With respect to the Alabama Supreme Court’s recent decision in which Justice Roy Moore sites the common law designation of homosexuality as “an inherent evil,” the practice of which would render a person an unfit parent. How is this reconciled with the fact that many warm, loving and caring parents throughout our great nation happen to be homosexuals?
I do not believe there is any truth or factual basis to the statement that people who practice homosexuality are any more or less evil than heterosexuals. Certainly the ability of a parent to provide a good home and healthy, nurturing environment for a child is not a matter which can be measured by sexual orientation.
Judge Moore’s decision to place a monument to the Ten Command-ments in Alabama’s Supreme Court and characterize homosexuality as an inherent common law evil essentially turns the Alabama Supreme Court into a theocracy.
This provides a very good case for not rearing a child in this backward- turned state which has declared intolerance toward a whole group of people. Why, certainly if I were the parent of these children, I wouldn’t want them living in a state ruled by such prejudicial, religiously fanatical judges!
When religion is mixed with the law in this manner so as to make judgments based upon bias and prejudice, you have the first signs of theocracy, that same inherently and genuine evil which characterized the Inquisition.
It is decisions like this which motivate radical, religious fundamentalists to bomb gay bars or abduct, torture and murder homosexuals.
The irony of this is the fact that most homosexuals are probably Christians, as are most of the criminals who go through our courts and fill our prisons.
For a Christian judge to then declare homosexuals evil and unfit as parents with no analysis of their parenting skills and abilities is a miscarriage of justice!
Homosexuality is not inherently evil, but bigotry and prejudice established through theocracy is! Such pure evil mandates that this case be appealed to the highest court in the land!
Terry Lynch
Montgomery
Political correctness?
Just to be politically correct, like the flag and statue committee in New York, I think we should rewrite the history books:Orville Wright should be black.
Wilber Wright should be albino.
John Kennedy should be Cuban.
Bobby Kennedy should be Iranian.
Ted Kennedy should be Greek.
Eisenhower should be Japanese.
Carter should be Vietnamese.
Clinton should be in prison.
Sound stupid? Oh yeah! So do they!
Bob Richards
Anniston
Funding higher education
The Higher Education Partnership, representing faculty, staff, students and other supporters of Alabama’s public universities, is eager to see how the current office holders handle the 2003 Education Trust Fund Budget (ETF). The universities continue to ask for 33 percent of the growth money in the trust fund. This is an important goal because it sends a message that the state is serious about offering a competitive educational product at every level.
While 33 percent of the growth money in the 2003 ETF Budget will not even return funding to the level that was appropriated in 2001, it is important!
Ranking 44th in the nation in faculty salaries does not encourage instructors to stay in Alabama. Ultimately, Alabama citizens are hurt when the state loses difference-making instructors, researchers and outreach experts.
Additionally, Alabama cannot afford to discourage our students. Alabamians do not need another decade like the 1990s when university tuition increased by over 100 percent.
The truth is that Alabama needs more educational revenue. The state does not need bandwagon-riding politicians saying the “right thing” in order to gain political favor. Simply, all of education is critical and every aspect of education must be better funded for the state to reach its potential.
Alabama must have courageous leaders committed to finding solutions.
Gordon Stone
Executive Director
Higher Education Partnership
Montgomery
Investigation
It is reassuring to learn that the U.S. Senate is planning to hold hearings next month into intelligence or security lapses that may have contributed to the Sept. 11 tragedy.Alabama’s Sen. Jeff Sessions is bound to come under careful scrutiny in the inquiry. He sits on a small committee, the Emerging Threats Committee, that has a big responsibility, to do just that — identify and head off emerging threats.
Many members of the intelligence community have gone on record saying that the clues were there.
The job of the Emerging Threats Committee is to gather testimony from the intelligence agencies and fit it into a pattern.
Someone who should have been a watchdog was asleep and I hope the hearings will pinpoint the weakness in our intelligence system.
Saul Smith
Montgomery
