Letters to the editor — Friday (1-24-2014)

Published 12:00 am Friday, January 24, 2014

On Wednesday, thousands of people, including at least one busload from Rowan County, braved the cold and snow and gathered once again on the National Mall in Washington to protest 41 years of inhumane treatment of our children in the dismemberment and torture of babies, sucked or torn from their mother’s wombs since Roe v. Wade.
Millions of them. Babies who would have been neighbors of yours and mine. Babies who could have found cures for cancer, run for political office, been sports heroes. Babies who were “inconvenient”, “unwanted” or “not perfect” enough for someone. A front page headline on that day in the Salisbury Post featured a small, maybe 30-plus person protest of “inhumane” euthanization of animals at the Rowan Animal Shelter. There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting animals to be treated with respect and to be destroyed, when necessary, in a manner designed to minimize their suffering. But what I find almost inconceivable is that a local protest about animals is made the front page story, while a national protest — including the participation of many hundreds of people from Rowan County, piedmont North Carolina and all over our state — was completely ignored. No article anywhere, either before or after the march. How can we so glibly accept the holocaust of our children that has been going on for over a generation in this country? And not a mention of the March for Life in our local paper and barely a mention in the national media?
Is there a reason why we are so concerned about the plight of our furry and feathered friends, and don’t recognize the plight of these tiny innocent babies? Do we now have more compassion for our dogs and cats than our children? May God have mercy on us.
— Mary R. Blanton
Salisbury

The Jan. 18 Salisbury Post had an AP article about the Columbus, Ohio, execution of one Dennis McGuire.
He was convicted of the February 1989 rape and stabbing death of a pregnant newlywed after DNA evidence led authorities to him. Originally, McGuire attempted to put the blame on his brother-in-law.
Witnesses said that after the lethal injection, McGuire “gasped and snorted” during the unusually long 25-minute execution. It was described as being cruelly inhumane punishment.
Not a word about the victim and her unborn baby was mentioned in the article. Perhaps the victim and unborn fetus also “gasped and snorted” during their ordeal.
Also, the article neglected to mention that the victim’s family forgave McGuire but stated they thought he should “have to pay the consequences of his actions.”
Somebody out there: Is there an answer to the issue of capital punishment? Is it an eye for an eye, or is it mercy? Is there a universal morality or a way to legislate our way out of this situation? This is something that should trouble all of us.
— W.L. Poole
Salisbury