Speak Out 07/09/04

Start with the Bible

IF ONE knew nothing about the Declaration of Independence and was motivated to read it in its entirety after reading your editorial tribute to it, the first place the person would likely look would be the Bible.

Not very bright

THE COMMENT about the person pumping gas while smoking hit a nerve with me. I know people who smoke aren't very bright (there are exceptions), but it takes a particularly stupid person to smoke a cigarette while pumping gas.

Too much noise

THE WEEK preceding the Fourth of July is like a war zone in my neighborhood. We called the police several times for firecrackers late at night during the work week. One night we had firecrackers at 2:15 a.m. By the time the police get here, it is a done deal. How about making fireworks on any day except the Fourth of July illegal?

Look on the inside

SO MANY examples abound of the suffering some women willingly endure for beauty's sake: eyebrow tweezing, four-inch heels, thong undies, starvation, surgical procedures. This is not exactly a new development. Corsets, for instance, predate "Extreme Makeover" by centuries. But it's less common to see irritation or even pain serving as a kind of selling point, almost as proof that a product works. Isn't it ironic the lengths women will go to for the sake of their outsides, so often ignoring what could be enduringly developed on the inside? All men are really, truly seeking is a kind and warm heart that beats true whenever life's little rains must fall.

Transcendent truths

FIRST DAVID Limbaugh tries to demonize John Kerry by portraying him as a radical left-winger. He now claims Kerry is running to the right of President Bush on the issue of the Iraqi quagmire. Has Limbaugh's thinking evolved to the point that he now sees transcendent truths in what the rest of us would claim to be contradictory editorial commentary on Limbaugh's part?

Field-trip concerns

I AM very concerned that the Boys and Girls Club took one of my kids to a bar on a field trip. There was a machine there with a naked woman on it. I don't feel that that's very appropriate for the children to be seeing these types of things and going to a bar for a field trip.