Letters to the Editor Friday - Savannah Morning News

Windsor Forest residents, do not conjure up a meeting in response to the recent murders on Savannah?s Southside.

The Windsor Forest Neighborhood Association hosts quarterly meetings, but the majority of residents do not attend.

There is never more than one or two African Americans from the Windsor Forest neighborhood present at these meetings. Most of the folks that do attend these meetings are senior citizens.

What a shame! You do not have to be a homeowner, a college graduate or anyone special to attend these meetings. It costs $20 a year to be a member, but you can participate for free.

More folks need to lead by example. Take a look at some of the yards and houses in Windsor Forest, especially those in the vicinity of the recent Windsor Forest shooting.

It is more than the so-called thugs bringing down our community. It is the lazy homeowners with the derelict properties and yards, the trash on the streets, the cracked and overgrown sidewalks, the overgrown gutters and so forth.

We need to get more involved in our community. Do not blame the thugs for Windsor Forest demise. Look at yourselves and your neighbors first.

ROSE MCGUIRE

Savannah

Wanted: People who have never had cancer

It?s often far too easy to underestimate the importance of cancer research ... until you hear the words ?you have cancer.?

Those three words can make all the difference between simply absorbing news about developments in cancer research and truly appreciating the power of what scientists like those funded by the American Cancer Society do each and every day.

This Feb. 26-March 1, scientists aren?t the only ones who will be making a difference. Residents of our community will have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to enroll in the American Cancer Society?s third Cancer Prevention Study which seeks to help us better understand the factors that cause or prevent cancer.

Individuals between the ages of 30 and 65 who have never been diagnosed with cancer and are willing to make a long-term commitment to the study are encouraged to sign up. Those who choose to enroll will simply fill out a comprehensive survey packet about health history, provide a small blood sample (to be collected by trained phlebotomists) and provide a waist measure. Participants will periodically be sent a follow-up questionnaire for the next 20 to 30 years.

Remember: Research being done today will help ensure future generations never have to hear those dreaded three words.

DIANE Z. WEEMS, M.D.

Chief Medical Officer

Coastal Health District/Chatham County Health
Department

Savannah

Love affair with firearms: We need honest talk

Today, America stands at a crossroads with her long-standing love affair with firearms.

The road back is an honorable tradition of a people who received the right to bear arms by a wise and forward-thinking group of Founding Fathers. Yet the present is mired with difficult problems, and the road forward is unclear.

What is the meaning, today, of the Second Amendment? Is it to give the right to procure a device whose sole purpose is to kill as many human beings in as short a time as possible, or is it to allow honest citizens the security of a firearm in a time of need?

Is it to allow to pack a clip with a hundred rounds of ammo, or is the right for our citizens to legally hunt on private and public lands? Is it both, or is it neither?

Is it time for Americans to, dare it be said, hold an honest conversation on these things, or is it still time to decry and demonize anyone with whom one might disagree?

The decision is the court of public opinion, and the race is too close to call.

ALLEN WILLIAMS

Savannah

How to escape clutches of the political parties

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (online) defines a labor union as ?an organization of workers formed to protect the rights and interests of its members.?

Consider the focus of our major political parties. They are organizations of individuals with workers in the Congress. They espouse goals and mantras purportedly to achieve specific results. Labor unions pursue the same ends. There is no doubt both organizations seek to protect the jobs of their members.

Unions have a ?business agent? who is the chief of the group. Political parties have ?majority? or ?minority? leaders who occupy the identical responsibility ? to keep the members in line and promote their interests to the employer or legislatures. Each has benefits, such as, health insurance, pensions and tactics to accomplish their goals. There are internal disciplinary rules.

There is a way our nation could escape the self-interest of the political parties. A constitutional amendment could be adopted that congressional and state legislative districts be established by the Census Bureau which seeks each area be comprised of a similar number of individuals of male/female and age and ethnic spreads or a similar balanced composition. That would encourage the political unions to promote legislation which benefits a broad element of our society.

STANLEY HARRIS, JR.

Savannah

Politicians say anything to get elected

Money talks, and the large corporations are looking for cheap labor and the politicians are looking for money from them for their next election.

We the taxpayers are stupid not to see this. Vote every incumbent out of office; I don?t care how good he or she is. They will tell you anything to get elected.

Vote out every incumbent. They will see they are supposed to be serving voters, not big money lobbyists like Grover Norquist.

We have two members of Congress who have hired illegal aliens into their federal offices. Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., hired Erika Andiola (who was brought into this country at 11 years of age). She attended college on the U.S. dollar, while we have children of American citizens who cannot afford to go.

Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Ill., hired Jose M. Quintero (the first young immigrant in Illinois to receive work authorization via Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) .

These are jobs that the legal American citizen would/could love to have. To me this is a slap in the face to legal American citizens.

ELIZABETH DADIN

Savannah

Source: http://savannahnow.com/opinion/2013-01-24/letters-editor-friday

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