LETTERS

Sonja's September 16 column about losing a friend over a guy elicited these responses:

Sonja, I think you did everything you could and if Stacy can't forgive ya, then boo hoo for her!

Good friends are hard to come by and GOOD WOMEN FRIENDS are harder to come by!!!!

I wouldn't give up on Stacy just yet ... a really smart girl can't throw out a friendship just like that, she might be able to break up with you for at least a year, OK, maybe two and I think you at least deserve that, but not forever!!

I think she is hurt because she didn't realize she was in competition with her best friend, and you as her friend shouldn't be the one letting her down.

Hate to rain on your parade, Stacy, but women will always feel the need to compete. I don't care if you have known them one day or 10 years, we will compete. You lost this time around, but guaranteed there will be more chances.

Welcome to womanhood!

Good luck, Sonja, and hopefully the boy toy is around to occupy her space until she is ready to make up with you.

Sad to see that a man can break up a friendship, but the real question is—was it worth it to you? (Because it never is.)

A September 16 letter about vagrants taking over Downtown drew this barbed response:

If you would not have given up the park, the vagrants would not have taken over, but I am sure your pristine little ass wasn't out there in 109 degrees. We can put all the vagrants in the jail and charge you $422 or whatever it is a night for their safekeeping, however, we would have to charge you the tax to pay for it and you would be a working vagrant. You know, I have turned people down for change and for cigarettes, but shame on you for not sharing those french fries.

Most places and people understand that in order to have the top you need the bottom ... and the people understand that THERE, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, GO YOU!

Anyone who has been in public in the past few months has been asked by someone with a clipboard to register to vote ... A registration canvasser told me the other day that he was being paid per-registration form, and that he would do whatever he had to to get them filled out. He told me that he had been to all the homeless shelters in the city offering cigarettes, sandwiches and an occasional beer to anyone who would register to vote with him (no matter what name or Social Security number they used).

According to Larry Lomax, Clark County Registrar of Voters, "It is against Nevada state law for any group to compensate by the number of completed applications submitted to the Election Department."

Since Nevada is seen in the political arena as a battleground for the White House, a significant amount of out-of-state money is being funneled into the voter registration effort here by both parties. If you feel that you were approached by anyone who was being paid to have you fill out his or her voter registration form, you maybe caught up in a fraudulent political scandal. If you have any questions, feel free to call the Clark County Elections Department (702) 455-2944.

In the September 16 issue, letter-writer Bralio Mendez wrote in support of governmental secularism. The following week, T.C. Carroll responded with a critique, insisting there isn't as much opposition between religion and the First Amendment as many people think. Below, the dialogue continues:

It never fails to amaze me how blighted the Christian mind can be. If you are Christian, you just say "It's my right to pray freely." Prayer at a school game. Prayer wouldn't be so welcome if it wasn't your religion, would it? What if the prayer was in Hebrew? Or if eveyone had to be quiet and meditate? What if my religion was (but it isn't) to praise Satan? That sure would piss off a lot of you. Why do I have to be on the recieving end of every kook who thinks they have an important message from some false Christian god? Here is what I think: Everytime you try to take away my freedom by forcing me to hear about your fear-driven false-god crap about a wonderful man voted into godhood by a bunch of imbeciles, you are not just pissing in the wind, you are also pissing on Jesus and the First Amendment. Have a nice day.

Thank you for demonstrating what a tragic state of denial you Christians are really in. You point out the atrocities of atheism but say nothing about the murderous lunacy of the early religious leaders (and their followers) throughout history. A brief retrospect of our own American history shows that the Native American Indians were all but wiped out by Bible-toting Christians. Psalms: 44:2: How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out.

And what about the slaves? They were held captive by individuals who were very religious (Southern Baptists). Lev. 25:44: Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.

Have you ever heard the word "heresy?" It was used loosely for over a thousand years in Europe, along with the inquisitions (some people believe the church murdered more people than the atheists you mentioned by burning them alive at the stake).

And, to go back a little further in history, to Joshua's day, he killed everything that breathed the breath of life (genocide). And what about the Israelites? They burnt their own children alive as sacrifices to Moloch (during their religious confusion). Ps:106:37: Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils.

And, hey, look at Jonestown (over 500 religious suicides) or Heaven's Gate (39 religious suicides) or Salem, Massachusetts (150 convicted of being witches by Cotton Mather).

The Judeo/Christian religion has a very hypnotic subliminal effect on the human psyche, but those who follow it either can't see it or refuse to acknowledge it; that's why the First Amendment was written, to keep such power (religious brainwashing) out of the hands of the government!

T.C. Carroll is mistaken in attributing Hitler's atrocities to atheism. Hitler considered himself to be a Christian and used his belief in Christ to justify his killing of Jews. This information is easily accessible in reading his speeches, and contemporary white-supremacist literature espouses similar views. More people have been killed due to differing religious views than anything else. Everyone is certain that "God" is on their side.

Consider this: As Osama's followers were praying to their God that he guide them in their heavenly mission of killing evil, materialistic Americans by driving planes into buildings, Americans were praying to their God for deliverance from the evil terrorists who had hijacked their planes—praying for a safe landing.

Religious freedom means religious freedom for all. It also means freedom from religion if that is what one chooses. If a government entity promotes "one nation under God," then it must also allow those who believe differently to exercise their free speech by inserting Jehova, Allah, Buddha, Xena, the Constitution, nothing or whatever else an individual believes in ... I believe T.C. Carroll wants a strong separation of church and state too—except when it comes to his God and his beliefs.