Letters for Nov. 30

The love of democracy

I saw a sign on this Thanksgiving Day on a church marquee that said, “When the power of love is greater than the love of power then there will be peace.”

On this national holiday of being thankful for what unites us, this passage made me wonder if our love of democracy still carries the same ring? Please tell me it is so.

Howard W. Braham

Spokane Valley

Apple Cup

Way to go Cougs! WSU 40, Pac-12 Refs 13

Amazing accomplishment when it was 11 WSU players against 18 UW players.

Why is it sports officials are never fired? Hugging your mascot is a penalty. A WSU player getting punched in the face is a penalty on the WSU player. On the only big play by UW, the WSU defender is pushed to the turf. On most pass plays by UW, at least one of their lineman was holding. The entire officiating crew needs to be fired. Send a message that this biased officiating will no longer be tolerated.

Yes, I’m a homer. But I have LASIK corrected 20/20 vision.

GO COUGS!!!

Vince Beck

Colbert

Rebuttal to Blewitt

Contrary to Steve Blewitt’s Opinion letter (Nov. 21), the U.S. Conference of Bishops is exercising its duty to reaffirm the teachings of Jesus in determining guidelines for the reception of the Eucharist. Roman Catholics believe that the Eucharist is the body and blood of Christ. During the consecration at Mass, ordinary bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of our Lord (transubstantiation). Only the external appearance of bread and wine remain. This is not a symbolic representation but is Jesus again giving us his body and blood in an un-bloody sacrifice to redeem us from our sins. The doctrine must be taken on faith as it defies logic/science. This gift of faith is necessary for receiving Holy Communion in the Roman Catholic Church.

There are many other Christians who are “legitimately baptized” (Blewitt’s words) but are not united with us in the faith of the Catholic Church.

Jesus came to save sinners (all of us) but salvation comes with a caveat. When Jesus blessed, forgave, healed, raised the dead, he said “Go and sin no more.” The Conference of Bishops’ purpose is to uphold church doctrine. It cannot turn a blind eye to those who, e.g. willingly or publicly support the murdering of babies by abortion, or harm any vulnerable being. They have separated themselves from the Catholic faith and from the Eucharist.

Thank God Christ entrusted, from the very beginning, a body of men, guided by the Holy Spirit, with the handing on and faithful interpretation of his message for the sake of our salvation.

Elaine V. Bartlett

Spokane

Cargill’s irony

Do I detect a certain level of hypocritical irony in Chris Cargill’s call for a reduction in the sales tax? He and the Washington Policy Center have long fought against any state income tax or capital gains tax increase. Talk about regressive policy.

Ted Wert

Sagle, Idaho

Americans who don’t want kids

In response to Christine Emba’s editorial, “Disinterest in the future reflected in growing number of Americans who don’t want kids,” I believe in the programs you endorse, universal child care and paid family leave … but I still wouldn’t have wanted to have a child even if there were programs like that in the U.S. My husband and my choice to not have children wasn’t financial, it wasn’t due to our emphasis on our own pleasures nor was it our lack of interest in the human enterprise.

The world population is nearing 8 billion, it took 2 million years for human population to hit 1 billion and only 200 years to hit 7 billion … my husband and I decided not to have children to actually help the planet and the human enterprise. There’s enough of us on this earth and if you hadn’t noticed, Christine, climate change is real and mostly caused by humans. And if we continue to produce more and more people and not change how we live, there won’t be a healthy earth for humans to exist.

To say that our choice not to have children will contribute to the end of history is nonsensical.

Ann Buckley

Colbert