Love Letters, hate mail

Have Mercy

(Re: "Prosecuting Mothers," June 21-27, vol. 21, no. 52)

Dear UTW:

Substance Abuse is an illiness, but the individual has to want sobriety in order to receive sobriety. They have to take the first step. If you are pregnant and know it without a shadow of a doubt and you continue to use drugs, you are one sick individual. Children are a blessing, but you have become an abuser and come under subjection of a curse when you are caught while mothering or carrying a baby within your womb.

I don't believe anything this woman is saying that's the drug talking, all she can think about is another hit of substance. Change starts within the individual when you get tired of being sick and tired, only then will change come, been there done that! Its an addiction that only God can controll grab a hold of God and surrender yourself unto him and watch change begin.

Leave your environment and so called friends move into a rehab facility for a year, work on getting your children back, learn what the cause and effects of your drug use and admit its an addiction, only then will healing begin. Only then will change come, but until then you will always be cursed with the addiction, because you are not willing to change. The only results will be death, jail or probation if you are lucky.

May God have mercy on your soul, because you will stand before him to give account of your choices. Don't stand before God with a pipe in your mouth. God is forgiving and he is the only one that can heal your mind, body and soul. Surrender unto him and watch what happens!

--Emory Howell

More Fan Mail for Ted

(Re: "Our Politicians Need an Education," June 21-27, vol. 21, no. 52)

Dear UTW:

Yes, it's really sad we have such diverse standards and that the states are still allowed so much control over education. Prior to 1980 -- which was when the illustrious Jimmy Carter signed the Department of Education into existence -- our system of education was in total chaos. No one was learning anything. We were 35 out of 30 of the top nations in educating our young.

Except that everything I just said is utter crap. We began seriously losing ground in the late '50s, after we went into panic mode that the Soviets won the race to space and we started pushing math and science over history and literature. State after state signed on to changes in curriculum that supported this directive. The result was predictable: history and literature courses became moribund afterthoughts; your average modern high school history course is a waste of a teacher's salary and of a student's time.

The fact of the matter is prior to 1959, the American system of education was one of the best in the world. Nowadays, not so much. Does anyone think the solution to that problem is to grant even more control to a useless, national education bureaucracy?

Yet still we hear the cries: "more money, more money! We can fix it with more and more money." It is a waste of time to point out that Utah spends the lowest amount per pupil on education of all the 50 states -- yet still ranks somewhere in the middle for student achievement. Conversely -- and equally as futile to point out - Washington D.C. spends the most per pupil on education. Yet ranks last .. yes, dead last in student achievement. There is no greater bureaucratic boondoggle than the D.C. public schools. The Washington Post acknowledges this.

You can quite accurately predict "student achievement" based on racial/income demographics. Money doesn't have a damn thing to do with it. Yeah, I know, it's not politically correct to say stuff like that. I just don't give a rip about being politically correct. What I do care about is 2/3 of my property taxes go to pay for the education of children I don't have in the local, substandard public education system. But more money and government involvement will fix everything. Sure it will. Whoooot!

The approach Rall advocates -- abolishing private schools and all other forms of free choice forcing everyone into an awful school -- would be akin to acknowledging you can't save everyone, so might as well just sink all the lifeboats and let everyone drown.

Come to think of it, that's exactly what a government-engineered solution would look like.

--Todd Kreigh

Do the Math

Dear UTW:

Greece's economy is bankrupt because their politicians spent more money than they take in. They cannot pay their debt. Today Spain and maybe Italy are also in need of a bailout. This is exactly where the United States is headed. For over three decades our Career Politicians have spent us into Enormous Debt.

The Career Politicians we continue to re-elect are to blame. They are NOT addressing this problem. Today the Republicans are trying to retain Bush-era tax cuts. The Democrats are trying to spend more money on temporary job creation. Do the math. It all adds up to more debt. Greece, Spain, and Italy have the European Union to bail them out. Who will bail us out?

Serving in Congress should be an honor, not a career.

--Billy D. Clifford