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Letters To The Editor

Layman’s Note On Incitement

To The Reader’s Forum: A number of months ago a vehicle with the bumper sticker stating “Shoot your local heroin dealer” running around in the Lakewood/Jamestown area caught my eye. Not being a great supporter of the whole heroin dealing business my emotional reaction has been complicated. Sure, heroin dealers ruin countless lives, and we could certainly do with a few less of the kind. However, digging deeper I find a couple of objections to the appeal. The first and obvious is its implication of disregard for the rule of law, both from the poster of the message and the law ...

There Is No ‘Natural’

To The Reader’s Forum: Beth Payton’s “How Much Time ?” in the Nov. 23-24 edition of The Post-Journal is a beautiful example of the cult-like aspect of environmentalism and of the logical fallacy of naturalism. She paints all “broadly applied herbicides” with a broad brush, the same one she uses for “deforestation (and) our continued reliance on fossil fuels.” She asks about county officials, “What are they thinking?” I don’t live on the lake or use it much so, like Will Rogers, all I know is what I read in the paper, but I suspect they were thinking they ...

Checks And Balances

Checks And Balances To The Reader’s Forum: This holiday, I suggest we give thanks for our mental capacity as humans. Compared to other animals we have been given extraordinary capacities of thought and reasoning. We are able to predict likely outcomes of events and plan accordingly. We can construct moral systems and judge whether someones actions lie within the same. We can create and be entertained by art in its many forms. These latter abilities, the artistic ones, may be by many people considered as the most explicitly human as they require more of the intellect than just ...

Why Hasn’t The Gas Price Changed?

To The Reader’s Forum: After a trip up to the Buffalo area this past weekend, I can’t help but wonder why the gas prices remain so much higher here in the Jamestown area. In Dunkirk/Fredonia gas is $2.79/gallon. In Depew/Lancaster prices are $2.59; Cheektowaga is at $2.62/gallon. Even the Thruway is $2.62. Can anyone explain why gas hasn’t moved below $2.85/gallon in Jamestown? Catharine A. Kasparek, Jamestown

There Is Hope That The Darkness Is Temporary

To The Reader’s Forum: One candidate for the Democratic nomination for President this past Wednesday was asked whether there was room in the Democratic Party for a Pro-life candidate since John Bel Edwards, the newly elected Democratic governor of Louisiana is pro-life and has recently signed anti-abortion legislation. She refused to directly answer the question, but instead promoted her own pro-choice position. With this in mind I am reminded of the favorite, nostalgic, fantasy 1946 film which will soon be on our televisions again during this coming holiday season — “It’s a ...

Our American Holiday

To The Reader’s Forum: Since 1863, when it was announced by President Lincoln, Thanksgiving has been an official American holiday. It is uniquely American, almost as much as the 4th of July, and it has become all about families getting together and celebrating our common freedoms in this country. Sometimes we forget how deeply religious and spiritual this proclamation was. It was to be a day of “Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.” Proclaimed during the violence and anguish of a national Civil War where thousands had already been ...