Speak Out

Re “Divine metaphor” (Your Faith, July 14):

The photography and the Sri Chinmoy poem regarding flowers in the Bible were outstanding. The information pertinent to the flowers and the related Bible texts is appreciated as a fragrant blessing.

Flowers that burst into bloom for a short time and then fade illustrate the transitory nature of human life. The expression “flowers of the field” aptly illustrates the evanescence of human life especially in a land like Palestine where the annual display of wild flowers is glorious for a few short weeks followed by desolation where once there was color, beauty and life. Isaiah 28:1 notes the “fading flower.” The shortness of man’s life is further indicated in Isaiah 40:6, Job 14:2, Psalms 103:15, 1 Peter 1:24 and James 1:10.

Life is like a flower. Life is brief. We must care for our life as we must care for our flowers.

Penny J. Nielsen, Ed.D.
Weaver

Defending our freedoms

Re “Taxing our pets” (Speak Out, July 11):

I want to compliment letter writer Bill Broughton for defending our American freedoms which are being so rapidly and viciously eroded by our elected officials. Now a tax on pets? Even a canary or a hamster might not escape the nosy Gestapo, as Broughton explains it.

How much Calhoun County tax money do you think it will take to hire a tax spy to go to every house in Calhoun County checking for pets? That would be worse than the snooping behind my house last month to see if the 15 rental mobile homes I own had the yellow stickers on them. I received the stickers when I paid the tags and taxes in October, but they were still on my desk with my receipts and canceled checks. The mobile homes — my only source of income — are stationary, with no wheels, no axles and they have been in the same spot for 20 years, with tags always bought on Oct. 1 every year. I was fined more than $100.

Wake up, fellow Americans, before all of our freedoms are gone.

Hazel Rudolph
Jacksonville

Alabama 21 resurfacing

I can live with the inconvenience and delays of the resurfacing going on between Cane Creek and George Douthit Drive on Alabama 21. What I can’t live with, and hope someone else is noticing, is the shoddy work that is being done. The resurfacing material can’t be more than an inch thick, there are gaps, gouges and ruts caused by the tracked equipment from Bonnie Brook southward, and they have already marked off the striping which leads me to believe that they think that section is ready to roll.

Someone please tell me that this is just the basecoat. The new surface is worse than the existing one. I don’t know if it’s state money or Calhoun County money that is paying for this, but someone is getting ripped off. It reminds me of those driveway resurfacing scams that end up costing a homeowner. Why not just spray-paint the road and tell us we’re making progress.

Monty Clendenin
Jacksonville