I know only too well that I am part of a passing generation.  I cannot understand how many things that have been guaranteed by our Constitution are also passing.  The political correctness that has become the final law of our land has forgotten one reality that my generation learned well.  The Bill of Rights only guarantee our rights to the point where they interfere or endanger the rights of another. 

It would have been unheard of, until recently, for a mayor of a city (Mayor Annise Parker of Houston, Texas) to try to impound the homilies of Christian pastors to assure herself that a pastor had not said something in a homily which indicated that homosexuality was not acceptable to Christians.  Not that homosexuals should be persecuted or maligned or punished for their life style, but that the act of homosexuality is condemned very clearly in the Christian Bible - 1 Corinthians 6:9 and many other passages.  This mayor would have it that Houston pastors cannot preach what Christian Holy Scripture teaches.  The pastor’s right to preach to their congregation the truths of over 2000 years teaching from Holy Scripture could be stopped because it upsets those who do not accept Christian truths. How far is this to go? Are Roman Catholic priests to be stopped in their teachings that 1st Corinthians 11:23-30 assures us that Eucharist is truly the body and blood of our Lord, or that fornication is a grave sin because all people do not accept this?  Is my Buddhist son’s temple in California to be closed because many do not accept his vision of God?    Is my family to be stopped in our raising or hunting animals for meat which is justified in our Bible 1st Timothy 4:3 because of vegetarians?  No one should have the “right” to insist others believe as they do.  No one should be made to condone or justify the beliefs they do not hold.

The Fifth Amendment, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment, says that neither the federal government nor states can deprive citizens of their liberty without due process.  We seem to have forgotten that in our quest for political correctness.

Sincerely,

Annette Corrigan

Jackson Township

The residents of Ferguson, Missouri, are sitting on pins and needles awaiting the decision of the grand jury. If the past is prologue, they have good reason to be unnerved.

It is March, 1991. The place is Los Angeles, California. Several police cars are in a high-speed chase after a car for a speeding violation. The suspect was finally apprehended. He is Rodney King, a robbery parolee. When the officers try to cuff King he resists. Tazers have little effect. They try brute force striking him repeatedly with batons. A small segment of the arrest scene was videotaped and widely aired. Racial tensions flared.

In April, 1992, a grand jury decided that the officers did not use excessive force and voted for acquittal. Few bothered to learn the facts of the case. The 55-second tape was all they needed. That blew the lid off of Los Angeles. Widespread, uncontrolled rioting caused 53 deaths, 11,000 arrests, 7,000 fires, and topped $1 billion in property damage. It is only when the military is called in that some semblance of order is restored after five days of mayhem.

That is what Ferguson fears.

Later that year, King successfully sues Los Angeles in a civil rights case. He collects $3.8 million plus $1.7 to cover legal fees. In today's dollars, that's $6.4 million for King and $5.5 for his lawyer. A widely exorbitant settlement except, that is, if one considers it a payoff for a racial armistice.

Back to Ferguson. Let's retrace the event that fueled the riots, violence, and looting since Brown was shot on August 9.

Michael Brown and Dorian Johnson are walking in the middle of the street. Officer Darren Wilson pulls up in his patrol car and asks them to move to the sidewalk. Instead of obeying the officer's instructions, Brown initiates a struggle through the window of the police car.

At this point the only facts known are that Brown was shot six times: one in the hand, three times in his arm, one in the chest, and a fatal shot in the head. No injuries are on Brown's back.

Who's to blame? Some say it's Brown, others say the police are at fault. But there is a third faction, the parents of Michael Brown, Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown, Sr.

Were they, his parents, not responsible for teaching their son respect for authority? If they were, might their son simply have walked off the street and be alive today?

And did his parents evince any shock at their son's behavior recorded on a security camera shortly before his death as he throttled a salesclerk in a convenience store robbery? They did not.

The venue changes to the Zimmerman case.

That February in 2012 was a cold, wintery night in Sanford, Florida. George Zimmerman, the neighbor watch coordinator, is alerted by the behavior of the 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. He calls the police. But before they arrive a scuffle ensues. Trayvon punches Zimmerman and wrestles him to the ground. They struggle for Zimmerman’s pistol. The gun discharges. Trayvon is dead.

Some claim that Trayvon was out that evening to buy some candy. Others wonder if he was casing the area for a burglary. Whatever the case, a burglary tool and stolen jewelry was found in his backpack by a school security guard. At the time of his death, Trayvon was on his third suspension from school.

Michael and Trayvon have disturbing similarities: they had little respect for their elders, their teachers, the police, or even the law. Why? Did not Trayvon's parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, have an obligation to teach their son to respect authority? Had this been done, would Trayvon still be with us?

Sybrina Fulton, who failed in her bid to get a civil rights settlement, has joined forces with Lesley McSpadden. They sell paraphernalia to protestors, make the rounds of TV talk shows, hold press conferences, are speakers in civil rights events, and do what they can to drum up support for a civil rights violation suit.

McSpadden recently returned from Switzerland where she testified before a United Nations Committee Against Torture: “We need the world to know what's going on in Ferguson and we need justice,” she said.

Perhaps this is the way the mothers grieve. Or perhaps it is something else.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA