Letters: MLK and voter ID

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Go To Topics:  MLK, Climate

Relationships & the unrealized dream

I pastor a church that has become increasingly ethnically diverse over the years. I have also been a careful student of not only the “I Have a Dream” speech of Martin Luther King, but also many of his other sermons. Count me as an admirer of his incredible giftedness.

That being said, I must once again disagree concerning the voter identification efforts that are being done. Surely it is not too great a hardship on anyone in this modern age to show their true identity in order to vote. Especially is this true when there are numerous ways to be assisted in doing so.

I often disagree with the Supreme Court, but I regard this decision as a matter of common sense in a day when our borders are so porous that we cannot seem to find a way to solve the problem.

As to those in country now, our church teaches large numbers of adults in ESL classes, buys school supplies for their children, tutors their children and shares the wonderful good news of Christ with them. We also have many discussions about legal status in regards to their residency. They know we love them and they love us in return. Voting is for citizens. Duh!

Now as to an unrealized dream, there is no political solution. The solution comes through loving relationships, and the Body of Christ needs to lead the way.

Dan Wooldridge

Georgetown


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King’s Dream ‘perverted’

Recently, blacks murdered a white Australian in Oklahoma. No mention in the news. Recently, blacks murdered a World War II survivor from the battle on Okinawa. Again, no news. The first killing was for thrills; the second was a robbery and the old man was beaten to death.

I, as many, are tired of the poor blacks who cry racism because the can’t get  high-paying jobs. Us whites worked at below-minimum-wage jobs, bettered ourselves and rose in the economy. The current economic condition of blacks has nothing to do with racism but an unwillingness to work.

The sad part is, I work with hard-working family blacks—yes, married—who are not experiencing racism—many make more than I do— and want nothing to do with the likes of Trayvon Martin.

Martin Luther King is turning over in his grave over the way his Dream has been perverted. Notice haw the civil rights leaders aren’t exactly poor.

Fred Rosenbaum

Gainesville

[Editor’s Note: The Oklahoma district attorney said race was not a factor in the case there, where two African-American teens and one Anglo teen killed an Australian college student.]

Science ‘not settled’ on climate change

Katharine Hayhoe thinks Christians should change their behavior due to climate change.

This assumes climate change is caused by human activity and that it can be controlled. However, ice ages and the end of ice ages have happened many times in the past with no human intervention. We do not know how this happened, and the truth is we do not know now that the small amount of warming in the last 30 years is man-made and not natural.  

Furthermore, global surface temperatures have not increased significantly in the past 16 years. The models that predicted warming would be substantial and soon catastrophic did not predict this “pause.” Again, climate scientists do not know why.

We are on the verge of following Europe into a carbon tax that has demonstrably killed poor and elderly people by raising the price of home heating to the point that poor people can’t afford to stay warm. Do we really want to go there on the basis of science that is not settled?

Steve Pruett

Mississippi State, Miss.

Climate skeptics weren’t ‘industry-corrupted’

Regarding the article  on Katherine Hayhoe’s presentation at Wayland Baptist University, skeptic climate scientists essentially dispute what she says—not that climate change isn’t happening, but whether what little change we see is primarily driven by human-induced greenhouse gases. But we are told such skeptics are immoral, paid by the fossil-fuel industry to lie to the public.

In “The Case of the Curious Climate Covenant”, I posed the following question: “So which is the bigger sin? Failing to stop a so-called global warming crisis which has increasing credibility problems with its underlying science assessments, or breaking the 9th Commandment in order to be sure (skeptic) scientists’ criticisms aren’t taken seriously?”

In 17-plus years of the “industry-corrupted’ skeptics accusation, nobody offers one shred of evidence to prove they accepted money in exchange for demonstratively false, fabricated science reports.

No need to trust me on this, try finding the evidence yourself, namely full context document scans, undercover video/audio transcripts, leaked emails, money-transfer receipts, etc. What happens if you find no more than vague guilt-by-association claims that would never stand in actual courtroom evidentiary hearings?

Russell Cook

Phoenix


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