Letters
Letters to the editor, Dec. 18
TBO.com
Published: December 18, 2011
An atheist's viewPublished: December 18, 2011
In a previous letter to the editor posted here my first sentence was, "I am an atheist."
The point of my letter was that we should allow the Christians to celebrate the birth of one whom they believe was divine in any way they choose, including greeting others with "Merry Christmas," and displaying their choices of decorations including a Christmas tree.
Yes, there are atheist groups who whine and complain about Christmas, people who, in your opinion, "...are bigots no better than the Ku Klux Klan."
Bigotry is alive and well, and will always survive.
But let me present my own opinion. Being classified as an atheist does not make me some kind of monster, nor any better than the KKK. To me, atheism means only that I do not believe in some kind of unimaginably humungous being that is not only capable of creating the universe we can see even with our limited technology out of nothing, but is the least bit concerned with who wins the high school football game or has a bone healed following some kind of accident.
It does not mean that I am some kind of monster without kindness, compassion, tenderness and a belief that all humans are capable of helping others in their search for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I do not have a hatred of Christianity, or Judaism, or Islam, or Wiccan, or any of the other religions, which I believe are the creations of man as a way to explain the unexplainable.
If I have any hatred they are about those who exploit the defenseless and practice greed as their way of life. Those who condemn all those who do not believe and practice the way they do, Mr. Stathis, are the bigots.
It has been said that "Faith unites, religion divides." I have faith that humanity, if it survives, will rise above the artificial divisions of religion, use our collective brains to conquer hunger, illness and even greed to reach beyond the current limits of this planet to the unlimited resources available to us in what we call "space."
Please, Mr. Stathis, look inside yourself to see if you can overcome your own bigotry. I'm not saying "You are a bigot," I'm only asking that you be as tolerant of those who believe and practice differently than you do.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
G.B. Leatherwood
Spring Hill
Going down the wrong path
A while ago, after reading an article in Hernando's other paper, an article on the glories of nuclear power, and being fully aware that our society is well into the era of illogical logic, I still felt compelled to reply to the article's creator.
Not being fully aware and adapted to the politically correct requirements of every modern day American my reply ended by suggesting that anyone who believed it was a great idea to create a power source with a by-product that is deadly to humans for as long as 250,000 years had to be an idiot.
It's a by-product that in America alone increases by approximately 3,000 tons per reactor each year. Multiply that by the 200 nuclear power plant reactors we have in the United States. If there was any way we could diminish the deadly effects of this by-product to where it would be rendered harmless, I would be one if its greatest supporters.
Since no possible way of doing this has, and will most likely not be found in the decades to come, the continued stockpiling of this deadly material will without a doubt pose a tremendous threat to society.
One fear outside the probable leakage into the ground water is the possibility of terrorists acquiring enough of it to construct a dirty bomb, or adding it to municipal water supplies.
The greatest fear I have is in knowing that the government is involved in safeguarding it. When's the last time the government became involved in anything, and it was successful?
Help me out, at 64, I cannot think of one. My only complaint against the writer who wrote the piece, aside from him putting me on his spam list, is that he should have told me how the benefits outweighed the disadvantages.
If he kept repeating it over and over, like most Americans, I might believe it. Heck, I have an open mind. And after all, we're only talking about millions of human lives, American lives.
If the experts are wrong, the wrong will be catastrophic and large enough to end our civilization. I guess I'm the idiot. I'm just a grandfather who loves his children and grandchildren too much to risk their dying a horrible death by radiation poisoning. I guess I'm just old fashion and out of style. A thought just entered my feeble mind. If this nation continues on the same path it too will be out of style. Out of style, and gone forever.
David Robinson
Weeki Wachee
Crystal clear
In his Dec. 14 letter, Robert Van Istendal resurrects the claim that President Obama isn't eligible to be President because he is not a natural born citizen. Van Istendal cites right wing attorney Herb Titus as his authority.
While I understand the wish of these people to reverse the 2008 election through litigation, they are simply factually wrong.
Despite all the mental gymnastics these neobirthers go through, one crystal clear fact remains: There is no such thing as a "natural born citizen" that is different from "citizen at birth" anywhere in U.S. law.
See the United States Code, Title 8, Section 1401.
Dallas Dunlap
Brooksville