LETTERS: CONDONING A SNIPER, JUDGING OTHERS

To the editor:

In response to the Oct. 26 article about the doctor slain by a sharpshooter in his home, I am outdone by the people who call themselves Christians. Reflecting on a quote in the story given by the Rev. Donald Spitz: "We as Christians have a responsibility to protect the innocent from being murdered the same way we would want someone to protect us."

Spitz is quick to use the work "innocent," but how does society define innocence? How guilty is a man in his home with his wife and four children that he deserves to be shot in the back? Does Spitz have young children in his home? If so, do they go to bed at night knowing the will wake up and find their daddy the next morning?

"Whoever shot the shot protected the children," Spitz is quoted as saying.

Dr. Barnett Slepian, the doctor who was shot, said in a 1994 television interview, "Maybe they are not going to perform it, but they're setting up their soldiers to perform violence."

Are "they" the advocates of this crime? Are "they" the ones who are holier than thou and feel a man who has chosen a path that the next would not is to blame for the problems of our society? "They" are the ones who feel they are right and everyone else has just plumb lost their minds and anybody who has anything to do with this process is at fault.

Explain the reasoning. How can someone who doesn't know me from Adam say what is right for me? Although I understand the frustration that an unplanned pregnancy causes most people, it is still nobody's business but that woman's. If her options are taken away, "they" have now caused an increase in child neglect and abuses and infant death. People must not forget the money that is dished out every year in federal aid to families who can't take care of the children they've got. What about high school dropouts who don't have enough support to help them strive for the measly diploma that doesn't county for anything when you're alone with a child?

Please excuse the tone of this letter, but how dare these people judge the actions of others when they praise the actions of a sniper -- a killer himself?

REYNA SPENCER

Cape Girardeau