Trip to Europe sparks downtown park ideas

I have just returned from a trip to Europe. Upon observation of three or four city parks in European cities,I would like to share a few ideas.

(1) There should be a two-level parking deck below ground which should be paid parking Mon.-Sat. This would give the churches a free area to park on Sundays, and cure a lot of the down town parking needs.

(2) Entrance should be off of one way Church Street and exit should be on to one way Jackson Street. This cuts way down on congestion.

(3) The park itself should be a combination of grass, trees, hedges and our local natural granite (which a lot of is just lying around in piles in the Granite Quarry/Rockwell area). There  should be a natural appearance to a stage area for the annual Pops At The Post.

(4) There doesn’t need to be picnic tables, but there should be plenty on benches and a nice rest room.

I am a native Salisburian who has left twice but always seems to end up back in this wonderful place I call home.

— Jack Beeker

Take care with Bible

As I told Rep. Carl Ford in an email, I found the scripture he used in the Salisbury Post article about HB 780 in the New Testament as well as in Genesis. In fact, Jesus quoted it. However, there was a lot more to His message which Mr. Ford didn’t seem to get.

First of all, I’m a pretty smart woman, and this scripture he used says nothing against gay marriage. It just states an idea about heterosexual marriage. Second, Jesus’ follow-up comments are awfully important as well because He says what God has joined together, let no one separate. That seems to present the need for a law that forbids divorce in North Carolina. Third, after that, Jesus says that if you divorce and remarry, you are committing adultery, so it would seem that another law should be passed that makes all marriages of divorced people null and void.

I think if I keep studying scriptures, I can probably help him come up with even more ideas for laws.

I would hate to think that Mr. Ford is one of those Christians who picks and chooses which verses in the Bible he thinks are important and need to be enforced by law. The words of Jesus Christ are simple and yet so complex, but anybody can go with something that fits his own biases and focus on it rather than the true message of Christ.

— Susan Wright Beard

Salisbury

Picking verses

I find it interesting that we have House Bill 780 based on Genesis 2:24 (“A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”) limiting marriage to one man and one woman, and yet there doesn’t seem to be a rush to apply Mark 10:2-12 (“…they are no longer two, but one flesh….what God has joined together let no one separate…”).

According to Mark, Jesus goes on to say that if you or I marry someone who is divorced, we would be committing adultery. (Are there not adulterers in our churches and what should be done about it?) Luke says much the same thing in Luke 16:18.

However, Jesus apparently changes his mind in Matthew 5:31-32 and 19:3-9. Here he allows divorce if unchastity is involved. Also, Paul seems to add another twist in First Corinthians 7:10-15. If one of the couple is an unbeliever, divorce is allowed. So why is there not a House Bill making divorce illegal based on the Bible and exactly what should it allow or not allow?

I find a couple of things interesting about this whole thing. First, we seem to pick and choose what parts of the Bible we want to believe and apply. Second, even Jesus contradicts scripture with his “It was also said … but I say” referring to Deuteronomy 24-1-4. (If Jesus can reinterpret scripture are we not allowed to do the same? “You have heard it said that marriage is between one man and one woman but I say it can also be between two men or two women?”)

I guess it’s simpler to just pick the Bible verses we like and ignore those we don’t.

— Roger Hull

China Grove

Fix real problems

From defending House Bill 2 to playing partisan games, Reps. Harry Warren and Carl Ford continue to make a mockery of our beautiful state and county.

At a cost of more than half a billion dollars and 1,400 jobs, HB2 ravaged our state economy for no reason other than fear of things unknown to them. Unless both of these gentlemen would volunteer to be on the task force to check the biological genitalia of all of those that enter restrooms, I strongly believe they should see how inappropriate this costly bill was.

A bill to force our Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education members to run as partisan candidates, only adding political strife to our schools, is not what our leaders should be focusing on. We should be attempting to depoliticize school board races, to do what is best for students, not what is best for any particular party. Maybe a better focus of time would be finding new money for school books and increasing teacher pay.

Finally, it is embarrassing to live in a county in which a representative calls an action of the Supreme Court of the United States unconstitutional and then proceeds to cite a section of the Christian Bible. It’s as if Representative Ford has never heard of judicial review or the practice of common law. If you do not agree with same-sex marriage, do not marry someone of the same sex; it should be that simple.

There are real problems in our state and county that our representatives could have stopped in their tracks if they spent half as much time, focus and money on fixing as they did trying to play politics. It’s time they were held accountable to citizens and forced to tackle problems that actually concern us.

— Tarik J. Woods

Chapel Hill

Tarik Woods, who grew up in Salisbury, is a student at UNC-Chapel Hill.