As I write this, tomorrow will be the last day of the infamous month of January. Infamous because to bible centered christians it is the month when Roe V Wade became the law of our land. As he has for the past many years my hubby of 75 attended the national March for Life in Washington, DC on the 25th. Since Jan. 22, 1973, over 55 million totally defenseless babies have died on the altar of fear, convenience and shame. This year’s march was a great joy to us who have fought this battle for 40 years because 80 % of the hundreds of thousand of marchers were under the age of 25-30. They call themselves the Aborted Generation and their love and conviction show their determination to stop this slaughter. Instead of disappearing as our opponents insisted would happen with the march, it has grown beyond imagination and become younger. There were interviews with college students who had traveled for days and held all night vigils of prayer before the march. Interviews were televised with many whose mothers were victims of rape, incest and the life of the mother, yet the mother had the courage to bring the baby to life and adopted into loving families. As one young such marcher commented, paraphrasing, “To the world we only represent a little over 1 % of abortions, but to us it is 100%, for no child deserves to die for the sins of their father.”

We learned of the great work of the many different organizations helping women in difficult pregnancies. Silent No More grows daily with women trying to stop another generation from the horrible mistake of killing their child as they had. A mistake they will live with their entire life. Also represented was Rachels Vineyard, which help, women and men who have participated in abortion heal and forgive themselves. The many church and community organizations that are there to help young women through their crisis pregnancy were represented. Leaders from all over the globe who have learned from our march and established one in their own land joyfully told of their great success. The marchers, from the rally point to the Supreme Court looked like a river gently flowing. One announcer rightly called it, “The Body of Christ”.

Do not look for this great event on many TV stations, except for EWTN who covers it from rally to Supreme Court. Like those who fought against slavery, believing that this slaughter must end is not politically correct. If you are absolutely certain that killing an innocent baby is the only solution for problem or crisis pregnancies, go on a computer - Google 2013 March For Life, and witness these hundreds of thousands of young people, The Aborted Generation stand up for our constitutional right to life for all born and unborn.

Sincerely,

Annette Corrigan

Jackson, PA

As a long time sportsman and a shooting sports coach for 4H, I personally don't think we need more gun control. However the gun makers are eating this up and it is great for the business. The ammo companies and the gun makers are having a field day on the fears of many Americans. Fear sells and in this case sells guns. I am offended when someone calls my guns weapons.

However there are weapons out there, called weapons in different applications, such as military and police protection. They are weapons and I am sure all of America understands that those types of protection and use of a weapon is necessary.

Fear, boo, send money to my address, (your second amendments rights are not going to be taken away from you because of a law that's been on the books, or should I say in congress for ever and will not ever pass with the authority to come and get your guns and america will take you away.) But, it sure does sell guns.

I must say I wish the dairy farmers had a lobby in Washington and could come up with such a (pull the ax out from above your head scheme) to sell more milk or lower the prices of the milk and cheese you all need to eat. It is funny how fear works.

I can see this fear eventually coming to an end. All good things must. The thing that I dislike about this fear thing, it separates the rational thinkings of our government and its constitution and divides us citizens on who trusts whom? Many a day I read the paper and it is like “you're damned if you do or you're damned if you don't.” Gun control and taking your gun are two different things. In my book, I should not have to defend my opinion or have my patriotism questioned.

Sincerely,

Peter A. Seman

Thompson, Pa.

“It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world,” George Washington.

In his farewell address, he again urged that “The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.”

One cannot read about our first president without being astonished at his prescience. It was as if he looked 225 years beyond his time and saw our precarious state and foreboding future.

Washington had it right. Our true course for foreign policy was to offer an open hand of friendship to all who would accept it and commerce and trade with all when it was in our interest. He also advised to avoid longstanding friendships or rivalries with other nations.

Somehow Washington foresaw that interference in the affairs of others, whether with friendly or hostile intentions, would only invite entanglements which would detract from our national interest.

In a word, Washington argued for non-interventionism, a term that has become synonymous with isolationism. Yet the two words are poles apart.

Non-interventionism means that a nation should not mettle financially, militarily, or covertly in the affairs of other nations. It does not mean isolationism or isolating the United States from the world by constructing a figurative wall around itself, as ancient China did or having impenetrable borders, as North Korea does today.

Aaah, the naysayers object, it is impossible to follow Washington's advice in our century. But the temptation in Washington's time to make alliances and wars were as pressing in his era as they are in ours.

Had we followed Washington's advice, America would have become a beacon to the world leading to peace and prosperity, a shining example of what could be instead of what it is, the land of a missed opportunity.

America has become an empire, a nation with power, authority, and influence extending far and wide beyond its border.

The American Empire has a bootprint in 68 countries around the world with an archipelago of 1,077 military bases by one count, or 1,088 by a different count, or is it 1,169 by another measure? And if one includes those shadowy bases that host countries prefer not to be known, the number might be 1,180. Perhaps no one really knows.

What is known, at least in part, is the cost to taxpayers for overseas outposts; about $40 billion per annum excluding the price tag for military and civilian personnel.

In establishing foreign entanglements with other nations, we have been eminently successful engineering 119 commercial and military treaties since 1900.

But alliances with some guarantee hostility with others; similarly, with abiding friendships we inherent the animosity of their enemies. This policy of interventionism assures a never-ending stream of conflicts and wars, which is what we have.

America now finds itself mired in the land of intractable conflicts and wars: the Mideast. Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine come quickly to mind, black holes devouring lives and money. And we are engaged in a permanent state of war with terrorism, whose bitter seeds we have planted.

As we have chosen the path to empire so we are fated to share the same end as all the empires that have preceded us: Roman, Mongol, French, Spanish, Russian, and most recently, British.

How will our end come? With a grand gotterdammerung, a cataclysmic crash; or with a whimper of want, a competition for cash to fund domestic expenditures pitted against the cost of maintaining Empire America?

The whimper seems more probable than the crash.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA