Letters: Gun control; Removing monuments

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RE: Voices: Put not your trust in guns

Jake Raabe’s faulty exegesis and flawed theology is beyond my understanding. But rather than waste my breath on a point by point refutation, let me at least correct his defamation of the NRA.

The National Rifle Association has an efficient lobbying entity, but a quote from a CNN web article states, “Companies are barred from donating to the NRA’s political action committee, which the agency uses to fill campaign coffers, run ads and send out mailers for and against candidates.” Just use that ubiquitous search engine which begins with a G, and type in “funding sources for the NRA.”

The NRA is not a faceless demon-puppet of the gun manufacturers, but an association of millions of patriotic Americans, many of whom are believers, who clearly grasp the importance of the Second Amendment.

I put my trust in God for my eternal destiny because I have trusted his Son Jesus as my Savior. Having been a pastor for 45 years, I can testify that bad things happen to good people, and it borders on superstition to use “trusting” God as a promise nothing bad will ever happen to a believer.

Dave Keith
Carlton, Texas

RE: Are Confederate monuments today’s ‘high places’ to be torn down?

I was born deep in the heart of Texas many years ago. My ancestors were in the South from the time of the Revolution and some likely fought for the Confederates in the Civil War and some may have been bank robbers. I continue to be amazed when some get so emotional about one of the two most divisive, ill-advised wars in our history. Some say the monuments to Confederates are about “preserving history and heritage.”

My heritage is not about a conflict fought to preserve and extend the institute of slavery that took the lives of more than 600,000 soldiers on both sides. Instead, it is about my parents who were poorly educated but brought four children into the world during the Great Depression and sacrificed to feed and educate us through high school. Because of that education, I was able to serve in the military 27 years and fly military aircraft 42 years.

What about the “historical” value of the monuments? I knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor before I entered the 1st grade but didn’t actually see Pearl Harbor until R and R during my second tour in Vietnam when I was 31. We learn history by attending school and reading books, not looking at monuments of men on horses. That makes even less sense than saying you are smarter because you stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Sadly, bigotry is one of the most powerful political forces in America today, and that is the main reason some are so resistant to removing the monuments.


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Carl L. Hess
Ozark, Ala.


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