Letters to the Editor 07-14-2004
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Invest In Life - School Obituary - Removing God - Price Of Fuel
Invest In Life
Editor, Times-Union:You know ... I start a lot of my sentences this way ... I think from pure frustration more than anything.
I just read where women in California are still abandoning their children. What is so ironic is they have a surrender law there with no prosecution. Well, hello! Explain to me why people when given the options still opt to be non-committal to another human being? Do you think we will ever go back to a time when people took responsibility for their actions? Doubt it. If that sounds pessimistic I'm truly sorry.
Let's take a gander view of why I think we will never return to those times.
Kids no longer are told "no," it might hurt their psyche.
Kids no longer are allowed to be reprimanded in school by teachers or anyone else for that matter. Mom and Dad don't think their child does anything wrong.
Adults and kids have children they no longer take care of, the system does, either through babysitting or day care or some other caregiver than themselves. We really expect another person to love, nurture and care for our child like we would or should ourselves. Don't think so.
People use language that is totally inappropriate anywhere ... everywhere, using the freedom of speech, speech. Give me a break ... no where in our Constitution does it say I have to listen to filth come from mouths of babes. Nor does it say I should be bombarded on TV, radio, music ... or any other form of entertainment venue with the same garbage.
Before I have someone say you don't have to listen, I already know that ... but it is hard to avoid when you hear it in everyday conversation where you work, or grocery shop or get your hair or nails done ... or any place outside your own home. Swearing is totally unacceptable language. If you have a brain that cannot think past four-letter words, you need help! You missed something in your education at home and at school. Or is the problem at home ... do Mom and Dad use this despicable language in front of the children they were blessed to have?
When we choose to be undisciplined in all areas of our lives we wreak havoc on the society we live in.
Bill Cosby has been talking to his community of people about it. Well, Mr. Cosby, I appreciate your efforts and agree with you 100 percent but it isn't just African-Americans who have these problems. We have the same problems across the board with white, Mexican, Asian, you name it, kids and adults. It comes down to total lack of responsibility for anything we do or say.
The only way this is going to change is to return to those beliefs our founding fathers lived by. Like it or not, they knew their belief system was the best. They founded a whole country on them. There was no separation of church and state in their hearts. The separation came in who was in charge of their church, not the government but the people who comprised their church. They knew the country they were founding would seek counsel from an almighty who knows what's best and who would be in charge of their lives consequently overseeing their actions and beliefs.
Woe to me, again, for sounding way to Christian and way to conservative. Just kidding. I've gone through a lot in my life to know what is best and God isn't through with me yet! We have any opportunity to change every day. We have the precious gift of freedom to be the best we can be. Notice I did not say whatever we want to be. Our best efforts lack what God has in store for us. We do much better when we live and abide by what the Lord has before the beginning of time deemed to be our destiny.
Invest in your life, be the best you can be every 86,400 seconds of every day. If each of us made that goal, what a wonderful place this would be.
Phyllis Barger
Warsaw
School Obituary
Editor, Times-Union:I see myself
Smile
As you run, play
Sad
When you are hurt
When your image is gone
I will see, no more.
I smell
The sweet aroma
Of cookies baking
When the scent is gone
I will smell, no more.
I hear my voice
The sound of your
Gentle laughter
Soft sorrows
When the music is gone
I will speak, no more.
I feel, my heart beating
The touch of your footsteps
On the floor
When they are gone
My heart will beat, no more.
They can stop
My heart from beating
But ...
They will never take
My memories of you.
For you are
My soul
My eternity.
Angela Greco Fulton
5/27/04 In memory of Silver Lake Elementary
Removing God
Editor, Times-Union:I believe Matt Perry when he says he just wants to restore the Pledge of Allegiance to its original wording, but I do not believe that a lot of liberals and atheists do. I do not hear them call for the original wording, which was "my flag," until 1924 when Congress changed it to "the flag of he United States of America." Nor do I hear them call for the original salute, which "called for the right hand to be removed from the heart at the mention of the word flag and extended outward toward the flag ... this practice ended during World War II, because it looked too much like the Nazi salute" (Paul F. Boller Jr., "Not So!" 196). I believe many who want to remove "Under God" from the Pledge are trying to establish a legal precedent so they can begin to remove God's name from other places.
Many who want to change the Pledge also want to get rid of the national motto, "In God We Trust." If they succeed, then I believe they'll go after the source of the motto, "The Star Spangled Banner," which contains the lines: "Then conquer we must when our cause it is just,/ And this be our motto, "In God is our trust!" Other patriotic songs will have to be eliminated or expurgated because "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," "America the Beautiful," "God Bless America" and "My County 'Tis of Thee" all contain references to God. If people argue that saying God's name in the Pledge is force repetition, they can make the same argument about the National Motto or the National Anthem. I don't want to add God's name to other documents, but I believe a lot of liberals and atheists have shown they want to remove God's name wherever it occurs and will use the Pledge to establish a legal precedent.
I'm not sure how Mr. Perry made the jump from the Pledge to an attack on the religious right. I hope he doesn't limit revisionism to the right and religion. "Organized religion (legalese for Christianity) is the cause of more deaths than anything else in history," is a clich of leftists and atheists. It may have been true until organized atheism in the form of Communism came on the political scene. Estimates vary, but during the last 2,000 years organized religion is believed to have killed 65 million people in holy wars, inquisitions and crusades in the name of God. Yet liberals like to ignore that during the 20th century, organized atheism killed an estimated 100 million people in revolutions, wars of liberation and people's courts in the name of Communism ("Black Book of Communism"). Though Hitler is widely hated as the most evil man in history, his crimes pale beside those of a couple of leftist atheists - Stalin and Mao tse Tung - men who killed far more people over a longer time period. But since the fall of Communism, at least in Russia, liberals are rewriting history to make themselves appear anti-Communist (Mona Charen, "Useful Idiots"). While attacking intolerance, liberals promote intolerance of the religious right (Ann Coulter, "Slander," 187). I'd say liberals and atheists are at least as guilty of revisionism and repression - not to mention selective indignation and self-blindness - as they like to attribute to the religious right. I believe the best course for free people is to oppose revisionism and repression, terrorism and tyranny, no matter what disguise they hide behind.
But back to my initial concern. Liberals and atheists argue that they feel threatened and offended by the inclusion of "Under God." Why do their feelings count and ours don't? If these people who want to remove "Under God" from the Pledge, do so, then they'll advocate removing God's name from the Gettysburg address, then the national motto, then the national anthem. Where will it stop?
William Michael Kelly
Warsaw
Price Of Fuel
Editor, Times-Union:As crude oil and gas prices start to rise again, consumers naturally wonder are we being ripped off at the gas pump. Will prices ever drop below a dollar a gallon, when will the world start to run out of oil? To find some of these answers, I read through the following sources: the OPEC's 2002 Annual Statistic Bulletin, American Petroleum Institute Web site, the state of Indiana transportation and budget Web sites, several USA Today articles and a recent 2004 National Geographic article titled "The End of Cheap Oil" by Tim Appenzeller.
The answer to the question "when do we start to run out of oil" is first, oil reserves will never be literally used up completely. However, by the year 2100, oil reserves will be economically exhausted or no longer profitable to extract. Peak world production is either now or will do so by 2040, depending on which experts you believe.
Will gasoline prices drop below a dollar a gallon is no, unless vast new reserves are found, in fact, prices will start to climb for the following reasons. First, the world uses about 80 billion barrels of oil a day, which will gradually increase as more countries industrialize like China. Second, local, state and national taxes on gasoline and diesel fuels to mainly finance public roads will not likely be eliminated. Third, the 11 nations of OPEC, mainly Middle Eastern countries, intentionally limit production for so-called price stability. OPEC also produces around 40 percent of the world's oil and has at least two-thirds of the world's oil reserves. Fourth, with the current violence in the Middle East threatening oil supplies, crude oil prices will remain high.
The third question, are we being ripped off at the gas pump, is a little harder to answer due to the absence of some key information at the OPEC and API Web sites. The cost of gasoline breaks down in the following way: almost 50 percent goes for the purchase of crude oil, 25 percent goes for the refining, distribution, marketing, and 27 percent for local, state and national taxes. The profit margin for gas station owners is around in the few cents a gallon range. While for oil refiners and the major oil companies the profit margin is under 10 percent if there is no Enron-type accounting going on. However, when it comes to OPEC and crude oil process, which is around $38, a barrel a different picture emerges, the National Geographic article states a $10 production cost for a barrel of crude oil extracted from tar sand, which is more costly that conventional oil.
Even if taxes, regulations, limits on the number of refineries and oil rigs and OPEC's limits on production could be eliminated and it's high profit margins lowered to under 100 percent. The price of gasoline would still be slightly over a dollar. America needs to be energy independent with renewable energy sources.
Alexander Houze
Leesburg
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- Invest In Life - School Obituary - Removing God - Price Of Fuel
Invest In Life
Editor, Times-Union:You know ... I start a lot of my sentences this way ... I think from pure frustration more than anything.
I just read where women in California are still abandoning their children. What is so ironic is they have a surrender law there with no prosecution. Well, hello! Explain to me why people when given the options still opt to be non-committal to another human being? Do you think we will ever go back to a time when people took responsibility for their actions? Doubt it. If that sounds pessimistic I'm truly sorry.
Let's take a gander view of why I think we will never return to those times.
Kids no longer are told "no," it might hurt their psyche.
Kids no longer are allowed to be reprimanded in school by teachers or anyone else for that matter. Mom and Dad don't think their child does anything wrong.
Adults and kids have children they no longer take care of, the system does, either through babysitting or day care or some other caregiver than themselves. We really expect another person to love, nurture and care for our child like we would or should ourselves. Don't think so.
People use language that is totally inappropriate anywhere ... everywhere, using the freedom of speech, speech. Give me a break ... no where in our Constitution does it say I have to listen to filth come from mouths of babes. Nor does it say I should be bombarded on TV, radio, music ... or any other form of entertainment venue with the same garbage.
Before I have someone say you don't have to listen, I already know that ... but it is hard to avoid when you hear it in everyday conversation where you work, or grocery shop or get your hair or nails done ... or any place outside your own home. Swearing is totally unacceptable language. If you have a brain that cannot think past four-letter words, you need help! You missed something in your education at home and at school. Or is the problem at home ... do Mom and Dad use this despicable language in front of the children they were blessed to have?
When we choose to be undisciplined in all areas of our lives we wreak havoc on the society we live in.
Bill Cosby has been talking to his community of people about it. Well, Mr. Cosby, I appreciate your efforts and agree with you 100 percent but it isn't just African-Americans who have these problems. We have the same problems across the board with white, Mexican, Asian, you name it, kids and adults. It comes down to total lack of responsibility for anything we do or say.
The only way this is going to change is to return to those beliefs our founding fathers lived by. Like it or not, they knew their belief system was the best. They founded a whole country on them. There was no separation of church and state in their hearts. The separation came in who was in charge of their church, not the government but the people who comprised their church. They knew the country they were founding would seek counsel from an almighty who knows what's best and who would be in charge of their lives consequently overseeing their actions and beliefs.
Woe to me, again, for sounding way to Christian and way to conservative. Just kidding. I've gone through a lot in my life to know what is best and God isn't through with me yet! We have any opportunity to change every day. We have the precious gift of freedom to be the best we can be. Notice I did not say whatever we want to be. Our best efforts lack what God has in store for us. We do much better when we live and abide by what the Lord has before the beginning of time deemed to be our destiny.
Invest in your life, be the best you can be every 86,400 seconds of every day. If each of us made that goal, what a wonderful place this would be.
Phyllis Barger
Warsaw
School Obituary
Editor, Times-Union:I see myself
Smile
As you run, play
Sad
When you are hurt
When your image is gone
I will see, no more.
I smell
The sweet aroma
Of cookies baking
When the scent is gone
I will smell, no more.
I hear my voice
The sound of your
Gentle laughter
Soft sorrows
When the music is gone
I will speak, no more.
I feel, my heart beating
The touch of your footsteps
On the floor
When they are gone
My heart will beat, no more.
They can stop
My heart from beating
But ...
They will never take
My memories of you.
For you are
My soul
My eternity.
Angela Greco Fulton
5/27/04 In memory of Silver Lake Elementary
Removing God
Editor, Times-Union:I believe Matt Perry when he says he just wants to restore the Pledge of Allegiance to its original wording, but I do not believe that a lot of liberals and atheists do. I do not hear them call for the original wording, which was "my flag," until 1924 when Congress changed it to "the flag of he United States of America." Nor do I hear them call for the original salute, which "called for the right hand to be removed from the heart at the mention of the word flag and extended outward toward the flag ... this practice ended during World War II, because it looked too much like the Nazi salute" (Paul F. Boller Jr., "Not So!" 196). I believe many who want to remove "Under God" from the Pledge are trying to establish a legal precedent so they can begin to remove God's name from other places.
Many who want to change the Pledge also want to get rid of the national motto, "In God We Trust." If they succeed, then I believe they'll go after the source of the motto, "The Star Spangled Banner," which contains the lines: "Then conquer we must when our cause it is just,/ And this be our motto, "In God is our trust!" Other patriotic songs will have to be eliminated or expurgated because "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," "America the Beautiful," "God Bless America" and "My County 'Tis of Thee" all contain references to God. If people argue that saying God's name in the Pledge is force repetition, they can make the same argument about the National Motto or the National Anthem. I don't want to add God's name to other documents, but I believe a lot of liberals and atheists have shown they want to remove God's name wherever it occurs and will use the Pledge to establish a legal precedent.
I'm not sure how Mr. Perry made the jump from the Pledge to an attack on the religious right. I hope he doesn't limit revisionism to the right and religion. "Organized religion (legalese for Christianity) is the cause of more deaths than anything else in history," is a clich of leftists and atheists. It may have been true until organized atheism in the form of Communism came on the political scene. Estimates vary, but during the last 2,000 years organized religion is believed to have killed 65 million people in holy wars, inquisitions and crusades in the name of God. Yet liberals like to ignore that during the 20th century, organized atheism killed an estimated 100 million people in revolutions, wars of liberation and people's courts in the name of Communism ("Black Book of Communism"). Though Hitler is widely hated as the most evil man in history, his crimes pale beside those of a couple of leftist atheists - Stalin and Mao tse Tung - men who killed far more people over a longer time period. But since the fall of Communism, at least in Russia, liberals are rewriting history to make themselves appear anti-Communist (Mona Charen, "Useful Idiots"). While attacking intolerance, liberals promote intolerance of the religious right (Ann Coulter, "Slander," 187). I'd say liberals and atheists are at least as guilty of revisionism and repression - not to mention selective indignation and self-blindness - as they like to attribute to the religious right. I believe the best course for free people is to oppose revisionism and repression, terrorism and tyranny, no matter what disguise they hide behind.
But back to my initial concern. Liberals and atheists argue that they feel threatened and offended by the inclusion of "Under God." Why do their feelings count and ours don't? If these people who want to remove "Under God" from the Pledge, do so, then they'll advocate removing God's name from the Gettysburg address, then the national motto, then the national anthem. Where will it stop?
William Michael Kelly
Warsaw
Price Of Fuel
Editor, Times-Union:As crude oil and gas prices start to rise again, consumers naturally wonder are we being ripped off at the gas pump. Will prices ever drop below a dollar a gallon, when will the world start to run out of oil? To find some of these answers, I read through the following sources: the OPEC's 2002 Annual Statistic Bulletin, American Petroleum Institute Web site, the state of Indiana transportation and budget Web sites, several USA Today articles and a recent 2004 National Geographic article titled "The End of Cheap Oil" by Tim Appenzeller.
The answer to the question "when do we start to run out of oil" is first, oil reserves will never be literally used up completely. However, by the year 2100, oil reserves will be economically exhausted or no longer profitable to extract. Peak world production is either now or will do so by 2040, depending on which experts you believe.
Will gasoline prices drop below a dollar a gallon is no, unless vast new reserves are found, in fact, prices will start to climb for the following reasons. First, the world uses about 80 billion barrels of oil a day, which will gradually increase as more countries industrialize like China. Second, local, state and national taxes on gasoline and diesel fuels to mainly finance public roads will not likely be eliminated. Third, the 11 nations of OPEC, mainly Middle Eastern countries, intentionally limit production for so-called price stability. OPEC also produces around 40 percent of the world's oil and has at least two-thirds of the world's oil reserves. Fourth, with the current violence in the Middle East threatening oil supplies, crude oil prices will remain high.
The third question, are we being ripped off at the gas pump, is a little harder to answer due to the absence of some key information at the OPEC and API Web sites. The cost of gasoline breaks down in the following way: almost 50 percent goes for the purchase of crude oil, 25 percent goes for the refining, distribution, marketing, and 27 percent for local, state and national taxes. The profit margin for gas station owners is around in the few cents a gallon range. While for oil refiners and the major oil companies the profit margin is under 10 percent if there is no Enron-type accounting going on. However, when it comes to OPEC and crude oil process, which is around $38, a barrel a different picture emerges, the National Geographic article states a $10 production cost for a barrel of crude oil extracted from tar sand, which is more costly that conventional oil.
Even if taxes, regulations, limits on the number of refineries and oil rigs and OPEC's limits on production could be eliminated and it's high profit margins lowered to under 100 percent. The price of gasoline would still be slightly over a dollar. America needs to be energy independent with renewable energy sources.
Alexander Houze
Leesburg
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