Tuesday, Nov. 03, 2009

Letters 11/3

More delaying tactics

My concern is that there is no mention of the recent lawsuit the Hope Clinic and the University of Illinois Chicago (represented by the ACLU) filed in Chicago to challenge, once again, and stall any efforts to place parental rights back in the hands of the parents of these underage minors being forced or coerced into abortion facilities such as Hope Clinic in Granite City. Hope Clinic is the Midwest's largest pregnancy termination center where no parental notification is necessary and they specialize in late-term abortion.

Parental notification has been on the books of Illinois since 1984, was revised in 1995, and has been stalled at each juncture of enforcement. Parents should be made aware of any health issues and surgical procedures when it comes to their minor children. Minors cannot get tattoos or their ears pierced without parental consent.

The parental notification law was to go into effect today. With this recent desperate attempt to keep rights out of parents' hands, it just tells you who is keeping the lights on inside this abortion mill.

Angela Michael

Highland

The big picture

Have you noticed all the negative venting lately? I must admit I, too, have done my share.

I read something recently that helped me focus on what is most important and what is not very important. It stated something to the effect that, "whatever you and I are fretting about just now won't matter in 100 years because not one person who is alive today will be alive 100 years from now."

To me, that means we should look at the big picture and let the small stuff go.

Maybe we should back off of criticism and look real close at ourselves. When I look real close in a mirror, I see hope for the future. When I look real, real close, I see the potential for good deeds. When I look really, really close, with my nose touching the mirror, I can see past myself. Once I can see past myself, the big picture is easier to see.

If I stop pointing my finger at others and instead try to find someone who I can help in some way, the big picture begins to be clear.

I think I'll go volunteer somewhere that is focused on helping others. What are you going to do?

Charlie Kramer

Belleville

Birds of a feather

Barack Hussein Obama is the Nobel Peace Prize recipient for 2009. This surprised most people. It should not have.

The Nobel Selection Committee and President Obama are mirror images of each other. The selection committee consists largely of self-selected Scandinavian political hacks of no particular distinction out to do good as defined by them.

Obama and the Nobel Committee both value universal relativism. That means peace and justice means whatever they say it is at any particular time.

Both agree that sometimes the involuntary ending of an aging, decent person's life is a public good. That seems normal to the Scandinavian judges since their country has the highest suicide rate in the world. So, for doctors to cease trying to extend the life of an old person is reasonable to them.

Somehow, I think people with that mind-set are not the best judges of who should select Nobel Prize winners.

Will the 1989 Nobel Prize winner, the Dalai Lama, be invited to the Obama award ceremony? Maybe not. After all, recently Obama refused to see the Dalai Lama in the White House -- the first U.S. president to snub him. Obama's attitude toward the Dalai Lama may fulfill Immanuel Kant's thoughts of 200 years ago that arrogant and elite humans who, lacking common sense and experience, may yet lead to "eternal peace in mankind's graveyard." I may be wrong, but that's the way it looks to this simple Illinois farmer.

Loren E. Klaus

Glen Carbon

Fear gets in the way

It's unbelievable how Christians are willing to spread lies for the health insurance industry. Why are they so eager to believe bogus versions of the Health Care Reform bill?

The bogus HR 3200 was created at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University by its advocacy group called The Liberty Counsel. Many people swallowed it hook, line and sinker and spread it via chain e-mails.

Why did Rep. Roy Blunt lie about Canadian hip replacements? Can you say health insurance prostitute? He has received $2,423,886 in lobby money (bribes) from the health sector.

Republican politicians all recite the same talking points devised by strategist Frank Luntz and the Liberty Counsel. They often include the words socialist, government-run, czar and ACORN.

How many will die this time from the right-wing echo chamber of fear and hate? Remember Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph?

Death panels, rationing and bureaucrats exist now and are managed by health insurance companies. The Republican state of Texas has death panels. It's called The Texas Futile Care Law. It was signed into law by Gov. George W. Bush in 1999.

Without a public option, we all lose and the greedy insurance companies win. Opponents of the public option support corporate greed and corporate welfare.

To separate fact from fiction, go to Health Reform Fact Check, FactCheck.org, or Politifact.com.

Google "medical tourism" to see why 500,000 Americans flew overseas last year for quality, affordable surgeries.

Gene Robke

Carlyle

Limbaugh fallout

I personally don't care whether Rush Limbaugh is part of the group wanting to buy the St. Louis Rams, but the hatchet men chopping at Limbaugh's character need to look at the chips that have hit the fan in their past.

NFL Commissioner roger Goodell wants you to think he's Mr. Clean, but he's conveniently forgetting his NFL dishonor list: Michael Vick, Leonard Little, Shawn Merriman, Plaxico Burress, Travis Henry and Donte Stallworth.

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, two race-baiting braggadocios, threw in their two cents' worth, but with their checkered past, you'd think they'd keep their yaps shut.

By coincidence, this is really weird, one of Limbaugh's most vocal opponents, Demaurice Smith, head of the players' union, yet by another coincidence happens to be a big Obama supporter, and yet by another coincidence was a key player at Obama's transition team, ironic huh?

But silly, stupid, racist me, truth be known, Demaurice Smith probably only lived on the same block as Obama, or was just by another coincidence a casual acquaintance who just happened to sit next to Obama in Jeremiah Wright's church. Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Dennis Rodenhofer

Swansea

Straighten up the lines

On Oct. 25, while riding with my mother on Carlyle Avenue in front of Douglas School, I noticed that the street was resurfaced. It was a very smooth ride. What caught my eye was the fact that the yellow striping was going in different directions. There was no sense of direction at all.

The effect of the striping made me very sick. If the paint job on the pavement does this to a passenger, what kind of distraction will this cause for the driver?

I was always told that if you are going to do a job, make sure it is done right the first time. It is my opinion that whoever did the striping should redo it at no cost to the city before there is an accident.

Nick Arteaga

Belleville