I really liked The Star’s editorial "Changing the Game Plan." I think The Star was absolutely correct to be very concerned about the Army’s last minute proposed changes to the operating permit. The Star was also right on point in saying the Army should not keep as secret its new quantitative risk analysis, which is supposed to justify the Army’s plan to dramatically change the schedule and manner in which these chemical weapons are destroyed. Finally, I wholeheartedly concur with The Star’s position that any changes which would increase the risk to the community in order to save the Army money or shave a few months off the timetable should be rejected at this late hour.While The Star has proposed that just the National Academy of Science review the Army’s secret study, why not make this study available to everyone for a thorough review? While I have no problem with the NAS commenting on the Army’s plan, I am very concerned that the NAS was quoted in an earlier story as saying it lacked the funding to conduct this review. Therefore, if the NAS is going to carry out this task, funding must come from a source other than the Pentagon and the members of the task force must have no other financial ties to the department they will be critiquing. And, of course, the Army should not use any loopholes in the existing permit to undertake any of these new procedures during the upcoming shakedown process before all of the proposed changes have been fully investigated.
There is simply too much at stake here and, as The Star correctly said, saving a few months’ time should not be our goal or our concern.
Commissioner James A. “Pappy” Dunn
District I, Calhoun County
Online decision
I am a subscriber to The Star. I am also a long-time critic. Some articles that appear in the paper just stop in the middle leaving us guessing. Other articles contain spelling and grammatical errors that would result in the failure for any elementary school English student. Describing The Star’s views as liberal is a gross understatement.Having said that, I must now come to its defense. The decision by The Star to charge non-subscribers a fee for The Anniston Star online has prompted many angry letters to Speak Out. I feel I must respond to [one] of these which appeared July 27.
The writer concludes his letter by stating, “I say bring it back (the free online) or I will no longer read The Star.” In the preceding paragraph he plainly informs us that he never buys a copy anyway. It’s a “waste of time and money”. Yet, every day, by his on admission, he browses the online articles.
The writer goes on to say that in his opinion, this is just another way to sell more newpapers. Well, The Anniston Star is a business — they sell newspapers. Expecting, or in the case of the letter writer, demanding something for nothing, simply put, is freeloading!
David W. Boyd, Ph.D.
Weaver
What time is it?
Having been taught to revere God and to respect civil law before the Ten Commandments judge was old enough to shave, I deplore his continuing theocratic harangues. I join other God-fearing, freedom-loving Alabama citizens who resent being called secular humanists for questioning his warped fundamentalism. Does the theocrat have no sensitivity for the feelings and ideas of others?In the 1920s, when Ku Klux Klan activity occasionally flared, my dad advised his boys to beware of doing anything secretly, behind masks, under cover of darkness. Thus, I can’t condone the surreptitious, nocturnal placement of a 5,280 pound “golden calf” in our State Judicial Building. For trespassing on public premises, the perpetrator(s) should be prosecuted.
It’s also tiring to be told what the “Founding Fathers” believed about church-state relations. Which fathers? Was Thomas Jefferson one? If so, it’s well to remember that the Old Testament was of no interest to Deist Jefferson and that, in the words of Martin Marty, “He made a Socrates out of Jesus.”
If, as our theocrat contends, the fathers’ intent was to keep the state out of the church, why is he in cahoots with a blatantly partisan Christian Coalition that would distribute registration and “educational materials” to churches all over the state? How inconsistent!
The judge and his ilk claim to know what time it is in America. It’s time for them to look at another timepiece. It’s past time for extreme fundamentalists to be squelched.
John Vanderford
Jacksonville
