Trending
Competition
will not work
To the Editor:
At this writing, all of the snow has gone out of here in Treaster Valley. Even the shaded areas beneath the hemlock trees now show only dead leaves and broken branches. Our January thaw came early this year, and we all have been enjoying the unusually warm weather. Many of us can remember years when we were not so lucky. One particular winter stands out in my memory when I was a sixth-grade student at the little one-room school where I began my public education. The ground had been covered with snow since Thanksgiving Day. Almost weekly blizzards piled up more snow. So it was a welcome relief to see the temperature rise to above freezing, and the snow blanket considerably reduced in depth.
When this happened, Miss Wiggins, our teacher, thought that we could all play outside during our lunch hour. It was a welcomed opportunity after months of inside games, such as eraser tag and marbles (would you believe that we boys even played mumblety-peg with our ever-present pocket knives)? Once outside we soon tracked the whole schoolyard with cow catchers, figure eights, and other designs. Then we found that we had a field of fine "packing" snow which made wonderful snowballs. Now, we knew that snowball fights were not allowed; so the next best thing was to build a snowman. We boys started first and rolled a ball until we could no longer move it. Then the copycat girls rolled one of their own right next to ours. Thus began a competition to see who could build the highest snowman. Snowballs were piled upon snowballs until both were higher than any of us kids. Coal shovels and scuttles were pressed into service to add mass to our molded mountains of snow. Miss Wiggins, undoubtedly enjoying the quiet classroom, did not ring the bell to end our fun. Loud arguments broke out as to which snowman was taller, wider or prettier.
Soon, a strange thing happened. The snowmen, built hurriedly without sound engineering, began to lean toward each other until they actually touched each other and held each other up. Their contact formed an arch bridge under which we could, from the tallest to the smallest, march in a row until the bell rang. We all went gleefully back to our classes. For at least one day we had learned that much more can be accomplished by cooperation instead of competition. A return of cold weather preserved our bridge for a few more days, until a well-meaning parent, fearing a collapse, broke it down.
We, of many faiths and denominations, are to be building the Church of Christ. Competition will not work--cooperation will. At the beginning of a new year, it is our opportunity and obligation to build the ministry and mission of our church together. Concepts and ideas long frozen by habit and tradition need to thaw. The warmth of our fellowship and worship will enable us to build a strong Christian Witness in our community.
"For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another." Romans 12: 4,5
Robert Zorn
Milroy
In response
to Jan. 20 letter
To the Editor:
This is in response to Mr Spahr's letter published on
Jan. 20, 2023. In his letter he tries to compare both parties and what the leaders of those parties have done concerning classified documents. Let's face facts, what Trump did by first denying that he stole documents, to then claiming that he had declassified them, to, if reports are to be believed, sold classified secrets to foreign powers, to having his lawyers claim that they had returned all the documents to the National Archives when in fact they had not. What did Biden do? He had a few classified documents in his home that when he discovered that he had them he immediately returned them. Are you comparing a person that is on a permanent grift (Trump) to someone who discovered he had inadvertently got classified documents among his personal papers (Biden). You know how to call the kettle black.
The writer calls Biden a liar, which is funny considering that Trump told a whopping 30,573 lies over his 4 year term, according to the Washington Post. Even now Trump continues to lie, and is still trying to perpetrate the big lie about the 2020 election. Must do wonders for the GOP to know that they are and will forever be connected to the Pinocchio of the right-wing political world.
In his last paragraph the letter writer made the claim about America being founded on Christian values, again this is a lie put out by the rightwing. America was founded for the freedom of religion, meaning that a person could worship a tree, a river, or anything they want. It even means that a person does not have to worship anything. It does not mean that they have to follow a book that has caused more violence since its inception than anything else.
Going back to the beginning of America, you can see the violence that that book has caused from the forced conversion of native tribes to the Jim Crow era to name some of it.
Some of that violence can be seen even today with the way that anyone with an alternative lifestyle gets treated by members of your party. Here is a quote from Thomas Jefferson that he to John Adams in 1823, "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the Generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.... But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in the United States will do away with all this artificial scaffolding..."
Seems that even a founding father that you seem to love so much, knew that Christianity was nothing more than fables.
George Fisher
Lewistown
Deaths can be pinned on president
To the Editor:
I have more to say about what is going on at the Southern border, and the policies of the Biden Administration.
I understand that Biden intends to allow up to 30,000 people to come into the U.S. every month and give them legal status for up to two years so they can work. That is an addition of 360,000 a year besides the millions coming across the border illegally every year. The man is a complete lunatic.
In New York City we taxpayers are paying to put illegals up in hotel rooms that cost $500 a night and providing them with food which they threw out because they don't want to eat it. This is how they show their appreciation. In addition, they are fornicating in the hallways, fighting and causing all kinds of damage there. They are turning the once fine hotels into slums. We are already $31 trillion in debt. Why should we as taxpayers put up with it?
In addition to the unfairness to the American public and especially to those on the border who have their homes broken into, their fences cut, their property damaged and all the terrible things that happen to the illegals themselves.
There have been at least a thousand that have been killed crossing the border. They have drowned in the river, gotten lost and died of exposure, heat or thirst. There have been countless rapes and sexual assaults. Many end up in the sex trade in the U.S. Not to mention those that have suffocated in trailers and train cars. They have died in car and truck crashes. Even Americans have been killed or died trying to save them. Each and every one of these terrible things lay at the feet of Biden and his administration and those who support these border policies.
On top of all the things I have already talked about, there are all the drugs coming across the border. The largest cause of death to young people in the five to 18 years of age group is the drugs that come across the border. These deaths too can be laid at the feet of Biden and his policies. He is making the cartels richer than they have been even and killing our nation, especially its youth, at the same time. All of you people that support these immigration policies are guilty of these deaths. I hope you feel the weight of your guilt!
Stephen Sellers
Lewistown