On political labels and courtesy
It is a truism that we have the right to express ourselves, that this is one of the freedoms we are granted as citizens of these United States. It is a freedom I value highly; people have died for it, both in this country and abroad, and I don’t take it lightly.
I don’t think, however, that this freedom means slamming people who don’t have the same opinion as oneself. I don’t believe it means using political advertising to denigrate a candidate, to throw slime or to intimate he or she is unAmerican because of his/her actions. And it certainly doesn’t mean hinting that just because someone has had an accident, that he or she is incapable of serving the country as a president, governor or magistrate.
I also believe it doesn’t mean that “liberal” is a bad word, that it means a person is not worthy of running for office, voting or being in the military. Too often I’ve heard the word “liberal” equated with “bad,” or so it seems when I read these letters to the editor.
This is something that needs to be noted. We are all hopeful for our country, are we not? We dream that these wars will end, don’t we? We hope for improvement in our country’s finances, our state’s financial binds. And we want each family to have a good life, free of debt, poverty and illness — having stability and peace.
Please, think of what you write. We are all one country, and if you really want to have an eye-opener, look at a picture of the Earth in space: no boundaries. We are all human.
Let’s be courteous when we write letters to the editor. Let’s see ourselves as one Earth. Thanks for reading my letter.
Peace.
— Tina Loflin
Salisbury

An eye for an eye
Punishment, in order for it to be just, must be in proportion to the severity of the crime which has been committed. The more wicked and harmful a crime is, the more severely it should be punished.
And it is here that we encounter a bit of difficulty in that there are some crimes which are so heinous and wicked, so utterly abominable, that society is simply unable to inflict a just amount of punishment upon those who commit them.
Murder is unspeakably wicked – so much so that words which are strong enough to describe its level of wickedness do not exist — and we are simply unable to inflict enough pain or damage upon a person that has committed it for our punishment to be described as just.
But what we can do is send those who commit heinous crimes such as murder to a perfect judge, one who is all-knowing and all-wise, and who has the ability to inflict a just level of punishment upon those who commit such crimes.
I speak, of course, about God. Capital punishment is not just in and of itself; it is not severe enough to be. But by employing it we can deliver one over to higher power and higher justice, in the certain hope that justice will be done by a Judge who is not plagued by ignorance, uncertainty, and sin as we are.
By putting to death those who commit terrible crimes we also contribute to making our society safer; not because capital punishment dissuades people from committing such crimes (it generally doesn’t), but because it allows us to rid ourselves of the dangerous influence of wicked men.
Dead men commit no more crimes; imprisoned and released ones sometimes do.

— Tom Hervey
Stanfield