LETTERS: SELF-EXAMINATION IS NEEDED

To the editor:

In March, Gary and Mrs. Rust traveled to Japan and Thailand. The Opinion page of the Southeast Missourian carried a brief but well-written synopsis of this journey, which clearly indicated they were there. The commentary spoke chiefly of that continent's future.

"The modernization of Asia," the column said, "must not be thought of as westernization of Asia, but the modernization of Asia in the `Asian way'." Rust says that "Asians have so Social Security or any other manifestation of the welfare system." He concludes the column, "Not only do Asians believe the cost of the welfare state is a heavy burden on competitiveness, they also contend that it undermines the importance of the family and leads to out-of-wedlock children (in the U.S., 30 percent are born out of wedlock, while in Malaysia it is 2 percent), high divorce rates, crimes and loss of self-reliance, and lower academic achievement."

Malaysia is mentioned. Let it be said parenthetically this is not a sparsely settled outpost of planet Earth. In 1995, it had a population of 20 million-plus.

In "The Road to Mandalay," Rudyard Kipling said, "There are no Ten Commandments east of Suez." Recalling what was said above -- the ratio of U.S. and Malaysian children born out of wedlock -- it is in order to ask how are the Ten Commandments heeded west of Suez? This question has reference to abortion, illegitimacy, decay of morals, sodomy, lesbianism and more of the same garbage. It is high time for self-examination on a national plateau.

One question: Does our media carry information on the subject tapped by Gary Rust? If not, why not?

THE REV. WALTER J. KEISKER

Cape Girardeau