I am outraged with the recent sentencing of Richard W. Thompson regarding his two counts of sexually assaulting a minor (10 years of probation).

As a mother of a young child, I am sickened with hearing about the increasing number of children that are being sexually violated in our country! What message is being sent to others by District Judge Kristine Cecava’s sentencing? I can’t believe height has become a concern in a sexual molestation case. I’m sure the height of an innocent 12-year-old girl wasn’t an issue for Thompson when he chose to violate her!

In my opinion, Thompson should be sentenced to a life of fear in prison. Let him lie awake at night, worried about who’s going to come into his cell and violate him, just as the young girl will do in her bedroom each night forever.

There are no guarantees in life. By keeping Thompson out of prison, Cecava cannot promise that other children will not be harmed. Child molestation is a serious, incurable illness (in my opinion).

By keeping Thompson out of prison, Cecava is only putting other children in harm’s way. Why would she want to do that?

Thompson sacrificed his rights to freedom when he violated a young, innocent child. He should pay the price for the rest of his life, just like the young girl will.

What’s wrong with our nation when we can provide so much for our citizens, yet we aren’t willing to protect our children?

Cecava needs to have her head examined, and her reasoning behind her decision is sickening. She doesn’t deserve to be a judge.

Jodie Paprocki, Lincoln

Stories are related

Two seemingly unrelated stories in the May 19 Lincoln Journal Star struck me because they are, in fact, related.

The story on the front page informed me that the Lincoln-Lancaster Women’s Commission had won a one-year “reprieve” insofar as their funding is not going to be cut off for at least one year.

The second article related the story of a woman who was cited for public nudity by a Lincoln police officer because she allegedly violated a “city ordinance, which makes it unlawful to appear nude in public, having anything less than a fully opaque covering on any part of the areola and nipple.”

As I read that statement, I thought of all of the breast-feeding mothers I spend hours assisting each week, both as a volunteer La Leche League leader and a paid employee of MilkWorks (a nonprofit breast-feeding center in Lincoln).

I have told countless women that their concerns about being harassed for breast-feeding in public can be put to rest. This is because chapter 9.16.230 part (c) (1) of the Lincoln Municipal Code specifically excludes “Mothers who are breast feeding” from the “Offenses Against Public Decency.”

So, how are the two articles related? It was through the diligence and foresight of Women’s Commission Director Bonnie Coffey that this exclusion was put into place when the municipal code was revised in 2000.

In fact, Lincoln is an oasis for breast-feeding mothers because there is no similar exclusion in Nebraska state law. As director of the Women’s Commission, Coffey protects and supports women, regardless of race, class or political boundaries.

There continues to be a need for the Women’s Commission, and I hope that the county commissioners will come to understand that the work of this commission is not done and that funding for the commission should continue for the foreseeable future.

Sara Dodder Furr, Lincoln

‘Fiction’ excuse

In regard to the heretical and insulting claims found in “The Da Vinci Code,” many people have defended the book by noting that it is merely a fiction.

How irrelevant this argument is. Under this theory, Americans would have to accept, or at least not get upset about, books supporting such detestable social mores as racism, sexism or anti-Semitism.

In fact, such socially backward books exist in American literature, but thankfully they are not best-sellers and they will not likely be made into a major motion picture.

However, if such a book, a book presenting negative black stereotypes, for example, were turned into a blockbuster movie, members of the black community would be justifiably upset. No one would say, “Hey, stop complaining. It’s just a fiction. Why are you so upset about this?”

I, too, would speak out against such a movie. I would spend time pointing out the logical, factual and historical fallacies within such a book.

Christians are merely doing the same in response to “The Da Vinci Code,” a movie that questions the deity of their God, the history of their Bible, the legitimacy of their church and the substance of their faith.

Allen M. Tate, Lincoln

Listen to neighborhood

I would like to share some thoughts on the possible conversion of the corner at Ninth/10th and Van Dorn to commercial usage.

A business has a right to request a change in usage of just about any part of town. Sometimes this change is approved, sometimes not. Sometimes the company backs away quietly, sometimes not. Sometimes the neighborhood is quiet and is not opposed.

In this case the neighborhood has made its mind well known. They are opposed to this type of change in usage in the land in the neighborhood.

In a democracy you get to vote at various times during the year at official elections. In a democracy, we all get to vote in a less formal way via meetings or public hearings. This expression of views, this method of voting in a democracy should be honored just as well as an actual vote at an election.

In this case, the neighborhood has voted, and B&J Partnership would improve their standing in the community by honoring the wishes of the people in a democracy and withdrawing their plans.

The council should not allow a change that is obviously opposed by a good part of the neighborhood, and in voting the changes down, will be honoring democracy at its truest, most grassroots level.

Terrence Moore, Lincoln

Balance opinions

Molly Ivins asks in her column of May 23, “What if we really did probe Bush lies?” Thirty and 40 years ago, there was an outcry from the left saying that the right wing was promoting hatred and class divisions. How the pendulum has swung!

Based on no credible evidence other than rantings by other leftists, liberals and many Democrats, she is calling the president of the United States a liar. Of course she is entitled to her opinions, which are grounded in hate, hate and more hate for anything to the right of Michael Moore. She states that the vice president is seriously “off the rails,” and apparently deeply paranoid.

The opinion page of the Journal Star is liberal. I see cartoons of four other newspapers and none of them come close to the liberal slant on just about every political cartoon printed by the Journal Star. And there is no right-wing balance for Molly Ivins that appears in the Journal Star, anywhere. You’d have to bring back the hatred of the past to balance her ravings about Bush and anything labeled Republican.

I know there are a lot of people who are not interested in balance, and view Molly Ivins with high regard. But then a lot of people also viewed Hitler the same way. Please either make an attempt to balance the opinion on the opinion page or drop Molly Ivins.

Wayne Simpson, Lincoln

Where’s the similarity?Kathleen Parker continues to comment on the Duke rape story. Her recent contribution (LJS, May 20) posits outstanding academic performance and charitable activities by students at Duke against “black women forced to strip to put themselves through college and feed their fatherless children.”

 

It begs the question: Is hiring strippers for a drunken party congruent with social responsibility and benevolence toward one’s fellow man?

We are not a “lynch mob.” We are parents, who want the best for our children. One cannot excuse rakish behavior by using statistics of others not remotely involved in the debacle to justify a “power over” attitude apparently tolerated by a renowned institution of higher learning.

Susan E. Larsen, Lincoln