Letters to the Editor 05/30/2007

To the Editor:

Congratulations to the District Champion Sisters High School Equestrian team for this year's number-two finish at state. The Equestrian Drill Team, that was also first at District, finished fourth out of 22 teams from around the state. Their performance was outstanding and an excellent display of choreographed horsemanship.

I applaud the Sisters Rodeo Association for its support of the drill team by letting it perform at last year's rodeo. Their performance was one of the rodeo's highlights. It is nice to see our local rodeo show its support to our Sisters team. I hope this support continues and that these great kids become a regular part of the Sisters Rodeo.

Matt Cyrus

•••

To the Editor:

I enjoyed your article on Sisters area residents' participation in the Pole Pedal Paddle competition. Here are a couple of additional names bringing honor and glory to Sisters: Don Hildebrand (10k and sprint runner) and Len Knott (downhill ski) performed on a team so formidable in its category (male 66-69) that no other teams dared contest it.

Despite the lack of competition, the team's time was good enough to beat the winning times turned in by two younger age groups.

Sisters rocks!

Leonard Knott

•••

To the Editor:

It is incredible to see the people who supposedly represent our best interests pandering to illegal immigrants.

On one hand the Democrats want us to leave the people of Iraq to the terrorists but are determined to protect the interests of people who illegally entered this country. We are a nation of immigrants, but like any nation we have to impose reasonable limits on the amount of immigrants we can handle over any period of time. Because these elected officials have no character in the best sense of the word, they have refused to deal with this problem.

Now Senator Kennedy with his "grand bargain" portends to have the answer for us all. We must do something even if it is wrong. Why these people have any respect for this man is beyond me. He is the best example of what has happened to our Congress.

I have appealed to Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden from the standpoint of their own children. These people are on the verge of giving away the United States as we have known it. They have no respect for our sovereign borders and the financial implications of this bill. It is being estimated in the trillions of dollars.

The bottom line is this: We are not responsible for the country of Mexico or their people. This legislation will place a financial burden on our country that will make the war in Iraq look like a blip on the scope. We need to continue the deportation raids, place stiff sanctions on business and close the borders. These illegals, and I believe they are illegals and not undocumented workers, will eventually leave if they fear arrest and have no jobs. Then, and only then, we can start a reasonable program of immigration and a temporary worker program.

As a nation we will face severe consequences for the cowardice and corruption of our political representatives. However, if we don't find the courage to deal with this responsibly, we will eventually be faced with the military Mexico.

Terry Burke

•••

To the Editor:

This letter is in response to Ed Beacham's letter of May 23. In re-reading Tom Bergeron's letters (April 18 and May 9), I did not find him making "fun of Christians" except to imply that their belief drives them to find the source of "life, the universe and all that" somewhere outside the natural universe. Most of them will admit to this.

In his second letter Bergeron does indeed make a statement containing the phrase quoted by Beacham but the conclusion of the sentence was: "...a super-being who wishes us to not examine the very universe he or she purportedly created." It is this lack of examination of the natural world that I would ridicule, not belief in this "super-being."

Interested Nugget readers can read or re-read these letters online at http://www.nuggetnews.com. (Click on the "letters" link).

To trust the Bible to be true because it tells you it is true is equivalent to trusting a statement of amounts owed to a seller because the statement tells you it is true. Any but a fool would make sure they actually received everything they are asked to pay for.

There are believers in God with PhDs in every discipline just as there are rational atheists and agnostics with the lowest levels of schooling or academic accomplishment. Perhaps, therefore, a reasonable paraphrase of Beacham's Biblical quotation is: "Even a fool says in his heart there is no God."

Finally, I have now put Mr. Beacham's name and phone number where it may be found in the event that I am on my deathbed so that perhaps he can finally hear someone tell him "they were proud they lived their life an atheist."

James A. Hammond

•••

To the Editor:

Look, guys, let's make it simple. Why argue? It only polarizes us more. It really all comes down to a leap of faith. If you do, you do - if you don't, you don't. All of us on our own will come to that crossroad in our lives where with our free will we can choose to live with hope or no hope, simple as that. Seek and ye shall find.

Byron Blake