To the Editor:

Rev. Smock brings up an interesting point in her letter, although I believe she has understated the importance and misrepresented the truth of her statement. She is correct in that the particular passage in Matthew urges us to take care of the hungry, thirsty and sick, but she has misrepresented the truth by proposing that this is a biblical mandate for healthcare. In so doing she has understated the importance of this passage. In truth this passage is not a mandate for healthcare, but is rather a mandate for good citizenship.

Just like the story of the Good Samaritan this passage gives us a moral imperative to tend to those who are less fortunate. For it is those who are hungry or thirsty or sick who are the very ones whom we should take time, energy, and means to assist. The Good Samaritan took the time to pick up the wounded Jew, took the energy to take him to a place of refuge, and used his means to pay the bill for the time it took the Jew to rrecover. The Good Samaritan did not look to the leaders of his tribe. He didn’t look to the religious leaders of his day. In fact they had ignored the wounded Jew already. He didn’t look for another Jew to whom he could report that a Jewish brother was wounded and needed help. Instead this Samaritan had compassion for his enemy and helped him.

This is the picture of citizenship that is offered to us. It is not a picture of complacency where we encourage the government to take care of the problems of our neighbors. It is not a picture where we expect black man to help black man or Muslim to help Muslim. It is a picture of action where God encourages us to do unto others as we would want done to us. It is a picture where we regard all others second only to our God and well ahead of ourselves. It is a beautiful picture of a life of service to others.

To the Editor:

This is a subject that I have not seen or addressed in this area. My husband and I suffer from Celiac’s disease. It destroys the lining of the stomach and causes many symptoms including diarrhea, weight loss, indigestion, acid reflux and numerous other symptoms. People have it for years and attribute it to other causes. After six to eight months of a gluten free diet the symptoms have gone away. Most people don’t know that gluten is in almost everything they consume daily.
Gluten comes mainly from wheat, barley and rye but is added to almost everything. It is so hard to get gluten free products. There is a health food store and Ingles does carry some gluten free products. Thank God we have some help here. We would like to see more availability of these gluten free products. Please help us get the word out to others that may have this same problem.

Sandra D. Kennedy
Rutledge
Via mail

By: Dick Hodgetts; Columnist

Things change, and when we recall them, they may bring a smile.  And, if you live long enough, you become somewhat amusing to grandkids who listen to you and say: “Things weren’t really that way, You’re kidding me.”

Operator service

Regular telephone service has never offered quite as much as it did when we had operators place calls.  You picked up the phone and a nice lady asked: “number please’.  Morgan County was the last town in Georgia to convert to dial service in 1961.  Why was it better?  When you got home from school and wanted to talk with Mom, you picked up the phone and said: Gladys, connect me with Aunt Bess, I want to talk with Momma.”  The operator told you: “your Momma isn’t at Aunt Bess, she is shopping at Friedman’s, let me connect you there.” You were connected with Friedman’s and they paged your Mom.  Almost as good as cell phone service.

Disciplining children

To the Editor:
"This is a rotten, stinking fish that needs to be thrown away, and I'll do everything I can to see that this piece of garbage never gets passed into law." These words were spoken by our Representative Paul Broun at one of his Town Hall meetings, evidently to anger and agitate people about the health care reform bill. If he had not intended to agitate his audience he would have used civil language to express his concerns. He would have given legitimate solutions and expressed a desire to solve the country’s problem.

“Freeloader,” “socialist,” “fascist,” “communist,” and “worthless human beings.” These words were yelled out to Democrat Patsy Harris when she tried to speak at a Kill the Bill rally, recently in Oconee County. She had not said one word to deserve this kind of treatment. She only said, “I am a Democrat and I look at this planet as my home and all human beings as my brothers and sisters." What in the world in her statement deserved this kind of poor treatment?

What is coming of our county, district, state and county? These "worthless human beings" who need health care could very well be your neighbors, some of your friends, someone who sits beside you in church. Did it ever occur to you that you do not know everything about the people with whom you come in contact? These "worthless human beings" are not just people who you think are freeloading. There are plenty of people who fall between the cracks, so to speak, and they all deserve your consideration and respect. Your anger could be directed at someone that you care about. Just think, even your situation could change any minute and you could be left without a job or insurance. You never know when you will need this “Piece of Garbage,” then you would be the freeloading worthless human being.

Barry Lurey

To the Editor:

There has been a lot of discussion about health care reform. Will it ration care? Will it lead to socialized medicine? Does every American have the RIGHT to health care? What will it cost and how will it be paid for? However, there has been very little discussion about the details of the bill. One reason for this is that there is not one bill but a half dozen and they are all 1000+ pages. One could sit back and say I’ll think about this issue when Congress has narrowed it down to one bill and the details are known. The danger in this approach is that there might not be time to react. Remember the stimulus bill and how quickly it was pushed through.

Therefore, I would like to share some of the information that I have discovered looking at the one house bill that has been passed out of committee – HR3200. You can examine it yourself by going to the Library of Congress Web site – /thomas.loc.gov.

By: Celia Murray; Columnist

Last Tuesday, on what has traditionally been the first day of school, the President of the United States addressed the nation’s school children. An administration spokesman noted before the speech, “The goal of the speech and the lesson plans is to challenge students to work hard, stay in school and dramatically reduce the dropout rate. This isn't a policy speech. It's a speech designed to encourage kids to stay in school." The announcement of the speech produced a shrill outcry from the right.
    The talking heads were positively hysterical, but, regrettably, the uproar extended to more mainstream voices. "As far as I'm concerned this is not civics education – it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality," said Oklahoma state Sen. Steve Russell, a Republican. Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer released a statement accusing Obama of using taxpayer money to "indoctrinate" children. “As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology," Greer said. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a possible contender for the GOP's 2012 presidential nomination, said Friday the classroom is no place to show a video address from Obama.