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Tony Eldridge’s comments about Tea Party members and candidates are misguided, misleading, and intellectually dishonest: “Once you have portrayed your opponents as less than human and illegitimate, you sentence yourself to endless and unproductive conflict and a spiral that has ultimately ended in violence.”
Those words have much greater applicability to Congress, the Obama Administration (speaking of experts on using straw men!), and the Left than to the Tea Party or conservatives in general. Were I to show up at an SEIU rally no more makes me a member of that organization than those you decry showing up there, at a Tea Party Rally, or at the Congressional Black Caucus.
“So the conservatives have a responsibility to ... restore legitimacy to their candidates and their cause.” I presume he suggests suggest that advocacy for a smaller, less intrusive and more responsible government, one respecting our Constitution and Bill of Rights, is somehow illegitimate? And candidates of similar bent likewise? Is bankrupting our country and destroying jobs legitimate? How about destroying our freedoms? Advocacy of overturning those pernicious policies is our patriotic duty, one held legitimate since 1776.
I suppose Eldridge likewise thinks Black Panthers with clubs outside polling places overtly threatening whites on Election Day similarly fatally condemns Democrats, their candidates, and Obama. Does he? How about Rahm Emmanuel?
And let’s not forget union thugs.
His argument is fallacious, his bias towards he ship of fools in power is blindingly obvious, and the Tea Party goals and means are honorable and just. The actions of others is neither the provenance nor the province of the Tea Party.
Don Riley, M.D.
Judge Davidson doesn’t know law on free speech
U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson recently ruled that the Itawamba County School Board violated lesbian student Constance McMillen’s First Amendment rights by canceling the junior-senior prom.
The United States Supreme Court made it clear in Morse v. Frederick (2007) that school officials are entitled to restrict student speech and expressions in order to maintain an orderly, disruption-free school environment.
Sadly, we appear to know more about recent Supreme Court rulings than Judge Davidson does.
Judge Davidson said the school violated Ms. McMillen’s right to free speech. This is preposterous. Ms. McMillen has been talking non-stop to anybody who will listen, and the school has made no effort of any kind to stop her. She’s been on “The Early Show,”
“The Wanda Sykes Show,” “The Ellen Degeneres Show,” has done countless media interviews and has 400,000 fans at the Facebook page set up for her by the ACLU. DeGeneres even presented her with a $30,000 college scholarship.
We should all be lucky enough to have our rights violated so egregiously.
Despite the ACLU’s contention that Ms. McMillen was being treated unfairly, in point of fact she was being treated with absolute equality. She had exactly the same right to bring an opposite-sex date to the dance that every other student had. The same rule applied to her and to everyone else. You can’t get any more equal than that. The ACLU and homosexual activists are not after equal rights, since Constance already had that. No, they’re after special rights, rights based exclusively on non-normative sexual expression.
Despite the ACLU’s constant bleating about cramming the values of one student down the throats of an entire school district, and using the power of the federal government to do it.
The bad guys here? The ACLU and a hyperactive federal judge. The losers?
Itawamba’s graduating seniors. The lost? Constance McMillen, because she is so tragically confused about her sexuality. The winners? Nobody.
Bryan Fischer
Director of Issues Analysis
American Family Association
Nation should return to Bible’s precepts
I have watched and read with astonishment the prom ordeal going on at IAHS. It amazes me how people try to change the Bible to fit their lifestyle, instead of changing their lifestyle to conform to the Bible.
Homosexuality is not just another lifestyle as some would have us believe.
It is sin and has been condemned as an abomination since the beginning of time. (Leviticus 18) Read also Romans 1:26-32 and Ephesians 5:12. It is sin.
If homosexuality is not sin, neither is adultery, fornication, lying, cheating or anything else.
Yes, Jesus ate with publicans and sinners (Matt. 9:10), but what was he doing? Wake up people! He was teaching them in order to lead them to repentance. If we as Christians do not stand for the Gospel and refute sin, I shudder to think what this world will be for future generations.
People, we had better wake up and stand for the truth set forth by Jesus Christ. We need to get this country back to the moral principles it was founded upon. Get back to the Bible.
Evelyn Laney
Joanne Burroughs
Lois Wright
Pitts lacked facts in attack on Beck
The article by Leonard Pitts about Glenn Beck seems to be long on accusation and short on substance. It seems the far off left is in attack mode against Glenn Beck and the church.
Our government is bent on socialism, which means the loss of individual freedom and the end of liberty for all Americans.
Pitts and others seem to think the government is supposed to take care of all their problems. When the government is in control, the people will have no rights. That is what Glenn Beck can see.
Look at Jeremiah Wright if you think communists can’t be in the pulpit.
Our Constitution is our laws and it was written by our forefathers. When our leaders refuse to govern by our Constitution, they are outlaws, the same as any of us who willingly break our laws.
Our laws are set up to where each and every person gets justice. It is up to each and every one of us to see that the government does not favor this group or that group. It is plain to see our government is not governing by our constitution. They are taking the money that belongs to each of us and bribing this group and that group so they can take power, what is not theirs, which is the tyranny of socialism. Socialism and communism are not mere words; they are cruel oppressive governments that stomp on the rights and freedoms of all people who are oppressed by them.
At least two-thirds of the federal budget represents forcing one American to serve the purposes of another. The government is helping some people to live at the expense of other people.
Glenn Beck is warning people about “big government socialism,” and he is not attacking any church that is teaching the love and truth found in the Bible. If any man has ears to hear, let him hear. People are concerned about their children and the next generation, so let’s stand for love, righteousness and truth, so we may go down in flames, but we don’t have to live in eternity in flames that’s the sweet by and by.
Jimmie Lucas
Tremont
Displeasure expressed about rude employee
I am writing to complain about the disrespect and lack of customer service at the East Pontotoc Water Association.
I was mistakenly placed on their unpaid bills list twice. I spoke with someone in their office who confirmed that my bill was up to date and that I would be removed from this list. Instead, four days later I came home with my three small children to find that my water had been turned off. Since it was well after 5 p.m., I called the next morning to have it turned back on. Harper Massett, the meter reader on call, yelled at me and refused to believe my bill was paid. As a local government employee, I was outraged that another public servant would be so disrespectful to one of the people who pays his salary. I called my county supervisor, Ernie Wright, who was helpful and had the water association confirm yet again that my bill had been paid. However, the association refused to believe that Massett had spoken so offensively. I then called Brandon Presley’s office to file a complaint against Massett. One of the Public Service Commission’s investigators spoke with Zebedee Prude, the Water Association Board president, who was just as flippant and disrespectful as Massett had been.
I would like for other Pontotoc County residents to know what level of service they will get if they ever have a problem with their water. In the future, I will be more proactive in my county elections and public meetings to ensure that I, as well as other residents of East Pontotoc County, receive the service we pay for and deserve.
Nikki Burton
Furrs Community
Strong exceptions taken to 'right-wing' slants
As a progressive I have taken note of the
hypocrisy and misinformation contained in the right-wing talking points emanating from such notables as Tupelo’s Sen. Wicker and Rev. Wildmon’s AFA against ObamaCare. Yesterday, I came across an article by Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., New Jersey that I want to share with you:
"As Congress convenes today to pass long-awaited health insurance reform, I’m reminded of one of the last times we voted on Sunday: March 20, 2005, when Republicans forced an extraordinary vote to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo.
“To know what a real government takeover looks like, one should revisit that resolution. That midnight vote was a grotesque legislative travesty. For 215 years it had been a solid principle of this country that Congress not get involved in life-and-death issues like the tragic case of Ms. Schiavo. Yet, on that Sunday – Palm Sunday – Congress broke with tradition and inserted its own judgment. On that Sunday, the Republican Congress sent the message that it knew better than families, doctors, and hospital chaplains.
"To my friends on the other side of the aisle who repeatedly claim that Congress is passing a ‘government takeover’ – I kindly remind them that’s their work, not ours. Our work expands private insurance while increasing choice and competition and protecting consumers from the worst abuses of the insurance industry and leaving medical decisions in the hands of doctors and their patients. We intend that patients, families, and doctors – not the government, not insurance companies – have control over health decisions."
Thanks for Rep. Holt’s candor. Health Care Reform will prove to be a plus for all Americans.
Al Bratton
Tupelo