Flowers help people express their feelings

The writer is responding to a column in Sunday’s paper, “My Funeral,” by Kent Bernhardt.

Mr. Bernhardt, why does God’s beautiful creation of flowers offend you? I have been a florist for 50 years, and I appreciate the fact that flowers are the expression of treasured words of love. I also appreciate all the wonderful and loving flower customers in sending flowers for sympathy occasions.

Your quote from Don Adams: “When I die, I don’t want an elaborate formal service with lots of flowers.”

My quote: “In the beauty of flowers, life’s most treasured words are expressed!”

Your quote: “In my written obituary, please just say that I died.”

Mr. Bernhardt, would it be too flowery to say “he finally died”?

— David Harrison

Salisbury

The writer owns Harrison’s Florist.

Enough, already

For decades, and accelerating maddeningly in the past few years, our society has been turned on its head by politicians and bureaucrats.

We have rewarded the non-productive, fleeced the productive, taxed small businesses out of the country, given grants of taxpayer money to politically correct enterprises with no chance to succeed in the open market, spent federal money as if there were no limit, insulted our friends, bowed to our enemies, sent troops to fight with rules of engagement designed to give our enemies an even break, made trade deals that eliminated American jobs and sent American capital overseas to be lost forever, opened our borders to millions of intruders who weren’t willing to come legally and complicated our tax laws so that nobody can possibly understand them.

In the recent past we had cultural norms which were almost completely supported.

Some called bad actions sin, some called them vice, some simply called them wrong but we pretty much agreed on what the norms were. Now, in the name of non-discrimination, we turn vice into virtue, good into evil and liberty into mandated behavior. We went from freedom of religion to the demand that faith issues be confined to churches and synagogues and never allowed in the marketplace.

We have been forced by unelected judges to reverse the concepts of morality. Today we are being pressured to allow sexual predators free access to bathrooms, locker rooms and showers of the opposite sex. We’re even told that there is no “opposite sex,” we are all whatever we decide we are. At the same time we go to the opposite extreme and scream sexual harassment when kindergarten kids kiss or when a man compliments a lady on her appearance.

How confused can you get?

Angry! Yeah, I expect so!

Is there hope?

— Charles E. Baker

Trinity