Editor, Times-Union: It has been awhile since I last gave my opinion on anything, but several things have really come to light and I just don't get it.
Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based terrorist group that started a major scuffle with Israel. Now, first of all, no one should mess with Israel (read your Bible and learn why). Anyway, if you read the newspapers it sounds like poor Lebanon is being overwhelmed by the Israeli army for no reason at all. Hello! Back up to what I said. Who started this mess, and if they are being bombarded, it is their own fault. Don't ask for trouble if you can't stand up to the consequences.
People say the Lebanese people have no control over the Hezbollah - that's like saying the U.S. has been taken over by a group of angry politicos and there is nothing the government can do about it. Why is it we are the only nation that stands up to terrorism?
This brings me to George Bush. "W" has been working overtime for five years to get the people of the world to see terrorism is a major problem and we can't close our eyes and hope it goes away. Give the President a break. He is standing up to these bullies and so is our country's armed forces - support them all.
I get tired of seeing President Bush's rating slip - why is that? Could it have something to do with our liberal press? It seems their desire is to make President Bush out as a warmonger - hardly, folks, but he isn't backing down from his stand. Could we not be proud of the fact he says what he means and means what he says? Let's spend some serious prayer time for him and our armed forces instead of mouth time with no guts behind it.
This summer has been a colorful display news wise of some of the dumbest things I've ever heard - Andrea Yates, not guilty by reason of insanity. Duh, you have to be nuts to drown all five of your children. She still deserves the death penalty. Pitt and Jolie - is this not a travesty of life? Why do we seek to find out every detail of their lives - there is not one earthly thing to admire them for. They had an affair that ruined a marriage, had a baby out of wedlock in a country nobody had heard of and we are supposed to admire this. Fifty-some years ago Ingrid Bergman had children without marriage and was practically banned from the country. To me that is a little excessive but at least back then we knew what the definition of immorality was. Today we don't even use the term immoral in any form. Life has sure taken a turn for the worse, we are an amoral society. We will pay for this is spades some day.
Locally, we have had to face some real winners - the school situation is paramount. Funny the entire community knew we would be facing the overcrowding issue, but no one on the inside listened. So it goes to show you don't need a college education to have some common sense.
Make sure you make it your goal in life to stand for something - I'd prefer it would be a Christ-like life - but that is a choice you make. But don't spend your life letting yourself down by not standing for something worthwhile.
Phyllis Barger, via e-mail
Warsaw
Hep B Vaccine
Editor, Times-Union: How disappointing that not one sentence in the County Emergency Immunization story - front page, Aug. 8 - mentioned anything negative or potentially dangerous about the upcoming push to vaccinate students entering school this fall.
Never was there a mention of the potential dangerous side effects of the Hepatitis B vaccine, which, according to the Center for Disease Control, ranges from fatigue, weakness, arthritis and fever over 100 degrees, to "the vaccine can cause death," according to a 1994 Institute of Medicine report. There are repeated reports that Hep B vaccine can cause SIDS, Guillain-Barre syndrome and others.
According to Merck and Company, "The duration of the protective effect of the vaccine in healthy vaccinees is unknown at present and the need for booster doses is not yet defined." Also, that those who have a allergy to baker's yeast should not receive the vaccine at all.
I am also disappointed that the ingredients of the vaccine aren't listed which include Aluminum hydroxide, Formaldehyde, Thimerosal (mercury) and MRC-5 cellular protein (MRC-5 cell line was derived from the human lung tissue of a 14-week-old male fetus aborted from a 27-year-old woman.)
I am neither anti-vaccine, nor pro-vaccine. I am, however, pro-informed consent, that parents owe it to their children to find all the facts - not just those printed in the immunization brochures from their physicians, (the one's with the pretty babies on the front) but all information, including a fact that most people aren't aware of: There is a government fund called the "Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund" whose monies come from an excise tax of 75 cents per dose purchased, which, if we use the 1,000 doses ordered, Kosciusko County will contribute $750 towards someone injured by the vaccine.
This fund paid out in 2005 $59,381,444.74 for people injured or killed by vaccines. There is a $250,000 cap on death.
I encourage parents to read, read read, and then make the decision that is best for your family. The Web site www.nvic.org is a great place to start and the U.S. Department of Health.
"The hepatitis B shots offer an opportunity for the Planning Committee to have a small version of a trial run." I am going to opt out of being part of this "trial run" since people at high risk for getting Hep B (which is transmitted by coming into direct contact with an infected person's body fluids) are IV drug users, prostitutes, prisoners, sexually promiscuous persons and babies born to infected mothers, which the majority of us aren't.
Julie Larson, via e-mail Warsaw
Great Britain
Editor, Times-Union: England remembered, and we are thankful. They helped prevent 8/11 from being a worse nightmare than 9/11 for the USA and the world.
France's government (and the rest of Europe) seems to have forgotten the millions of lives and billions of dollars we gave to help deliver them from the madman named Hitler and the hate war he waged against the world so recently.
So, thanks to Tony Blair, Afghanistan, Japan and all caring peoples the world over who have joined your hearts and governments with ours to do our part to pull our world back from the brink of another hate destruction!
8/11/06 may be remembered as the day our "happy-go-easy" way of travel ended!
If so, then so be it! I believe that many of the freedoms we cherish will have to be adjusted and put on a "war-time basis" until this crisis (which many of you deny the reality of) is over - which may take longer and cost a whale-of-a-lot more than any of us like to admit.
Really folks, is it not time to face the reality that the true God is a God of love, truth and justice (just like Jesus Christ) and that God made us to be His followers and imitators? To try and fall short is one thing, but not to make a heroic try is not only gross ingratitude, I believe it can lead us to a rebellion that is permanently fatal.
