May 2003
Letters to the Editor

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Any Recourse for Supporters
of Marriage Amendment?

I have supported the efforts of Mass. Citizens for Marriage with money and signature gathering, and I continue to support it with prayer.

Now that our "public servants" have abused their power and trashed our signatures, is there any recourse for this? I must say I feel raped by them and their Nazi-like behavior. Has all the effort been for nothing, is there no legal recourse?
Bob Centamore

Editor's Comment: I will be before all the Justices of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts on May 9 to ask them the same question. If they do not give us relief, they will have violated the U.S. Constitution which guarantees to every state a republican form of government, under Art. IV, section 4. Then it will be a federal issue because of their violation of the federal Constitution.

Keep your prayers coming that they will have the courage to do what is right and not what is urged upon them by the NYTimes/
Boston Globe complex.

Boston Police Give Preferential Treatment
to Planned Parenthood
It's amazing how Planned Parenthood employees get preferential treatment from the Boston Police. One of them has now accused a pro-life, faithful, black, prayer and sidewalk counselor of stalking. Of course, this is a boldfaced lie and the truth will come out in court.

Many pro-lifers have filed police reports about being assaulted by these employees only to have no follow-up by Boston Police detectives. Planned Parenthood gets police protection by having a police car outside its doors every time a pro-lifer is outside praying and counseling. What other business has a personal, public security company ready at their service to make a false arrest?

This is the reason why we need more pro-life people to come out to the abortion businesses to pray and counsel.
John Cronin
North Andover

Is Senator Kerry Just Another Clintonian 'Double-Speak'?
After his comment a few weeks back saying - "It's what you owe the troops ... if America is at war, I won't speak a word without measuring how it'll sound to the guys doing the fighting," - John Kerry did a complete Clinton-like flip-flop and calls for a "regime change here in America." This partisan rhetoric is nothing other than self-serving and self-promoting, at the cost of freedom and truth, and our American way of life.

As a Massachusetts constituent, I'm entirely disgusted at Kerry, Kennedy and Olver as they forge ahead towards relinquishing our sovereignty and individual freedoms just to be in office. Their goals have nothing to do with America, while taking advantage of what America affords them, which is why the socialists and communists in America (ACLU, War Workers' Party, etc.) are taking advantage of these liberal/socialist anti-American "Democrats," our hate-America agenda in schools and Hollywood, labor union bosses, and the ever deceptive, liberal popular media.

If these "Democrats" keep turning their face from God, He will turn His face and protection from America. If we do not return to the foundation upon which our forefathers established the Constitution, we will all become drones - "global citizens" of the immoral New World Order of the United Nations with no recourse. We will have taxation without representation under a military police-state, ruled by unelected officials, living in "sustainable developments" with no land rights.

Therefore I call on the Democrats, and specifically John Kerry, to have a "regime change" in the Democratic Party!

I praise God for President Bush. I also praise Him more that a Gaia worshipper like Al Gore is not in the White House!
Gary Kelly
Fitchburg

Kerry's Attacks Anti-American
I would hope you people would pick up on this idiot from your state and expose him for the anti-American comments he so ignorantly says to the press. He should be sent to Iraq himself to be shot at for speaking against the President of the United States,
especially when we are at war!
Jeff Haill
Mexico, MO

Prince Finneran
On April 4th there was a story about "Prince" Finneran. A bill was going to the Senate to fund bonuses for leadership positions in the legislature. Asking for more money for people like him shows bad leadership in a time when the working people of the Commonwealth are finding it hard to live from paycheck to paycheck. The "Prince" reminds me of a French Queen who said to the people, "Let them eat cake." That royal person was as much out of touch with her people as "Prince" Finneran is with the people of Massachusetts.
John McGrath
Weymouth

Think of Tomorrow
"People don't miss the water until the well runs dry" is a very old adage that is appropriate for today. The tenor of our times is "now."

As a nation we are conditioned to today and not tomorrow. Many people, including our governments, from national to local, want us to think only of today. They do not want us thinking of tomorrow because we might want different conditions to come about for our futures and that of our children.

I believe that the deterioration in governments, beginning here in the East, will move westward unless there is a concerted activity to prevent it.
Robert Hamilton
Winchester

Outraged by Haverhill High School's Homosexual Assembly on April 9
As a parent of a freshman teenager at Haverhill High School, I am outraged that my son, along with his entire class, was dismissed from school yesterday to attend an "assembly" that promoted homosexuality.

The school held an event sponsored by the Gay Straight Alliance that promoted homosexuality and required the entire school to attend. As a parent, I was never informed of such an assembly, nor was my child given the opportunity to decline. My son reported that both adults and students promoted a gay/lesbian lifestyle with speeches, pamphlets, posters and even candy! Posters included pictures of boys holding other boys' hands and girls holding other girls' hands. Students wore t-shirts from the Gay Straight Alliance and teachers wore pins. Students were told that being homosexual was not against the law, that it did not hurt anyone, and that it was acceptable and normal behavior. That is far from the truth!

Furthermore, while my son was looking at a $10,000 check donated by Wal-Mart, his picture was taken by another student member of the GSA. As well, another student GSA member handed a pamphlet to my son's friend, then stepped away and had another student member of the GSA take a picture of the boy thumbing through the pamphlet. This portrays an aura of interest of kids who are not interested, but were just going along with the crowd and attending the event only because they were told to do so by their teachers. I am completely and totally outraged!

Parents should be given advance written notification and students given the opportunity to decline such a controversial assembly. I think it is a disgrace that students were required to attend the assembly and lured with candy and chocolates. Had this event promoted men having sexual relations with boys or sodomy, I think other parents would be just as outraged. Homosexuality goes strictly against the teachings of the Bible and has no place in a public education setting. I feel as though the GSA went behind all of the parents' backs by holding such a controversial event during the school day and requiring students to attend. I intend to bring this matter to the attention of the Superintendent and School Committee.
Name Withheld
Haverhill
P.S. Is there any information you can provide me with that would help in terms of support, morally and legally, because my intention is to keep my son from attending any one of these events.

Editor's Comment: The teachers make it very difficult for you to do so without making your child an object of ridicule. Learn how to disagree without being disagreeable. Otherwise you will be torpedoed very early in the school year. These are professional activists who run these programs. You have to band together with parents of similar mind. Lastly, you must let your children know: "I send you to school to be educated. When you come home you will be re-educated back to reality." You'd be surprised at how much they will appreciate that you took a position of showing them how to resist the propaganda rather than embarrass them by causing a public scene at the school all by yourself. Let your state legislators know you are angry! Then vote accordingly.

Proud to Be an American
I've never been more proud to be an American than I am today!

President Bush has shown courage, wisdom and exceptional leadership beyond that of any president in my lifetime. Our military performed almost flawlessly to bring a quick and relatively bloodless end to an evil regime that has existed, due to their methods of unprecedented torture and intimidation. In spite of continued anti-American propaganda in pockets throughout the world, the Iraqi people know they have been liberated from a tyrant, not occupied, and are hugging our American soldiers and praising the U.S.A. It feels so good to live in a land of freedom and know we have just extended that privilege to millions more.
Bonnie O'Neil
Newport Beach, CA

No to UN Restructuring Iraq
Dear President Bush,

With the revelation of the hand that France, Russia & Belgium had in supplying Iraq with nuclear capability, how in the world can it be logical to allow them to help rebuild Iraq? This would be a slap in the faces of our soldiers who died for the Iraqis. It would be a total lack of wisdom to consult with those countries that jeopardized this planet.

You said any country who helped the terrorists was our enemy, as much as the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. These very members of the UN have not admitted their role in strengthening Saddam's arsenals. We are uncovering their "donations." They obviously don't have the best interests of Iraq at heart.
Judy Tetu
Sterling

Response to Jim Duffy
Having lived in Massachusetts in my younger days, I enjoy reading MassNews to keep up with what's happening in the land of "Chappaquiddick Ted" and "Barney Fag." So I guess that makes me one of your "narrow-minded, intolerant and prejudiced 21st century dinosaurs." I'll accept that description of myself without any shame whatsoever. I am very narrow-minded and intolerant whenever some limp-wristed, lisping pansy tries to force me to accept their perverted life style as normal.

As for the Catholic priests being a bigger threat to our children than the gays or liberals, they are the gays and liberals! Last but not least, I am thrilled to know that the gays have a welcome mat out for them in West Roxbury. Hopefully, it will keep them out of my neighborhood!
John Fedor
Yoncalla, OR

Bulger's Path Hurts Students
Students should protest UMass President William Bulger for the future of their own educations. The system, itself, is the problem as it jeopardizes its core mission to pursue unrealistic and hubristic expansion. Bulger's path hurts students.

The Board of Trustees approved a system-wide fee increase of $1,000 for in-state students and $2,000 for out-of-state students, or nearly 18%, for the coming 2003-2004 academic year. Only the student representative from UMass Amherst voted against the hike. Since 1989, fees have skyrocketed 453%! Unfortunately, fees are mandatory and permanent. Many fees are extraneous and never directly benefit the students who are forced to pay them.

Romney only sought an $838, or 15%, tuition increase. His plan would increase financial aid to offset the burden upon in-state students. The restructuring will prohibit campuses from raising fees and ties funding to student performance.

The establishment essentially hiked taxes upon working students. It is unconscionable to raise the costs of a college education without shattering the status quo. Support the Governor's proposal to reorganize the University of Massachusetts and save public higher education.
Brock N. Cordeiro
UMass Boston, Graduate Class of 2004
UMass Dartmouth, Undergraduate Class of 2001
Dartmouth

Teachers Union Should Spend Wisely
The Massachusetts Teachers Association plans to spend $2 million to attack Governor Mitt Romney's budget. They will make false claims that it will cause larger class sizes.

If the Teachers Union were really interested in educating children, and not political power, they would invest that money on training teachers to do their jobs better.

After all, because of early retirement, so many of our most experienced teachers, who say they love what they do, retired after less time in the field than most real labor workers, not to mention police and firefighters who are ready to risk their lives every day.
Vincent A.J. Errichetti
Woburn

Letter from a Canadian Friend
To our American friends, south of the boarder: a short history lesson. Most Canadians support the U.S. We do not all agree with our P.M., but before you start judging Canada about not being in this war, a little history lesson. During the First World War, the Canadians were involved from the beginning. The U.S. did not come in until the very ending. In the Second World War, your president did not want to involve the U.S. until Pearl Harbor while Canada was in it from the start. So please do not judge us as you do. We support you.
Bob Joyes
Chelmsford, ON Canada

Editor's Comment: It's good to have our friend from the North support us, but his history lesson appears a little skewed.

In World War I, Canada was involved because it was a member of the British Commonwealth. We were not and should never have become involved. President Wilson promised us in the 1916 elections that we would not be. Because we did become involved, that allowed the English and the French to demand unconditional surrender and set the stage for World War II. That war also established the Communist government in Russia.

In World War II, the Canadians went in a little earlier than we did, only because they were still part of the British Empire. But Canada never forced its young men to go to war. They were all volunteers in both wars.

In addition, World War I first established us as the policemen of the world, and it appears we will be unable to extricate ourselves from that assignment in the near future. So the men of Canada (and many other countries) can sit back and throw rocks and cans at the policemen as we attempt to protect their country.

Northfield School
Thanks so much for the eye-opening story on Northfield Mt. Hermon. I am a 1965 graduate of Northfield (back when it was still a girls' school) and I can tell you that things were a lot different back then. We had daily compulsory chapel, daily Quiet Time for Bible reading and a dress code that required us to wear knee-length skirts and lace-up shoes to classes, no immodest clothes. The biggest campus scandal, which could get a student kicked out when I was there, involved girls sneaking off to the woods to smoke cigarettes.

No doubt, the school's founder, much beloved evangelist Dwight Moody, would turn over in his grave if he saw what is going on at our school now.

I wish the alumni, who still give lots of money to the school, could be made aware of what's going on so they'd stop their charitable giving. I myself haven't given to the school in years.

Earlier, I was giving to a group that supported religious life at the school, but it eventually disbanded because the chaplain supported the participation of Wiccans and Pagans under the auspices of her chaplaincy.
Linda Ames Nicolosi
Encino, CA

The SJC & "God Bless America"
I received today my April 2003 copy of Massachusetts News, and saw to my dismay that the Massachusetts SJC is contemplating tampering with the sacred definition of marriage.

We have always asked God to Bless America. But perhaps this is something we might want to reconsider, because there might be dire consequences if we ask God to bless us.

I think most would agree that America generally is a land that has received more than its share of blessing, happiness and material wealth from God (or Nature, depending on one's preference). So in this sense, America can be said to be a chosen land, with a chosen people.

But what does it mean to be a chosen people? Ask any Jew how he or she thinks of his/her status as a member of the chosen people. If asked how they feel, most Jews will not give a particularly bubbly answer. By Jewish teaching, being "chosen" does not at all mean that they are more privileged, or have more or are more fortunate than others. On the contrary, being "chosen" means that they have greater responsibilities. And moreover, it means that when any of them commit sin, both God and the gentiles will judge them by a different, stricter standard than they will other gentiles.

Jews are judged by a harsher standard, but only because (in their belief) God expects more of them and deals more harshly with them when they commit error. It's as if you have two children. One is 2; the other 15. Both break windows. You punish the 15-year- old more than you do the 2-year-old because you know that the 15-year-old is far more capable of doing good than is the 2-year-old. By reason of America's blessings, we are in the same position of being chosen.

In Hebrew, the "evil eye" is the ayin hara; in Italian, it's mal'occhio. Either way, the Jews and Italians alike understand to avoid the "evil eye." Basically, what it means is that one should not curse other people or things and should not even ask for blessings which are dangerous to ask for, because when one invokes higher powers (good or evil) to do something, one has gone out of his way to attract their attention. Like, if I ask God for health, but in the meanwhile I abuse my own health with alcohol and drugs, I might attract God's personal attention, and if He sees that I'm not worthy of the blessing that I'm asking for, He might turn around and punish me instead; whereas if I'd just left Him alone, I might have gotten away with more self-abuse.

So with all this in mind, I see that there are many dangerous, evil trends in American society. There's abortion, expanding gay rights and lack of a feeling of shamefulness about gay behavior, and now, tampering with marriage itself.

For years, I criticized the Catholic Church for offering annulments of marriage. I thought this was so much sophistry, a back door, dishonest way of giving divorce without calling it by its proper name. Now I realize that the Church had it right, because in order to be a real marriage, a marriage has to be holy. If holiness is not present, the marriage is not a marriage it's a sham, legalized shacking-up. The Jewish commentator Rashi says the same thing when he says that there is no marriage without kiddushin, or holiness. So when the Church gives annulments, it's the Church's way of recognizing that a particular relationship never had the requisite holiness which in fact qualifies it to be marriage altogether.

In the end, this is why marriage can only be between men and women. As much as gays won't want to hear it, since their relationships aren't holy, they can't commit to marriage.
Justice Marshall seems totally blind to this when she reduces marriage to a level of economic convenience.

I see Justice Marshall toying with and destroying something that she clearly doesn't even understand. I see her trying to do things to marriage which even the Arab culture, for all of its own depravities, would never dream of doing.

And I ask myself: Do I really want to ask God to Bless America? We are chosen; God expects more of us, and yet, we're giving God less. Asking God for His blessings sounds like a disaster in the making to me.
James A. Nollett
Billerica

Return to Federalist Law
Thank you for publishing the article on the legal system as seen by the Harvard Law School's Federalist Society. These students may be the beginning of returning the legal system described by President Washington in his farewell speech. Please continue to publish items and articles that show that many of our citizens do recognize the failure of our current legal system and what must be done to correct the problems.
Bill Moore
Edmond, OK

Teresa Heinz Wants Balance in Politics
In a recent article in a Boston paper, it was reported that Teresa Heinz was trying to empower the people of Idaho by donating money to the Democrat Party in Idaho in order to help preserve the two-party system of politics, and to make Idaho more like Switzerland by giving visitors to Idaho a sense of personal safety.

Gee, does that mean then that Teresa Heinz will donate money to the Republican Party in Massachusetts to empower people here, and to help preserve the two-party system while denouncing the many gun control laws she has embraced to help make Massachusetts like the well-armed Switzerland she speaks of? I won't hold my breath.
Don Schwarz
Stoughton

Read Carefully
If you had more carefully read the Boston Globe article you attacked in, "Globe Threatens Lives of U.S. Troops, As in Vietnam," you'd have realized that the report states that "thousands" of people demonstrated in the entire country, not in Cambridge alone. Your trying to refute this head count by suggesting that only hundreds demonstrated in Cambridge is either absurd or disingenuous.

I find it ironic that MassNews, which I often admire for stating strong opinions extremely strongly, should criticize a news article on the grounds that it is stopping intelligent discussion. Your diatribe discourages intelligent discussion far better than any news story, especially when you state that certain opinions opposed to yours will cause deaths.

Please explain how the Boston Globe reporting "will cause unnecessary death to many troops if it continues."
Stephen Sossaman
Westfield
Editor's Comment: I am sorry that our article was not clear to you. You are correct that the lead story was a national story. But right next to it was a large, three-column picture about Boston which gave the appearance of being a part of the headline about "thousands rally." A reader had to fortuitously read a separate story in City & Region to discover that only "hundreds" marched in Boston - along miles of Mass. Ave. from Dorchester to Lexington!

Such sensational writing will naturally discourage our troops when they read those negative stories. It will greatly encourage the enemy, who will believe what the Globe is writing. We need a "loyal opposition," not one that will divide the country as the NYTimes/Globe complex did to our teenage troops in Vietnam. We did not belong in that war but we were not on the wrong side as the Times/Globe kept saying (after they pushed us into it and then changed their minds).

Pro-Abortion Aftermath Will Come to Iraq
Saddam Hussein's defeat will open the door for the pro-abortion, pro-condom United States Agency for International Development (USAID). For months, the State Department has been planning the reconstruction of Iraq which includes an assault by this agency. This organization has helped "liberate" nations such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Albania by helping legalize abortion. They will provide stocks of condoms and contraceptives. USAID programs will subject Iraqi children, especially girls, to graphic sex education. They will further insist that family planning (population control) programs be in place, warning that the penalty for noncompliance will be a denial of additional aid.

I pray Iraqis will resist these assaults on life and family. The million or so Christians in Iraq will be just as unhappy about this turn of events as their Muslim neighbors. Perhaps we Americans need to look at ourselves and ask, "Are we the ones who need 'liberation' from our sinful lives?" We are imprisoned by sex on demand, pornography, the slaughter in the womb, epidemics of STD's and HIV. How can we honestly call ourselves a progressive nation?
Thomas Messe, M.D.
Groton, CT

Wife of a Soldier Speaks Out
To all the anti war protesters:

I'm sure that all your protests are with good intentions, but there is another side of the war that you are not thinking of that you need to be. That side is the side of the soldiers, the men and woman who are already deployed. Pretend for one minute that you are them.

All your husband/wife knows is that you're somewhere in the Middle East. You can't tell them where you are. When you ask your commanding officer how long you'll be gone, you're told 6-12 months. A lot can happen in that time. You sleep on a cot in a tent; and if you do get the luxury of a shower, it is from a garden hose with no temperature control. All around you is brown, your tent and your clothes. You spend day after day pulling guard duty for 12-hours at a time, and the only thing that you can do to help move your days along is watch the sand dunes move.

You watch your children grow up through pictures and letters, some of you even have wives who are pregnant. They will deliver with you gone and you will meet your child months into their life. When you do get a chance to watch TV, it is CNN. What do you see? Protesters and demonstrators picketing the war and speaking out against it. Suddenly your morale goes down. You are overseas away from family, friends and everything you know, and you don't even have the support of the country whose freedom you are willing to die for.

My husband has been serving proudly in the United States Army since 1996. Currently he is overseas doing a 15-month hardship tour in South Korea. I have not seen him in 10 months. Hold your signs and protest, but please remember the reason you have the right to hold those signs is because people died for your right to do so.

The best thing about our government is our right to speak out against it. So speak out. When I talk to my husband, I will thank him for you. When you hold your rallies, I'll let him know that you appreciate all his sacrifices. While he sacrifices, I want all of you to remember September 11th and all the people who died because of it. Remember all the people who lived through it and the nightmare of their days since. People who lost their children, wives, husband and friends.

Did you forget that day, is that why you think that it is unnecessary to take these measures? I haven't forgotten. I have not forgotten the day my husband came home from work mad because they got us on our soil. He was mad because it is his job to fight and, if need be, die so that you can all go to work and not worry if you are going to be face-to- face with an airplane by breakfast.

Remember these things the next time that you think Iraq isn't a threat to us.

On September 10, did you think that Afghanistan was? As you continue your anti war efforts there are a few things that you should take with you. Take with you the security of knowing that the United States military is the best military in the world. Take with you the hope that because of this war no more innocent civilians will die.

To all of you that hang flags from your house, I want to thank you. Seeing them has made my last 10-months easier. To all the servicemen and women; what do you say to heroes? Please be safe.
Joni Bonilla,
Wife of CPL Carlos Bonilla
US Army
Winthrop