This is in response to Eric Witte (letter, May 29), “This train needs derailing.” Witte is either treacherously deceptive, woefully ignorant or sadly mistaken. It is incredible that a person would take a statement of Thomas Jefferson and twist it to apply to our current times and situation. Attempting to do so is an insult to Jefferson, on the one hand, and shows ignorance of our current need, on the other. Our third president, Jefferson, would be justifiably irate over such a contrived distortion.

It is unclear whether Eric is ignorant of the circumstances that led us into the war in the Mideast, or is in a state of denial. When the attackers hijacked planes on 9/11/01, they wantonly killed 3,000 of our citizens. That was not the first, though the worst of the many attacks by Muslim extremists.

Have you heard of the USS Cole bombings, killing seven sailors? Or the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 241 Marines and other service members and six civilians? Have you forgotten? Perhaps you merely don’t care. Those people kill for pleasure. Previous presidents have acted in small ways, but ineffectual.

President Carter, in late 1980, sent helicopters into Iran to rescue our embassy people, ending in a debacle. President Reagan, highly respected, on April 15, 1986, sent war planes against Muammar Khaddafi, chief of Libya, with little effect. Bill Clinton did worse. Finally, we have a president dedicated to solving a world problem, terrorism. He takes seriously the matter of protecting the nation.

Say whatever you wish, Eric, President Bush has my complete support. Remember, either we fight them there or we will fight them here.

Edward Bridwell, Lincoln

Sunday is a day of rest

I would like to commend Hobby Lobby for having a policy of being closed on Sundays. The sign in the store explains: “Closed Sundays to allow employees time for family and worship.” This policy was established by CEO David Green, who wanted to be totally faithful to the Fourth Commandment to “Keep holy the Lord’s Day.”

Fifty years ago in our country, it was the general rule that all commerce would cease on the Lord’s Day and people truly took time to worship, rest and spend time with their families. Now, on Sundays, we see the general rule is “business as usual,” with most commercial enterprises open for business and filled with shoppers.

The secular-progressive movement to push God out of our society has succeeded quite well in this area, as we see Christians of all denominations go about as if Sunday were no different from any other day of the week. Perhaps one can see a correlation between this loss of “Keeping holy the Lord’s Day” and the general decline in moral values that we have seen over the past 50 years.

If we expect God to bless America, then we might re-evaluate how we are honoring Him on the Lord’s Day and get back to our traditional values of making the Lord’s Day truly one of worship and rest. Each one of us can make a difference by simply not doing any shopping on Sundays.

Thomas L. Bodensteiner, Lincoln

U.S. evils threaten Islam

The cartoon on the editorial page May 28 indicated why our military people are getting killed in Iraq. Everyone needs to see the real reason why Islamic citizens are attacking United States citizens. Starting way back in 1983 to 9/11/01, terrorists have attacked in Beirut, Kuwait, Madrid, Rhein-Main U.S. Air Base, TWA Flight 840, Pan Am Flight 103, World Trade Center, Riyadh Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Tanzania, and the USS Cole ship, killing more than 800 Americans with thousands injured.

Clinton, when president, did little to stop these killings. Then of course 9/11 happened. Now tell me these terrorists were killing because of oil.

After 9/11, President Bush, who had been in office only a few months, using information from President Clinton’s intelligence administration, made a decision — with Congress’s blessing — to stop terrorism. This was not against a certain nation but against terrorism.

Radical Islamic clerics see the evil that our free country is condoning. For example: President Clinton having a young woman perform sex on him, with no reprimand; abortion acceptable; homosexuality growing; pornography flourishing in movies, TV shows and daily newspaper advertisements. These evils threaten Islam, so they dedicate their lives to killing American infidels.

Too many Christians never speak out against these immoral evils that will eventually destroy our nation, just as these same evils destroyed the Greek and Roman empires. Too many vote for Democratic politicians who are approximately 90 percent in favor of abortion and homosexuality, while Republicans vote the reverse.

Evil, not oil, is why Islamic terrorists are killing.

Merlyn D. Braunsroth, Pleasant Dale

Remembering D-Day

Wednesday was the 63rd anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Europe in 1944. There was no mention of this in the Lincoln Journal Star. Do we forget so quickly?

William Synnott, Lincoln

Parents need to know

My child is a student at Southwest High. The parents were informed via e-mail that one of its students created a “death list” containing classmates’ names. We were asked to call the Lincoln Public Schools district office with questions.

I phoned, asking whether this unnamed student (a girl) was suspended or was in school right now with my child. They did not know.

I then called directly to the school. Two administrators told me that because of student confidentiality, they wouldn’t tell me “yes or no” if she was in school today with my child, or suspended. They said that they felt the situation was properly handled and that Southwest High School was safe.

As parents, we should have the right to the factual information necessary to decide for ourselves whether our children are safe.

Sondra Lothrop, Lincoln

More lessons in history

A quick paragraph-by-paragraph response for Wayne Simpson (letter, May 30):

First of all, I do not understand how Simpson can make comments concerning a student’s remarks, or letter writer John Gruhl, for that matter. Simpson must have a copy of the entire essay, because I’m sure he would never take a single comment out of context.

I also see that Simpson has written “(liberation?)” after the word attack when referring to the Iraq invasion. I would ask him to present an excellent argument as to why to call it a “liberation.” Certainly the people of Sudan needed liberation more than the people of Iraq.

“Diametrically opposed”? Do some reading and learn why that is incorrect usage. “Liberals,” “secular progressives.” Let’s refer to everyone as a big group. Let’s generalize all opinions to make things easier. I cannot believe those darn “major universities” teach people to think and use evidence to support their arguments.

“For example we know there were WMDs.” How do we know that? Oh, I forgot — we sold them to the Iraqi government in the 1980s. Sometimes I forget my lessons in history. There must be a receipt somewhere. Maybe a shipping address. I guess the evidence does say that there were WMDs. Give the student an “A” on that essay!

Opinions and facts. It really disgusts me when people use evidence and facts to support their arguments/opinions. “Fair and balanced”? Where do I begin?

Unfortunately, these kinds of arguments pass for intelligent debate among the majority of our electorate … my sarcastic construction included.

Michael B. Ziegler, Lincoln