoy. These donated items will be placed in our flea market/crafts or live and silent auctions. We are prepared to help you. We have storage and also can help if you require your donations to be picked up. just call 289–4226, or speak to nay Rotarian you know.

Let us thank you in advance for supporting Rotary and for helping to make a new hospital possible.

Sincerely,

Ruth Wilmarth

Co-Chairman

National Ag Week

Agriculture is responsible for providing the necessities of everyday life – food, fiber, clothing and even fuel. That’s the message of National Ag Week, which is celebrated March 16-22. Producers, agricultural associations, corporations, universities, government agencies and countless others across America will gather to celebrate the abundance provided by agriculture during National Ag Week.

The National Ag Week program is committed to increasing public awareness about American agriculture. As the world population soars, there is even greater demand for the food, fiber and renewable resources that the United States produces.

Susquehanna County Farm Bureau believes that every American should understand how food, fiber and renewable resource products are produced and should value the essential role of agriculture in maintaining a strong economy. Everyone should appreciate the role agriculture plays in providing safe, abundant and affordable products. National Ag Week focuses on educating Americans about the industry, so they may also acknowledge and consider career opportunities in the agriculture, food, fiber and renewable resource industry.

Each year, the National Ag Week program gathers members of the agricultural industry in an effort to promote American agriculture. Focused on sharing how agriculture provides almost everything we eat, use and wear on a daily basis, this program helps to educate millions of consumers each year. Please join the Susquehanna County Farm Bureau in this effort to promote American agriculture to everyone during National Ag Week, March 16-22. For additional information, please contact Donna Williams of the Susquehanna County Farm Bureau at 942–6348.

Sincerely,

Donna Williams

President

Susquehanna County Farm Bureau

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY
Letters To The Editor MUST BE SIGNED. They MUST INCLUDE a phone number for "daytime" contact. Letters MUST BE CONFIRMED VERBALLY with the author, before printing. Letters should be as concise as possible, to keep both Readers' and Editors' interest alike. Your opinions are important to us, but you must follow these guidelines to help assure their publishing.

Thank you, Susquehanna County Transcript

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