Opinion News
Letters to the editor, 7-29
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Sit back and think
The people on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation should really sit back and think about what they're doing. Cecelia Fire Thunder has done nothing but try to help her people, and all they have done is try to remove her from office.
When she proposed the women's clinic, she was looking out for the best interests of the women on the reservation by providing up-to-date health care for women. The proposed clinic (along with extensive sex ed) could offer information on birth control and contraception.
Former President Clinton once said, "Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare." Ms. Fire Thunder is co-chairwoman of a pro-choice organization (pro-choice, not pro-abortion). HB1215 (the rapists' bill of rights) is something that will be overturned by the Supreme Court (as long Justice Stevens doesn't die).
Will Peters said, "She is free to do so as long as she is speaking in a positive manner about the tribe." This is no longer America if a person can't express what is on their mind or in their heart.
Jesus' idea of Christianity was rejected, and he was even killed for it. South Dakota: Great Faces, Great Places. Not SD: the wire hanger state.
LANCE LEHMANN
Rapid City
Aces thank you
Way to go future Aces cheer and football participants. The camp and half-time performance was a huge success!
A special thanks to Pat Hall for supporting and sponsoring the Aces Cheerleading and Football Camp.
Thanks, Mike Pyle of American Family Insurance, for football donations and Albertson's for sponsoring lunch. Kudos to Outback for sponsoring all Flying Aces players, coaches and participants to dinner! Thank you to the Civic Center for use of the facilities.
Thanks to Burger King, Carmike, Elks, Armadillos, Ranch, Pizza Hut, Bear Country, Flags and Wheels, Mammoth Site, Evans Plunge, Witiki Waterslides, Putz n Glo Golf, Culvers, Subway and Taco Johns for prize donations.
We are excited for new and returning participants and sponsors next season!
COLLIN & TARA BOECHLER
Rapid City
Don't speak for us
Shame on 95 percent of the House of Representatives voting last week to support one side - Israel - in this awful Mideast war. Many of us are sickened by the slaughter on both sides, which includes thousands of Israeli bombs dropping on Lebanon.
These craven politicians certainly don't speak for 95 percent of us, who, I hope, aren't all cheering for the American-made F-16s dropping those bombs.
Are the 60 children murdered by their bombs in Tyre "terrorists" as the Israeli general smugly declared? The report was confirmed on CNN, ABC, Denver Post and BBC.
Now it's escalating into a world war, from Indonesia to New York, with an American army stupidly trapped in Iraq.
DAVID SEALS
Rapid City
Custer was here
One of the fun things about hiking Inyan Kara is the George Armstrong Custer Expedition carved in the rock a message that is still there. The 7th Cavalry bunch that made it to the top 123 years ago (Thursday, July 23, 1874), almost to the day Hillary Dobbs' article (July 22 Outdoor) on her Norbeck Society hike was published.
JACK MCCULLOH
Rapid City
Election
Hezbollahan
Ron Schmidt's Forum piece (July 22) is a disturbing example of religious extremism. In effect, he proposes that every religious person ought to be a Republican.
Now, this would essentially create a religious litmus test for Republican Party membership - and thus for election to public office as a Republican. That would seem to be a violation of the Constitution's prohibition upon religious tests for public officers.
Well, Schmidt ought to know that the Party of God that he proposes operates under another name in the Middle East. There, the translated term is Hezbollah: Party of God. If Schmidt thinks the Republican Party ought to be a branch of Hezbollah, he is sadly mistaken.
The Republican Party is not God's prophet on Earth - it is not authorized to represent God, nor to speak for Him. Schmidt should cease and desist from bitterly divisive extremist political advocacy, or else, someday, his Hezbollahan Republicans may truly cause religious warfare to break out openly in the United States, in yet another bloody Civil War, pitting neighbors against one another, brother against brother, in a blood bath too deep to fathom.
DONALD L. EMERICK
Rapid City
Contest winner
Stop the contest. We have a winner in the "Who can say the stupidest thing about the Adelstein flap." Not surprisingly, Rep. Napoli gets the prize.
Napoli seems to be saying that Mr. Adelstein has given too much money to the Republican cause to espouse any disagreement with the current position of (some) of the Republican Party, including Bill Napoli. Memo to future generous Republican donors: make sure you agree with Bill Napoli on all issues or we will have to purge you from the party.
Memo to Mr. Napoli: Mr. Adelstein was elected by the constituents of his district, not the Republican leadership.
It is my opinion that, agree or not with Mr. Adelstein, it is his decision alone whether he cares to call himself a Democrat or Republican. If you don't like him, don't sit next to him at the Lincoln Day dinner.
The main effect of the Napoli diatribe is to make Adelstein's recent intemperate statements sound smarter in retrospect.
If Republicans decide that support for Elli Schwiesow, the abortion bill or any other single issue determines your suitability for membership in the Republican Party, they are about to lose a lot of elections.
JAMES G. LAMPY
Piedmont
Evolutionary
In reading the front page article, "HB1215 shakes GOP's big tent," in the Journal July 20, I was surprised to learn that at the GOP convention a resolution was approved supporting the teaching of creationism in public schools.
This surely confirms that not all the monkeys have evolved.
CARROL KRAUSE
Rapid City
More hand-wringing
It appears we have three months of fear-mongering remaining with Referred Law 6 (HB1215). Seems every other day, some group of liberals finds a new excuse to holler, "The sky is falling."
The latest example (at the moment) is the hand-wringing over doctors possibly being charged with murder if they intentionally kill an unborn child after 1215 takes effect. Well, if we accept that an unborn child is a human life, and science supports the contention that it is, then what do you expect?
If we don't apply murder statutes equally, we might as well go back to the time when killing an Indian or black person wasn't the same as killing a white person.
Dr. Marvin Buehner says if this law goes into effect, he'll look to move his practice to another state. Dr. Buehner delivered both my children, and I can say without hesitation that I've never had a more competent, more respectful doctor. He treats his patients like intelligent people rather than a commodity.
But he's wrong on this issue. If he feels compelled to move to another state, I'd hate to see such a fine doctor leave, but unborn children deserve a chance to live.
BOB ELLIS
Rapid City
Ideology police
Here's a simple observation. The Pennington County Republican Party is held together by ideological policing.
While Republican leaders speak the rhetoric of freedom, rights of conscience and wisdom of the individual, the ideological enforcers, including Bill Napoli and Elli Schwiesow, have a clear message: be of the same opinion or be excused from the Republican party.
Napoli and Schwiesow co-wrote in 2004: "Let those individuals agitating for moderation go or they will ultimately weaken the party ... perhaps the Democrats could enlarge their tent enough to hold them."
It seems they are getting their wish.
Recently Napoli demanded that Sen. Adelstein be drummed out of office for doing no more than speaking for the cause of moderation. With certitude focused like a laser, Napoli has apparently appointed himself the high inquisitor of the S.D. GOP.
The Democratic Party also contends with ideological divisions. Many Democrats support HB1215. Many more oppose it.
And after lengthy debate at our convention, we unanimously approved a resolution acknowledging that on issues of deep moral concern, the individual's conscience shall not be overridden by the political party agenda.
These events make it clear which political party will promote and protect my freedom on election day.
JUSTIN LENA
Chair, Pennington County Democrats
Rapid City
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