Letters to the Editor Policy

Thanks, For The Rug

I want to say thank you to the human rodent who replaced his rug in his rat-hole and dumped his 12 x 12 gold and light brown rug on a snow bank on my road. I thank you for folding it so neatly. I hope you checked that none of your little rodent children are not rolled up in that rug. You’re probably the same rodent who drives through Ararat throwing bottles, cans, McDonald’s, Burger King and other fine cuisine on my road. So while you’re sitting around with your rodent friends drinking your cheap beer and smoking your dope, please remember that I thanked you.

Sincerely,

Angelo Petriello

Thompson, PA

Pray For Obama

We were in slow-moving traffic the other day and the car in front of us had an Obama bumper sticker on it. It read: "Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8."

My husband's Bible was lying on the dash board and he got it and opened it up to the scripture and read it. He started laughing and laughing. Then he read it to me. I couldn't believe what it said. I had a good laugh, too.

Psalm 109:8 "Let his days be few; and let another take office."

At last - I can voice a Biblical prayer for our president! Look it up - it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray.

Sincerely

Tom Reddon

Starrucca, PA

He’s Lying

Part I: He is lying. He is looking you straight in the eyes and lying to you. And in your gut, you know it. And all the Senators and Congressmen know it. And each and every one of them who will or have voted for the government takeover of our healthcare system is also lying to you. There is only one question worth asking. What are you going to do about it? Vote your gut on November 2.

Part II: How do you live with a person who lies. Adolf Hitler said “make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.” We have a Socialist attempting to remake our Constitutional Republic. Are you going to believe him and therefore allow him to do so? If enough of you vote your gut, we can throw them all out before they do too much damage.

Sincerely,

Joe McCann

Elk Lake, PA

Enduring Political Correctness

Political correctness is like obscenity, neither can be defined. They are shadows, real but with no substance. And like obscenity, which exists in the eyes of the beholder, PC exists in the ears of the auditor. It can mean anything to anyone at any time. Tracing the roots of PC takes us back to the turbulent '60s, the beginning of the sex, drugs, and rock 'n rock revolution.

After 50 years the leftist revolution continues but has expanded to a complete societal makeover. The transformation advances on three fronts: remaking society through the courts, reforming language, and above all, reprogramming thought.

The bloodless coup didn't start in the streets, but in the courtroom of the Supreme Court of the United States. Dispense with the notion that the three branches of government are coequals. The Supreme Court, a nonelected body, has the final trump.

All of the major social issues of our time have been decided not by the ballot box but by the Court. Let me count the ways: Brown v. Board of Education (1954) mandated forced school integration; Engel v. Vitale (1962) outlawed prayer in public schools; Roe v. Wade (1973) legalized abortion; University of California v. Bakke (1978) first affirmative action decision; and the many rulings that have since redefined freedom of speech and expression to include vulgarity and pornography.

The latest initiatives before the bench are hate crime legislation and extra-legal protection afforded to favored groups.

Don't misunderstand, the point is not whether one agrees or disagrees with these decisions; it is that the citizenry had no say in the matter; they were judicial fiats. But that was only the beginning. Language, too, must be reformed.

The Left seems to have taken Humpty Dumpty as a guiding light. Humpty had a penchant for inventing nonsensical words: “'When I use a word,'” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.'”

So the Left takes a word and chooses what it is to mean. “Gay” no longer means happy but homosexual, and “homophobic” inexplicably does not mean one who fears homosexuals but one who hates them. Sex has been replaced by “gender,” which formerly meant a grammatical category.

American Indians are passe. They are now “native Americans,” the only ones who can claim to be such. Orientals are “Asians,” illegal aliens are “undocumented workers,” and so it goes.

The latest addition to the lexicon of the Left is “heterocentric." It is meant to be derisive of one who accepts heterosexual relationships as normal.

Above all, the singular male pronoun “he” or even the word “man” must be avoided. For example, the phrase, “A man's home is his castle” would be rewritten to, “A person's home is their castle.” Never mind the grammatically wrenching plural pronoun “their” instead of the correct “his.”

And if language is modified, speech is censured.

Larry Summers, the president of Harvard, caused an uproar when he suggested that men were better at math than women. Now this is academia where freedom of thought is nourished. A reasonable discussion of his supposition should follow or it could have been simply ignored. Not so. The howls could be heard in California. Larry was booted out.

Self-censorship is now the norm. A few taboos: to suggest that unfettered immigration be stopped, that women in the armed services, on the police force, or in the fire department, compromise public safety. Continuing: that minorities place the blame for their bewailed circumstances at their own feet, that affirmative action came at the expense of standards, or for suggesting that homosexuality is a perversion.

Again, it is not whether one agrees or disagrees with these issues; it is that discussion is not socially acceptable let alone disagreement.

And if one dissents, there are penalties. The communists had reeducation camp; we have sensitivity training. This goes beyond being civil and tolerate, that was always expected in the workplace. In a sensitivity training session one is “trained” to accept what is personally unacceptable. Keeping one's job in many cases depends on a person's “trainability.”

Employers are reminded by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that it enforces federal laws and regs that specify how employees are to treat each other. In effect, this means the avoidance of any action or lack thereof, expression, or even gesture that someone might remotely construct to be offensive. Accusation is tantamount to guilt; guilt is tantamount to a lawsuit.

Land of the free? Sure. But just be careful what you say, be very careful.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA

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