HHB, 151 FA says thank you
The soldiers and families of HHB, 1-151 FA would like to thank the community of Montevideo for all of the support throughout the deployment the past year. We would also like to thank the following businesses, individuals, and organizations for their generous contributions and support toward our welcome home and ceremony:
Heather Nursery & Floral; Blossoms & Bridal; Thrifty White; Walmart; Dave Swenson, Swenson Orchard; Montevideo Senior Citizens Center; Montevideo American- News; Patriot Guard; KDMA; Q102; Matt Wanke; Montevideo Police, Fire, and EMS along with Police, Sheriff, EMS, and Fire Departments from surronding communities; Lori Whitman; Montevideo Schools; MACCRAY Schools; Chord-Ayres; Montevideo VFW Post #380; American Legion Post #59; Disabled American Veterans; Jim Ruether, Deb Spaeth; Sue Gustafson.
If we have forgotten you, please know that it was not intentional and your contributions were greatly appreciated.
—The soldiers and families of HHB, 1-151 FA
Sexual violence costs $8 billion
April has been designated as Sexual Assault Awareness Month in Minnesota and across the nation. Believe it or not —every single one of us knows a person who has been sexually abused or assaulted.
Unfortunately, the numbers are staggering. One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused or assaulted before they turn 18. Over a lifetime there is a one-in-five chance that you will be assaulted sexually, more than likely by somebody you know. The emotional, physical and psychological costs of sexual violence are devastating and life changing.
The monetary costs are devastating as well. In Minnesota, sexual violence costs at last $8 billion annually (2005 figures). This figure is three times the dollar amount spent on drunk driving per year in our state.
If rape and sexual assault were spread equally across the state, $8 billion would equal $1,540 per person in Minnesota. In Chippewa, Lac qui Parle and Yellow Medicine counties — the counties that Pathways serves — sexual violence would cost over $45 million annually.
Sadly, most sexual abuse and assault is never reported. Victims sometimes suffer in silence for an entire lifetime. It is our mission at Pathways to help victims of sexual violence transition from victim to survivor. It is our mission to end sexual violence and we need your help.
This year’s theme is “End Sexual Violence in Minnesota: Make Prevention the Priority.” Sexual vioence is preventable. In rural Minnesota, our sense of community spirit is strong. Together, as a community, we have the power to end sexual violence. Please help make prevention the priority in your community.
—Melissa Hoffman Bodin
Executive Director, Pathways of West Central MN, Inc.
Bribes, lies, and name-calling
My question to Grayce Ray is this, “Have you actually read the health care bill?”
If it is such a good bill, why did Democrats have to be bribed to vote for it? If it was such a wonderful bill for all the rest of us citizens, why was it written in the bill that members of the House and Senate, as well as their staff members, would be exempt from the health care plan?
My thanks go to Collin Peterson, one of the few Democrats who had the guts to stand up for what is right and the moral fortitude to not take the bribes that were being handed out like candy … all of which was being done behind closed doors. (So much for Obama’s transparency.)
I wish Grayce would be as outraged by the name-calling by the left as she is the name-calling by the right. She mentioned a Republican calling Obama a liar. Well, the truth is, Obama was lying. I guess maybe Grayce has forgotten when Bush was boo’d at some of his speeches by Democrats or Democrats going on MSNBC, CBS, CNN and other networks and calling Bush a liar, a Nazi, a Fascist and a war criminal.
Also, since we’re talking about name-calling, let’s talk about what the Democrats and liberal media have been calling citizens that attend Tea Party rallies. Here are just a few: “Vile, two-big wing nuts,” “narrow-minded nut jobs,” “slimy thugs,” “racists,” “homophobes,” and “tea baggers.”
Do any of you know what “tea bagger” means? I didn’t. I had to look it up. It’s a name for a sexual act.
Grayce, as far as the wonderful Canadian health care that you are touting, take a trip to North Dakota and you will see all the cars from Canada. What are they in the U.S. for? They come here to get surgery because they have to wait too long to get in a hospital in Canada. And they also come here to buy big items like furniture, TVs, etc. because their taxes are so high.
We talked to a bunch of Canadians when we were on vacation this winter and asked them about their health care. They said, “It’s wonderful as long as you stay healthly. If you need surgery, that’s a different matter.”
Is that the kind of health care we really want?
—Pat Nokleby
Paynesville
Toil and trouble
Grayce Ray’s articles have an uncanny way of evoking the wit and wisdom of Shakespeare. Her most recent Obama Care diatribe brings to mind Macbeth. Her usual, arrogant, condescending and dogmatic tone is perfectly characterized by the passage, “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
In fact, a slightly more contemporary observation by V.I. Lenin describes progressive, socialist and collectivist apologists as “useful idiots.” Historical thematic consistency is always gratifying when illustrating a point.
Ray’s praise of governing against the will of the public by means which Macbeth’s three witches describe as “fair is foul and foul is fair” perfectly illustrate an elitist, anti-democratic, statist paradigm.
Insofar as the enlightenend Europeans are concerned, they are able to play at socialism due to the largess of U.S. taxpayers. We saved them from themselves twice in the 20th Century, rebuilt them and then provided for their defense. For the last 60 plus years, the Europeans have been able to spend less than 1 percent of their GDP on defense thanks to the U.S. taxpayers. Defense is a Constitutionally mandated government responsibility and function — health care is not!
If Obama Care is not repealed and replaced by problem specific, free market oriented, constitutional reform, Ray, and unfortunately the rest of us, will get what she asked for — namely, severe bureaucratic-controlled rationing when we need medical care the most.
Read the Aug. 27, 2009 Wall Street Journal article, “Obama’s Health Care Rationer-in-Chief.” It describes Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel’s “Complete Lives System,” A.K.A. “The Reaper Curve.” Emanuel, senior health care adviser to Obama, outlines the rules governing who should get health care and who should be severely rationed.
Individuals between the ages of 15 and 40 years will “get the most substantial chance, whereas the youngest and oldest will get chances that are attenuated. See Emanuel’s chart.”
Good luck on your next medical crisis under Obama Care, Ray. “Double, double, toil and trouble!”
—Stephen J. Rucker
Montevideo
No second-class members
I read last week’s letter from Mrs. Fjerkenstad with a heavy heart. I stand in solidarity, as a heterosexual, with the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transexual) community, with the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) in the denomination’s decision to ordain openly gay men and lesbian women into the ministry of Word and Sacrament.
The ELCA joins several denominations in ordaining and marrying LGBT Christians. I am a member of the United Church of Christ, which, alongside the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Episcopal Church, ordains and marries openly homosexual members of the Church — the Body of Christ.
I am motivated by a quote from Bishop John Bryson Chane, the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, D.C. Bishop Chane, in responding to the Marriage Equality Act in D.C., says, “Through the grace of Holy Baptism, there are no second class members of the Body of Christ. We are of equal value in the eyes of God, and any one of us may be called by the Holy Spirit into holy relationships as well as Holy Orders.”
“Holy Orders,” in the language of the bishop’s denomination, means ordination. All baptized Christians are partial to the movements of the Holy Spirit — that includes movement in the direction of ordination.
I lauded the ELCA last summer and I laud them now! They are taking intentional steps toward the day when all of God’s children — with no regard to their race, gender, sexual orientation, denominational choice, or political affiliation — will be reconciled to God, their loving Parent. God is Love.
—Cody E. Maynus
CSB/SJU Theology/English major, Montevideo
