Wildlife agreements should not be political pawns

It has been brought to my attention that a letter I wrote in last Friday's (June 1) paper made it sound as though I believed SD GF&P was against Bob Prieksat and that many within GF&P would like to see the wildlife agreements not renewed on the basis of his remaining in office. I would like to clarify this issue, as it is the opposite of what my intention was.

As I stated, I have almost nothing but good things to say about the GF&P officers with whom I have been associated. I believe our state has some of the best wildlife officers around. I would speak equally highly of the USF&WS officers with whom I have dealt.

My main point was that the wildlife protection agreements between these two organizations - both dedicated to protecting wildlife and serving the taxpayers - should not be a pawn in the political game. It appears from recent articles that there may be even more behind-the-scenes politics surrounding this issue than it first appeared. I would like to see these politics not be a deciding factor in how (or if) our wildlife is protected.

MELISSA HORTON

Rapid City

Writer's statements about homosexuality were false

I am writing in response to Patti who said, "homosexuality is not a sin, not a crime, not a defect." I cannot remain silent to a statement that is so completely false.

Commandment No. 7: "Thou shall not commit adultery." Therefore, any sex without marriage is a sin. It is a crime because it goes against God law, and it is a defect because it is not a normal act between two people of the same gender.

Sex is a sacred gift God intends for a married couple to create new life.

I am in no way saying this in a discriminating way, but out of love from one of God's children to another, also from someone who was lost in the dark and is now in the light and learning God's truth daily. Jesus loves you. He wants you to know the complete truth. You will find it if you study His word with an open heart and mind. Romans 12:2 "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

TONYA JOCKISCH

Rapid City

Money turns youth

activities into an industry

The article in the Journal on May 31 by Mary Boyer, "Complex will benefit soccer, city" had some real red flags. It stated that "Youth sports no longer mean neighborhood games. It is an industry. Our kids don't gather at a vacant lot to play a pickup game. This is true for all youth programs. We buy our kids wardrobes of equipment, uniforms and opportunities. We plan travel based on game schedules and support the motel, entertainment, fuel and restaurant industries." This is such a sad commentary. The almighty dollar becomes the main feature of youth activities.

Our country and world are in an unending struggle for more scarce energy resources. However, we are planning youth sports programs that require travel involving hundreds of miles with teams across the state and in other states. Unless we can change and reduce our living and recreational expectations, the future looks bleak.

Attempts are now in progress to develop higher mileage vehicles and conserve all kinds of energy resources. Planners in youth sports apparently feel little responsibility as a part of this very serious issue. Is this the message we want our young people to learn from participating in youth sports?

CHARLES A. LINDLY

Rapid City

Hill City thanks family for its donation to youth organization

On behalf of the community in Hill City, I would like to thank the Koppman family of Rapid City for their recent donation of $500 to the Boys & Girls Club of the Black Hills here in Hill City.

Hill City congratulates North Western Warehouse Company on their 75th Anniversary, and it was a pleasure to meet Douglas, Jason, and Jerred Koppman and their crews as their bright orange Allied trucks caravanned into Hill City to deliver their donation personally. Hill City salutes the generosity of North Western Warehouse Company.

DON VOORHEES

Mayor of Hill City

Dakota Celts thank those

who helped the organization

Rapid City has some excellent citizens who make living here a pleasure. As always, there are a few who stand out with their willingness and community spirit. They are heroes who are eager to improve our city and county.

Recently, the Dakota Celts were able to adopt the old South Forty Cafe at the Pennington County Fairgrounds. The following people came to the aid of the Dakota Celts in a very big way:

Scott Barbour of Northwest Pipe

Stan Adelstein of Northwest Engineering

Steve Kroger of West River Masonry

Jay Hagen of Hagen Glass

Glen Elshire and Darla Athans-Clittler Closet Pet Store

Cecil and Paula Marsh

Bob and Leslie Warax of Warax Excavating

Ron Hunter of Hay Springs, Neb.

These folks are super heroes, and thanks to their hard work, "Celt Hall" has a new outlook on life and looks great. Stop by and see the improvements for yourself. Thanks again to all who helped us.

BOB HASKELL

Rapid City

Rapid City has too few

stations that sell E85

Why does a town the size of Rapid City, in the heartland, have only one E85 gas station? We officially have two, but you can't count the ridiculously overpriced Flying J.

A quick check on the Internet shows 14 stations in Sioux Falls, three in Aberdeen, three in Pierre and one in Sturgis. I can't believe we have the same amount of stations as Sturgis and it is located way off the beaten path. I am thankful for Canyon Lake Gas, but I would think if someone started selling E85 near I-90, they could bring in some business.

JOE BALFE

Black Hawk

United States guilty

of sins of omission

Is there a difference between killing someone and letting someone die? We put people in jail for manslaughter or murder, yet our wealthy nation allows hundreds and thousands of families to die each year due to lack of sharing our abundant foodstuffs.

Our nation gives about 0.15 percent of our gross national product as foreign aid to third world nations while some nations give two, three, or four times as much as a percentage of their GNP: Germany gives about 0.41 percent; Japan, 0.32 percent; Britain, 0.31 percent.

We could feed millions of people with the funds we are spending on a war in Iraq. We could be educating millions of women and children and lifting them out of poverty with the excess funds we spend on SUVs, other big boy toys and political campaigns.

Oskar Schindler, German industrialist, is credited with saving about 1,200 people form death in the early 1940s. How many are we saving with our war, our production and sale of weapons of war, our use of cluster bombs and land mines.

I'm afraid we and our nation are guilty of sins of omission and that they outnumber and overshadow our many good deeds.

JIM MILLER

Rapid City

Thank you for helping students and teachers

Thank you community!

Hats off to area business for recognizing and rewarding South Canyon students and teachers: Burger King, Outback, McDonalds, Culvers, Cold Stone Creamery, Bear Country, Watiki Water Park, Parkway Restaurant, Millstone, Arbys, Chilis, Kohls and Black Hills Power.

A sincere thank you to Jody Sperlich, Jennifer Holec, Chris Frederick, Charlotte Wilsey and our South Canyon PTA for their continued support, involvement and collaboration with staff, parents and students! The end-of-the-year school picnic was a grand success!

Finally, we give an enormous thank you to Sharon Lee and the Rapid City School Foundation for their grants totaling $4,292 to our literacy program to provide all students the opportunities and resources to become proficient readers and writers.

TARA BOECHLER, JAN ERNST and DARIA MCGRATH

South Canyon literacy staff

Thanks for a wonderful student exhange

My name is Nargiza, and I am a Kyrgyz exchange student sponsored by PAX - Program of Academic Exchange. I arrived in South Dakota last August and have been staying with the Tadlock family and attending Douglas High School. As the school year will be soon over, I will return home to Kyrgyzstan. I am writing to you to express my thanks to everyone here who helped to make my experience so great. First and foremost, thanks must go to my generous hosts, William Kent and Jodie Tadlocks, who opened their home to me. They made me feel like their real "daughter" this past year, and I always will be grateful.

Thanks, too, to everyone at Douglas High School, especially principal Gusso and all my teachers who have helped me so much.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my PAX community coordinator, Nikkole Abbas, who arranged my placement here, finding my great host family and high school for me.

Finally, I would like to thank people of Box Elder and Rapid City, who welcomed me into their community, showed great interest and curiosity about me and my country, and did their best to make me feel at home away from home.

NARGIZA RYSKULOVA

Box Elder

Schools need better surveillance systems

It took hours to find out what happened after the incident at Central. With today's digital video equipment, they may have been able to see what had happened at that locker in minutes. It is time to update our video surveillance systems in all our schools or look for better ways of using what we have.

Video quality has improved, and prices are reduced every year. Systems can be installed wired or wireless at much less cost. Escaping these false alarms and reduction in vandalism would pay for any update.

Students, parents and teachers deserve to be both secure and feel secure. Updating the security systems would help to do both. Is there any reason why cameras shouldn't be in most areas of all our schools? There are no expectations of privacy in school, but there is expectation of safety. All cameras do not have to be monitored, but history should be quickly available and the ability to monitor if needed.

With predators, terrorism, school shootings and vandalism in the news, let's take this practical step. This may make our schools to some degree safer and help students, teachers and parents have more confidence in the safety of our schools.

JAMES TAYLOR

Rapid City

Jungemann advocate for Douglas schools

I have known Jan Jungemann for 15 years. In that time, I have seen how important the students of the Douglas School System are to her.

In the 28 years that she was employed by the system, she worked with students, staff and parents at all levels and in many capacities. Everything she did always had the students' best interest in mind.

As an interested resident and taxpayer of Box Elder, she attended school board meetings for 10 years. When she retired, it did not take long for Jan to realize that the Douglas students were still in her heart. She agreed to fill a vacated seat on the school board and is now running for an open seat. Jan has and would like to continue to be part of the Douglas School System by being a voice for our students. I have listened to her at board meetings, and she is always an advocate for students and their education.

Please give Jan your vote on June 19th. She will continue to be a strong advocate for all students in the Douglas School System.

CATHY QUINLIVAN

Rapid City

Coverups deserve

war-crimes charges

Have you heard of the Thor?

One Thursday last November, I heard the following by Paul Harvey on 1150 KIMM radio, "The way to win this war and get out now is to obtain the Thor bomb detectors, invented by the Israelis to fight terrorism. These detectors are vehicle mounted and when a bomb is identified it is detonated by a laser beam from a safe distance."

Later, about late January, I watched a brief report on one of the cable news channels regarding the Thor. A Pentagon person being interviewed very bluntly said the Thor was not approved by the Pentagon. He made no mention to testing, etc. A spokesman from Israel countered the Thor has been used as designed and has been offered to the free world.

I've not seen anything in print or these comments repeated on TV or radio. Did the "Bush bunch" squelch both within minutes?

After all this administration has screwed up in Iraq, they wouldn't be above another coverup. If proven, this could be the most colossal of all.

Thousands have been needlessly killed or injured. Impeachment is not enough! War crimes against all involved would be more appropriate.

JIM TRENARY

Rapid City

Writer's agenda twists God's teachings

Where do I begin, Patti? I find it quite amazing to read that you claim to know that Jesus would "welcome gays with open arms as they are" when you seem to know so little about what He (God) actually taught. Should I be surprised, then, that an agenda-driven individual like yourself would twist even God's teachings about how much He loved the world and all the sinners in it? (Like you, me and, yes, even Jerry Falwell.) No, I guess not. Look. Most people I know, even the "religious" ones, really don't care to know about what goes on in other people's private lives. You're the ones who are always bringing these things up. When asked, sure, we'll tell you what we believe, but we are fed up with people like you getting up in our faces, calling us names and demanding that we respect you and your ideas regardless of whether we agree. I will respect your right to free speech, but I will not respect anything said against God's word. Now, before you embarrass your self further, do everyone a favor and look up Leviticus 18:22 and educate yourself about the Lord before you do any more preaching.

JAMES BUROW

Rapid City

Immigration debate shows lack of credibility

It would seem that President Bush and Congress have a profound lack of credibility with a large segment of the American people. We already know about Iraq. But the immense distrust of the new immigration "reform" bill has been a real eye opener. Is it possible to have a functioning democracy with this level of disconnection between the people and their representatives?

I have offered the following question to all my S.D. elected legislators, as well as some national figures, and received no response.

The question is this: Will you vote to provide citizenship to illegal aliens convicted of violent felonies and/or sex crimes?

Many illegals are currently incarcerated in the U.S. or on parole. Many are

gang members.

Should they be provided citizenship ahead of many thousands of law-abiding people who are looking to America for an economic opportunity, not a chance

at criminal exploitation?

The fact that Sen. Johnson, Sen. Thune and Rep. Herseth Sandlin will not answer this question after several inquiries provides a clue to the question of why people no longer trust their government.

DANIEL GIOIA

Rapid City

Kooiker is the choice to lead changes in city

The first election spoke about our desire for change - the next is who will lead that change. Sam Kooiker is my choice. Sam has vision, and I believe he'll prove to be a strong and effective leader, something that Rapid City needs. I also know him to be a man of his word - honest and fair.

Sam has my vote on June 26.

JUSTIN CARLYLE

Rapid City

Thank you for supporting candidacy

I wish to take this moment and thank the people of North Rapid for the chance to run in this year's city council. Although I lost, I felt Rapid City has started to turn the corner, with the people calling for change. When elections are close, most candidates understand that their mindset might be what's causing others to vote against them.

Please continue to help the change, and improve our city's infrastructure, our job situations and above all…some good, old-fashioned pride.

With parting, I offer these tidbits of wisdom: Three weeks into an election, don't hyperextend your big toe. It hurts like crazy and makes walking quite difficult.

Be wary of good deals. If a car dealer tells you, it just needs a new battery, it probably needs a new engine.

Nice guys finish last - Casey Stengel (actually misquoted line, proper line was said about Dodgers) said "those are the nice guys over there, in fifth place."

Talk to people, let them vent and maybe a solution will become available. No solution ever came from upset stomachs, except antacids.

I'll still be around for card games, chess and the occasional football game come the fall. Have a good summer everyone!

JOSEPH BUDD

Rapid City

Kooiker helps no regardless of status

Sam Kooiker is committed to helping anyone no matter how much or how little money or status they have. He fights for minorities and people with disabilities.He understands what it is like to live with disability and mobility impairments.

Sam is fighting to have curb cuts made in older areas of town so that people like myself that are in wheelchairs can have easier access.

I urge you to cast your vote for the one candidate for mayor that will represent all of the people of Rapid City, and that man is Sam Kooiker.

LAREE ADKINS

Rapid City