Speak Out

Re "National attention: Woodstock 5K, Nelson earn RRCA honors" (Sports article, Feb. 26):

I was a little disappointed that The Star did not put the amazing news that our Woodstock 5K race had won the Road Runners Club of America's "Road Race of the Year" award on the front page.

Our city needs leaders like Brooke Nelson, president of the Anniston Runners Club, to help change our image and let other cities and states know how serious we are about our health. In addition, Brooke won "Outstanding Club President of the Year."

This is absolutely wonderful for Anniston and the Woodstock 5K. If you have never experienced the energy and excitement of this event, or the Cheaha Challenge weekend, please come watch and participate in these two great occasions. You will not be disappointed.

Way to go, Brooke!

Ann Angell
Anniston

Angel in blue jeans

Re "Neglect of veterans" (Speak Out, Feb. 22):

Recently I met a real, live angel. Rain and cold had me shaking as I stood beside my old truck on Highway 21 looking at a flat tire.

Just then a very nice-looking young man, heading north, turned around and parked behind my truck. He said, "You look like you need some help. You sit in your truck and I will change this for you." I didn't sit in my truck, but I stayed with him to see if I could be of help. I am an old man (almost 75) and was having trouble getting my spare out from under the truck bed. He just took over.

Soon he was ready to put my spare on the wheel, but it didn't want to line up with the lugs. He hit it with his foot and said, "That's the way we lined up tires on the Hummers."

I asked if he had been in Iraq, and he said he had two tours — one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. I asked where he worked. He said he was fired because he had Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, caused by war in Iraq. Where did he work? Homeland Security at McClellan. What a shame. He placed his life in harm's way, willingly, so we would not have to fight them at home, and the officials at Homeland Security had no feelings for him. I repeat, what a shame.

Letter writer Marian Freeman was so right. Are we going to let the sacrifice of our service men and ladies sacrifice in vain?

Bill Saxon
Anniston

Black America's arrival?

Re "Will we ever arrive?" (Speak Out, Feb. 22):

I was in the movement because I grew up with a father who voted from the 1940s and I wanted everyone to have that right. As a member of the NAACP and a past member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, I walked, was jailed four times and slept where I could. That usually was in the homes of older black women where there was no "husband" or "man in the house," because most black men in the beginning did not want to be seen with, or walk down the street with, for fear of losing their "jobs."

I hope letter writer Gary Mason can understand what I'm saying, because he completely missed it before. I was simply expressing who I thought was the best qualified and, if elected, who could help right the regression that has been brought on America and the world the past seven and a half years.

Let me say that I am a disabled American veteran who served proudly. I am also proud of Sen. Barack Obama. If he is elected president — not just because he is black — I will be praying for him, or whoever is elected, so that God will give them the knowledge and wisdom needed to make this a better world for all mankind. That's what the mission was about.

If Gary Mason thinks "Black America" has arrived, I feel sorry for him. Or is he a trick?

Roger Lancaster
Woodland

Dawson tribute concert

The recent Anniston tribute concert to William Levi Dawson by the Tuskegee University "Golden Voices" Concert Choir was outstanding! How fitting to honor Anniston native Dawson, who in 1989 was inducted to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

Dawson organized the School of Music at Tuskegee, which now bears his name. He conducted the Tuskegee Choir for 25 years. His choir performed all over the United States and abroad, as well as for Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Dawson's choral and orchestral arrangements are widely performed. Spirituals remain a part of Tuskegee University Concert Choir's repertoire.

The choir has more than a century of rich choral traditions and is an artistic model. Tuskegee founder Booker T. Washington insisted on the singing of spirituals at weekly chapel; the tradition continues today.

Spirituals bring to the public songs that were sung for generations in the fields and behind closed doors. A unique form of music, spirituals were created by blacks who didn't have formal music training. Spirituals express emotions, help individuals communicate with each other, and are a source of spiritual inspiration. Spirituals are a testimony passed down from generation to generation as a legacy of powerful songs.

Penny J. Nielsen
Weaver

Local Braves coverage

Re "I want my Braves on TV" (Speak Out, Feb. 28):

I've also written a letter — which is much more effective than a call — to Cable One's home office in Phoenix concerning the Atlanta Braves' baseball games. I included a link to letter writer Peggy Williams' letter in The Star.

WHMA (AM 1390) in Anniston is listed as a member of the Braves Radio Network, but it didn't carry most games last year and its signal dies after dark if you're out of the Anniston city limits. There is no other signal available except WTWX (FM 93.9) out of Guntersville, and I was told that it doesn't reach much of The Star's southern distribution area, so it wouldn't be added to the radio listings.

It's hard to believe that there isn't a local Braves radio affiliate for an area just 90 miles from Atlanta. I was looking forward to another summer with Skip Carey and the Braves.

John Johnson
Weaver