Speak Out

On July 1, the City of Anniston plans to end police protection for the people who live in the police jurisdiction. This action will leave our protection up to each individual or the Calhoun County Sheriff's Office. As it now stands, the sheriff is so far over budget that he has considered laying off deputies. This leaves our future looking bleak, to say the least.

The city now collects a 2-percent sales tax on each dollar that is spent in the jurisdiction to cover fire and police protection. That is 2 cents on a dollar that could be used by the sheriff, the man who will be providing the protection. I do not have the information on how many dollars the city takes in each year from the jurisdiction, in business licenses, but I believe that it would cover what fire protection we receive.

In no way do I mean to demean the Anniston Fire Department or the Anniston Police Department. These two departments are second-to-none in our state, but we have to consider our alternatives after July 1.

Jerry W. Brown
Anniston

Rove's defiance

For a fleeting moment after World War II, I toyed with the idea of switching my professional objective from education to that of law. Thanks to the GI Bill, I could toy with the idea of switching provided that I met requirements for law school admittance. Having been bitten by the education bug prior to military service, I quickly dismissed law as an objective and earned three advanced degrees in education before retirement.

Now I'm perplexed by Karl Rove's defiance of a congressional subpoena. The astute strategist has needed no formal degree in any discipline to conclude that "It's going to be tied up in court and settled in court."

Having played a dominant role in President Bush's successful political campaigns, he resigned as a political strategist whose goal was what he called "A permanent Republican majority."

In denying any role in the prosecution of Alabama's former governor, the extent of his involvements in the firing of U.S. prosecutors in 2006 and other controversies remain unclear.

My interest in law has been rekindled. I'd like to hear Rove's sworn testimony in court under oath.

John A. Vanderford
Jacksonville

Keep God out of politics

It is almost certain that preachers and their religious faiths have no place in the political arena. First of all, God does not deal in politics. It is dirty, deceiving and based on an untold number of lies. It is slanderous, vengeful, offensive, and at times just plain nasty. These are not the attributes of God.

Preachers who desire to rub shoulders with politicians and give their spiritual endorsements don't have their priorities in order. They seem to have vengeful hearts toward those Americans and non-Americans who don't happen to fall in line with their particular doctrine or denomination.

Many of these preachers are self-righteous hypocrites, whose main purpose is to indoctrinate parishioners with their brand of theological rhetoric, make a lot of money and get a lot of publicity. Politicians are beginning to find out that the preachers are just as flawed as they are, which makes their spiritual endorsements just bags of hot air.

Lindsey Ray
Montgomery