Points made clearly, but misunderstood
Debate is fine and fun - and even a bit silly when done through the pages of a newspaper - but when someone misrepresents what is said to make what she feels is the ultimate point, a response is warranted. A letter writer responded to what she felt were erroneous statements toward the Founding Fathers. She may have been responding to several letters, many of which I probably didn't read, but a few parts of her writing were direct misrepresentations of my points.
First, the term "deist"is thrown around like it is equivalent to "atheist"by people who want to derail the freedom of religion. A deist, according to any dictionary, has a rational belief in God - not much different, in fact no different, from any religion that follows God - and a deist can be incorporated into any religion.
Second, and this is so easy and clear - I find it difficult to believe it was missed and misunderstood - there is no separation of church and state mentioned in the Constitution. It is a folly based on a separate letter from Thomas Jefferson discussing solely an issue of a Baptist Church worried about Catholic influence.
Third, the Constitution gives freedom of religion and is a safeguard against the government setting a state or national religion. This is clear, and our government has never tried to do such, save maybe on some local levels. This is all the Constitution guarantees. I made this clear in my last letter, and again it was misrepresented, as is always done, by someone who fights against the simplicity of the Constitution's words by adding to and changing them. Lastly, the writer who misrepresented my words, and probably others, implies she is the final word of debate, yet another thing against our Constitution.
Christopher O'Shaughnessy
Bentonville
Help after fall appreciated
On April 30, my wife and I had a falling accident on the sidewalk in front of Mimi's Cafe in the Pinnacle Hills Promenade. We received much assistance from so many people, none of whose names we got so we could thank them personally.
We especially want to thank the man who saw us fall and stopped his car to assist us, the nurse who left her lunch in the restaurant to check our injuries, the security people who arrived on the scene so quickly and the restaurant personnel who supplied various items to assist in first aid until we could get to the hospital emergency room.
We are sure there were others, and we sincerely thank each of them. Our recovery is progressing quite well, largely because of the assistance of these people.
Don and Betty Ball
Bella Vista
Presentation opens eyes to serious matter
Gang violence and violence in general are big issues in our world today. They are addressed in our health text and are also part of the national and Arkansas health education frameworks. As health teachers, we are required to teach this curriculum, which we do in as sensitive a manner as possible.
For the past two years, Sgt. Kelly Cradduck, who is an expert on gang violence and prevention and has worked to this end for the Rogers Police Department, has given up two full days per semester to come address all of our ninth-grade health classes. He has a great PowerPoint presentation and is very personable with the audience but lets it be known that this is a serious matter and that we need to get a handle on it NOW. We would just like to thank Sgt. Cradduck for giving up his time to present the facts to our classes. He has proven to us as health teachers that he truly is concerned for our kids and our community, and we applaud him for this.
Stephanie Bryant
Bentonville High School health instructor
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