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Open Forum: Founding fathers disagree
In response to Friday's "Keep religion out of government," I have to dutifully disagree. The author rambles on about people exercising their rights .. only to think the founding fathers would trample their rights in government.
The founding fathers of this country, in fact, based the foundations of this country on common law and the Bible. We hear a lot about this myth of separation of church and state, but it can be found nowhere in the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, or any of the basic documents that give us the liberties we have today. The author then goes and tramples on the Bible in what he calls, "a collection of fables and myths written by man" and eludes that the Bible is not infallible.
So I ask this person ... if you can prove any part of the Bible is wrong ... lets have it. Atheists and the like have been trying to prove the Bible has errors for generations with no success. It is not just the present Christians that have it right ... it was also the first president of the United States, "It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors." This nation was not founded by a bunch of heathens or atheists ... it was founded on Christian principles and men who feared and respected our Creator.
You can not rewrite history, nor can man deny our heritage.
Rev. Dale A.P. Anderson
Backus
Dickens and health care
I was thinking of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol." You know, even though he wrote that story to point out how businesses in his day was misusing and taking advantage of the poor, because people back then knew God, not just of Him, so Dickens showed there could even be redemption for Scrooge.
It's like the story read of 2 Peter 3:9b "...(God) not wanting anyone to perish..." These days, however, Hosea 4:6a seems more persuasive, "my people are destroyed by lack of knowledge..." Just to let you know, Jesus is still knocking, read Luke 11:9-13.
So why, you ask, am I thinking of this story now? One year ago, if you don't remember, generations from now, they'll be paying off our debts of today, America put in the White House the most inexperienced, socialist and unknown person ever, just because he was black! All Obama is proving is you can be foolish and dangerous no matter what color skin you have!
"An America" was sent to the Senate. Poor Norm, first he lost to "the Body," now to "an America." Norm's problem he's not a freak or geek.
My wife asked me, "So what's wrong with socialized medicine?" She only asked me that because she had an argument about it with someone. My wife is from Canada so she knows first hand what's wrong with it. But the underlying problem is like what she likes to tell me about our cat. You let them do something one time and they'll try to do the same thing over and over. Once you let the government in, they're not leaving! In 2010 Obama loses the Senate and some in the House. That's why everything's a rush, their time is limited. Choose God's option, not man's! Amen.
Stephen Heinecke
Baxter
Our founders' quotations
When I was young, we began again to trust our money and we pledged allegiance to our country, and we let God, Jehovah, Allah, and other omnipotents of the people of the world to do their thing without personal offense. Also, at that time, the bloody Crusades and Jihads were in the history that we studied, and the bloody Chosen People were studied from the Bible.
Today we again have the Chosen People, new Crusades, and Jihads, that we are being demanded to take sides on. It is time we heard thoughts from our country's founders.
George Washington wrote Sir Edward Newenham, June 22,
1792; "Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause."
John Adams in a letter to Jefferson, June 20, 1815;
"The question before the human race is, whether the god of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles."
Thomas Jefferson wrote Thomas Whittemore, June 5, 1822; "[Creeds] have been the bane and ruin of the Christian Church, its own fatal invention, through so many ages, made of Christendom a slaughterhouse, and at this day divides it into castes of inextinguishable hatred to one another."
Jame Madison wrote William Bradford Jr., April 1, 1774; "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect."
Todays world, with its righteous demand from every quarter tends to bear out these statements, it seems to be, though late, a time when we must rise above the dogmas and see the people and to work with them.
Dennis G. Gordon
Nisswa
American ingenuity needed
President Obama has consistently pledged to make green jobs a priority for his administration. At an AFL-CIO meeting on Sept. 15, he pledged to create a "clean energy economy that will free America from the grip of foreign oil and create millions of new green jobs that can't be outsourced."
On Sept. 1, stimulus grants of $500 million were awarded for wind energy, with $343 million going to companies from Spain and Portugal. Another $42 million went to Everpower Wind, an American company which had just been purchased by the British. On September 22, a second round of $464 million was awarded for wind energy, all of it to U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies.
A report from American University notes that the wind turbine market is dominated by foreign companies - mainly European, but more recently Asian manufacturers as well. The U.S. market for wind turbines and components is growing rapidly, but the import/export numbers show that the U.S. imported $2.5 billion worth of wind turbines last year - up from $365 million in 2003. General Electric is the only significant U.S. turbine supplier, competing with Vesta of Denmark, Spain's Iberdrola, Siemens of Germany, and Asian players from China and Japan.
Testifying recently before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said, "When the starting gun sounded on the clean energy race, the United States stumbled, But I remain confident that we can make up the ground."
On solar technology, we face stiff competition in solar panels from Europe and Asia. Covering the ground between us and those "millions of new green jobs" will take the best of American ingenuity. Some of the stimulus money our way also wouldn't hurt.
Rolf E. Westgard
Deerwood
Outlook on the economy
I need to apologize, My last letter inferred that Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Beck were so porcine that they would never have to worry about being touched by a Muslim or a Jew, this was inappropriate for an adult, I'm sorry.
I attended a workshop which had a noted economist as a lecturer Tuesday it was very interesting. He predicted the official end to the recession would be announced today. He also predicted that there will be little growth in the labor market for five to 10 years. The rate of savings would be up and consumers who drive the market will save instead of buying so we will have a soft economy. As consumer spending will be down the only thing which will grow the economy will be government sending while he was touting the market and all the things it does and how all that government debt is bad he acknowledged that without government spending we would likely have a flat economy or a series of small peaks and valleys for the next decade. The only way to keep up government spending and not incur debt is to raise taxes the group that he was speaking to would not like to hear that so he didn't say it, however if you were paying attention you could figure it out on your own.
This evening on TV Congresswoman Bachmann gave her view of health care reform using market forces to drive it, everyone would buy their own and could take the price out of their taxes most people that I know don't pay enough taxes to equal their health insurance cost at least not those who are in the lower half of the income range in the U.S. How much would an Army private have to pay?
Jesse Nix
Emily
Minnesota's stadiums
In the metropolitan area of St. Paul and Minneapolis we recently have seen the construction and the opening of two large stadiums and we are now beginning to see the beginning of a campaign for a third one. Is there any other area in the country that has seen so many stadiums being built in so short a period of time?
Irving Morrissette
St. Paul
Level the playing field
A major reason that we have had several local restaurants go out of business lately is the unfair competition of non-profit organizations. Non-profits do many good deeds, such as helping needy people and providing scholarships, but this is offset by their negative effect on private enterprise. Some of this unfair competition has evolved over the years, such as the restaurants and bars run by the Legion Clubs and the VFW Clubs. They used to provide "low-cost eats and drinks" for their members, but now take out large advertisements welcoming the general public and listing their daily "low-cost" specials.
One of two things should be considered. Either price their menus in line with tax paying restaurants or pay the government the equivalent of the taxes and fees that an ordinary business would pay. Non-profits should also have to meet all of the building, safety and health standards with which the "for-profit restaurant" has to comply. Everyone should be in favor of a level playing field.
Chuck Hagberg
Crosby
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