Educated public needed to protect country
Educated public needed to protect country
Editor:
The past few years there have been numerous stories about DNA information that have cleared suspects and have caused many criminals to be convicted.
Today's science shows the DNA for each human is determined at the conception of each person. The general public is not very much aware and are uninformed about information about science and law. We need an educated and aware public to protect our country.
These apathetic views appear to be caused by our addiction to entertainment and the bent on following the details of the stories of celebrities. All the reality on TV shows do not educate very much. These are surely not good for our country.
How many of the general public following the rulings both courts and the Supreme Court?
Today, looking at Civil War history and the life of Lincoln, it is time to look at two Supreme Court decisions. The first, the Dred - Scott decision that ruled a slave was not a person. Now the Roe v. Wade decision (40 years old) appears to say that a person (an unborn baby) is not a human.
The Roe v. Wade decision ruled that a human before birth is not to be considered human if the baby is living before the third quarter after conception.
Today's courts should keep in mind that all humans have our own unique DNA starting at conception. Most people believe that humans start at conception. In fact, a heartbeat is detected at 19 days.
Persons believing that humans exist at conception expressed their view by more than 500,000 pro-life demonstrators in Washington, D.C. Most of the media did not cover this huge demonstration. Why?
Mac McCauley
Sebring
Getting past it
Editor:
Examining our difficulties with Iran today, it seems useful to examine two other countries where we have had difficulties in the past, Vietnam and Cuba.
In Vietnam, we have normalized our past war relationship to a level that permits American citizens to visit as tourists and a growing economic relationship. This despite a war that cost Americans over 58,000 lives and several million Vietnamese.
By contrast we still maintain a hostility toward Cuba, based largely on the belligerence of a small minority of former Cubans, largely resident in south Florida who have developed a political footprint significant enough to dominate our foreign policy and elect several persons of Cuban descent who place old hostilities ahead of our more important interests and "better angels". Truly a "tail wagging the dog" situation.
In Iran, the ancient grievances on the Iranian side are largely based on our role in ousting the democratically elected government of Mossadegh in 1953, his subsequent assassination, and supporting the military takeover which installed Pahlavi as Shah, whose regime brutalized the Iranian people. Eventually the Iranians rebelled against the Shah despite his continued support by the U.S. and other western governments. On the U.S. side, we still cultivate our outrage over the takeover of our embassy in 1979 and the subsequent anti-western theocracy established by Khomeini, who filled the void created by the Shah's departure. Currently, some low level talks signal a beginning; perhaps some reason for hope.
It seems obvious that some effort to get past old grievances and look for the potential for establishing mutually beneficial relationships is a necessary first step. Reaching out to Cuba, and rejecting the cultivation of old grievances as the Miami refugee community insists on pursuing, should be fairly easy. Unlike Vietnam we did not lose 58,000 American lives there. Our embarrassment is largely tied to the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961 and the subsequent missile crisis in 1962 which involved both Cuba and the Soviet Union. We now have normalized our relationship with Russia, the successor state of the Soviet Union, yet still treat Cuba as an enemy. We should get over it and recognized that most of the Cubans today were born many years after our political contra-temps and are eager to normalize their relationship with the U.S.If we could, perhaps put aside our former offenses and look to current opportunities for mutual accords, we just might be able to reduce the world tensions which currently drive our foreign affairs.
Randy Ludacer
Lake Placid
Friday, February 08, 2013 - www.newssun.com/letters-for-2-10