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We welcome letters. Please include your full name,
address, and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256,
Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com.
CHECK EVERY RETURNING VETERAN I was moved by your article “A father’s
plea to stop veterans’ suicides” [Fletcher Farrar, Dec. 20].
Rather than standing around in photo ops with President George W. Bush,
these veterans’ groups should check every returning veteran in the
community. It should not be only the duty of the VA but every veteran with
a conscience. After I came home from active duty in World War II, I
enrolled in college and met Marine veterans whose claims for
service-connected disabilities were not approved by the VA because of poor
record-keeping. I went to the VA office and explained many times that we
did not keep good medical records when we were under attack. Fighting with
the Marines, and having attended to their combat wounds in the fields of
mud, there was simply no place to write. They had their cases reviewed. [Helping veterans] is what our veterans’
organizations should do, every day.
Jack
Bauer Taylorville
A LINK TO MEDICATIONS? Anti-depressant medications are clearly a suspect in
these [veterans’] suicides. A Harvard study concluded that they can
only be taken safely if they are monitored by a team and a fully-informed
patient. From the beginning, “suicidal urges” has
been listed as a possible side effect. Patients were never informed about
this possible side effect. When they started advertising on TV they said
patients under 18 may have “suicidal urges,” which was silly.
Now they say “young adults.”
These soldiers who killed themselves may have been on
them or recently stopped, and somebody better raise the issue and demand
that a good tracking system be put in place. Tom Ferrari Tovey
DENIED ACCESS TO COURTROOM
My minor daughter recently received a speeding citation for which
she was scheduled to appear in Sangamon County Court on Dec. 26. She could
have simply paid the citation by mail and been finished with it. In an
attempt to be a responsible parent, I wanted her to appear in court and try
to obtain court supervision on the citation to avoid having it on her
permanent driving record, and hopefully, to make her more conscientious of
her speed when driving. We arrived at court at the assigned time and checked
in with the clerk. I was told, as were other parents who were there with
their children, that due to the high number of people scheduled on that
day’s docket (approximately 400, the clerk stated) we would not be
allowed to go into the courtroom with our child but would be required to
wait in the outer hall for them. I watched as my minor daughter went into the
courtroom petrified, not knowing what awaited her or what the procedure
would be.
This is, in my opinion, a travesty that should never
have occurred. A taxpaying citizen is not allowed to enter a public
courtroom on official court business with their minor child who has never
seen the insides of a courthouse because there are not enough seats? There
are inherent problems with this scenario, and the powers that be should be
ashamed that they sit idly and allow this situation to occur. When I inquired and voiced my displeasure with the
court clerk I was informed that this is the policy and that this was not a
one-time occurrence; sometimes, the clerk, stated they have as many as 800
on the docket. I have never worked for NASA, but may I suggest that
if we can put a man on the moon, surely we can accommodate concerned
parents who wish to accompany their children into a courtroom on official
court business. I might suggest that when checking in with the clerk, that
people be admitted alphabetically into the courtroom until all seats are
taken. Then when that group is completed, another round of people are
admitted based on their last name alphabetically. After I voiced my displeasure, the clerk did allow us
to go into the courtroom, but we were unable to sit with our children. The
entire experience left me with very little respect for our judicial
process.
Terry Young
Springfield
HIGHWAY ROBBERY I am writing this message to your letters section
because Sheriff Neil Williamson, one of the top “law enforcers”
in this area, has declined to answer my e-mails. Perhaps he will answer a
letter to the editor. My question remains very simple: Every fuel pump, in
and around Springfield, has a sticker on it with a picture of Williamson
that warns that pumping gas without paying is a crime. This “law enforcer,” whose deputies are
more than willing to arrest low-income citizens for “stealing”
gas, has never once condemned gasoline suppliers for charging record high
prices. Never once has this “law enforcer” ever even
investigated the gas suppliers to find out why they are still charging
record high prices. Why are gas stations allowed to steal consumers’
money with no fear of legal retaliation while consumers are regularly sent
to jail or must pay huge fines, for “stealing” high priced gas.
What is the difference between theft and theft?
Norman Hinderliter Springfield
BIRDS AND BEES FOR DOGS AND CATS
Since Jamie Lynn Spears announced her pregnancy, thousands
of parents are finally giving their teens “The Talk.” But
amorous adolescents aren’t the only ones who need help preventing
unplanned pregnancies. If you haven’t had them spayed or neutered,
your own little Fifi or Fluffy could be next. And unlike stars’
unplanned babies, unwanted puppies and kittens often live hard, short lives
— starving, freezing, being hit by cars on the streets, or being
euthanized.
Luckily for dog and cat “parents,”
it’s easy to prevent unintended pregnancies — without any
awkward talks. Just practice your ABCs — Animal Birth Control!
Spaying and neutering are routine, affordable procedures that prevent
animals from reproducing and protect your companions from many types of
cancer. Best of all, they help reduce the companion animal overpopulation
which results in 3 to 4 million animals being euthanized in shelters every
year.
For the nearest low-cost spay/neuter clinics, call
1-800-248-SPAY. Lindsay Pollard-Post
People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals Norfolk, Va.
THE COST OF MODERN SECULARISM Modern secularism’s ideology downplays or
eliminates the idea of the personal God found in western
civilization’s Judeo-Christianity. Otherwise it behaves just like a
religion and faithfully reproduces the most important parts of the
Judeo-Christian paradigm. Like their perceived nemesis, these modern
anti-Judeo-Christians also have moral values. They, too, believe them
universally valid and, akin to Marx and Lenin, therefore justify their
efforts to establish them globally through social and political struggle,
believing through such processes their truth will be gradually discovered.
They believe its ideology is inevitable and once known becomes an
infallible method for creating an earthly utopia. And, despite modern
secularism’s continued and often horrendous failings, like the
passage found in the Bible’s New Testament, modern secularism
believes its faith in itself “is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.” That belief allows it to justify or
ignore the results of its war against Judeo-Christianity’s God
— a worldwide assault whose various versions (socialism, communism,
fascism) killed a record 150 million people in the 20th century alone, all
in the quest for modern secularism’s belief in its definition of
obtainable perfect justice and freedom.
Kim Rogalin Naperville
WATCH OUT FOR GLOBALGOBLINS For more than 200 years, what made the United States
was its sovereignty and the democracy winds that blew freedom all over the
land. Starting in 2008, the Liberty Bell will ring. By the end of 2008, it
will be silent.
The New World Order agenda will plant seeds of
destruction in the hearts and minds of the American people. The New World
Order global goblins will start ending our sovereignty and democracy at the
end of 2008. The New World Order is that Satanic one-world government and
one-world religion that will make you a slave of the world. At the end of 2008, when the New World Order changing
of the guards begins, the Christians will have the greatest persecution
since Jesus died on the cross. But the greatest move of God and the
mightiest revival in the United States will happen in 2008. Don’t be scared of the storm clouds forming.
Let Jesus come into your heart and he will save you. George Culley Pinckneyville
This article appears in Dec 27, 2007 – Jan 2, 2008.
