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Letters to the editor, April 23, 2007
An object of fear
To some I'm a frightening object, both useful in trained hands as well as dangerous when handled by people with little knowledge.
I strike fear into the minds of many, and often a cold sweat develops when uneducated folks see me, much less handle me. My barrel can be of different lengths and the long, narrow portion is measured in terms of "gauge".
I am more lethal, as well as effective, when loaded. I can easily pierce body parts and I can shoot foreign objects into folks.
You can't just walk in and buy one from the retailer without showing identification and being over 21. I save lives and do so daily, but my misuse can lead to injury and death.
I am small enough to be concealed yet I can generate needless fear and paranoia. Folks are divided as to whether I should be more available or more restricted.
Good people use me for numerous benefits but criminals prefer to use me outside of the law. While not everyone likes me I am only as good or bad as the person controlling my use. What am I? I'm an insulin syringe.
Unlike firearms, few are yet dumb enough to actually want to ban my use out of nothing more than ignorant fear, clueless paranoia, empty logic and the perverse desire to inappropriately control other law-abiding folks' lives.
Craig Borgardt
Caledonia
Breeding violence
This week our nation has been in shock over the loss of 32 vibrant young lives in the Virginia Tech massacre. Our hearts go out to their families and friends.
A few days after this event, 183 Iraqis were massacred in U.S.-occupied Iraq, with scant news coverage.
Estimates of Iraqis killed since the beginning of the war range from 50,000 to 100,000. U.S. deaths in the war are over 3,200 and rising. Neither statistic includes the permanently wounded. All are mourned by families and friends.
How do we value a life? Are U.S. lives more valuable than Iraqis?
Violence breeds more violence. We know violent parents breed violent children. Violent nations breed violent citizens. What lessons will Iraqi children traumatized by war carry into their adult lives, if they survive? What lessons do American children learn from our government's eagerness to go to war over lies?
What kind of revolution would it be if we could all wage peace and nonviolence with the eagerness that we went to war four years ago?
Something to ponder.
Mary Spengler
Racine
Why does God allow war?
After watching pictures on TV of many of our fine soldiers at Water Reed Hospital, I'm sure we all wished that war could be voted down. The reality seems to be found in the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3: "A time of war and a time of peace." History seems to verify this as fact. To deny this fact always brings slavery of the worst sort.
More than 60 years ago at a time when the world stood on the brink of the Nazi Holocaust, a British preacher named Martyn Lloyd-Jones grappled with this very same question “ why war? He concluded from his study of the Bible that the ultimate cause of war is lust and desire: This restlessness that is part of us as the result of sin. He went on to say war is the large-scale effect and consequence of the same tendency we see in ourselves to be jealous or to lie or to hold a grudge “ in other words, our tendency to sin. He goes on and says "to put it simply, war is the result of sin. God allows war as a reminder of the horror of sin and a wake-up call to speedily seek forgiveness, justice and peace." He says this as well "The question that needs asking is not why God allows war but rather, why does God not allow the world to destroy itself entirely in its own inequity and sin?" Why doesn't he, in his restraining grace, set a limit to evil and to sin and a bound beyond which they can't pass?
Pastor Jones finishes his remarks with great hope for all of us. "The amazing patience of God with this sinful world. How wondrous is his love." John 3:16 will always be as true as it was 2,000 years (and beyond) ago. Now abides "faith, hope and love, the greatest of these is love." Passover and Easter are magnificent observances - death was conquered, life has won. Choose life forever.
Ron Peterson
1206 Kenilworth Ave., Racine
Hydrogen is the future
I recently attended a talk at UW-Parkside on the development of the hydrogen fuel cell.
Its development has progressed to the point where it appears to be the most viable solution to our energy needs.
However the disappointing news is that it is still approximately 15 years before this technology will become applicable. On October, 16, 1973 OPEC imposed an oil embargo which sent shock waves throughout the world. It was a rude awakening on how vulnerable the industrial countries were upon this precious commodity. The day following the imposition of the embargo President Nixon should have convened an emergency session of congress and proposed a "Manhattan" type project “ a multi-faceted energy research program equivalent to the one which put a man on the moon and developed an atomic bomb. Since that time 34 years ago we have had seven presidents each promising to embark on an energy program which would minimize our dependence on foreign oil. None have delivered on those promises. Hydrogen appears to be our best hope to supply our energy needs in the future and an all out effort should be made to bring it to fruition.
There are two ways it can be used: in fuel cells that generate electricity to run electric cars, or as a fuel in an internal combustion engine. Either way produces essentially no harmful emissions. So, one might ask where do we get the necessary fuel, hydrogen. There are a number of ways hydrogen can be generated, two of which are from fossil fuels, or the electrolysis of water. Hydrogen can be produced from natural gas, coal, or almost any other hydrocarbon. We have a 300 year reserve of coal and technology to convert it to hydrogen is well established.
What's needed is the infrastructure for a hydrogen based economy. This is the reason given for the delay in being able to run our cars on fuel cells, or hydrogen internal combustion engines. The standard answer is that it will take a lot of money to develop this infrastructure. How much are we spending on importing foreign oil, or fighting a futile war in Iraq? If a $1/gallon tax was imposed on gasoline this would generate $180 billion/year which could be spent on the infrastructure.
Vincent D'Orazio
Racine
Dangerous intersection
There have been way too many accidents and deaths at the junction of highways J and 36 in Rochester. Maybe we can get the powers that be (Department of Transportation) to see that J going east onto 36 is unnecessary and should be made into a dead end, available to local traffic only.
Highway D out of Rochester meets Highway 36 with stop and go lights and is only a couple of blocks away.
The crossover median should also be taken out to save lives, there has to be some type of vision problem at the Highway J crossing, a blind spot from the sun. I hope and pray this problem is addressed before there are any more fatalities.
Bonnie Hembrook, 76
Burlington
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| Letters to the editor, April 22, 2007 |
