LETTERS: The Californian, Sept. 13, 2008

By Readers of The Californian | Saturday, September 13, 2008 12:23 AM PDT ∞

Only question should be qualifications

In response to Debra Butler's Sept. 6 letter, "Mother of five a poor choice for running mate": Does Debra really feel that Sarah Palin shouldn't be vice president because she's a parent with five children? What was Debra thinking? We've had plenty of presidents who have had at least that many children, and no one has ever complained that they were abandoning their children. Why is it any different for a male candidate than for a female candidate? I'm assuming that Palin's not going to be a single parent; she does have a husband. The real question should only be whether she's qualified for the position, not whether she's a parent.

And just in case readers think I'm a woman's libber and die-hard Republican, I'm a 56-year-old male parent who's a registered Democrat. Let's stick to the issues and leave the biases out of this election. At this point, Mr. McCain and Mrs. Palin have my vote.

Michael Rager

Temecula

Your disappearing unalienable rights

I would like to take issue with the Paul Jacobs column titled, "Don't cede the freedoms gained" (Aug. 31). His column was in response to Richard Kirk's Aug. 26 column "Court: Doctor's conscience doesn't count." Apparently a doctor in Oceanside refused to artificially inseminate a homosexual woman. This triggered a California Supreme Court ruling that a doctor cannot refuse these services because of moral reasons. He could quit doing the procedure altogether, but he would be violating state law if he refused.

Mr. Jacobs agrees with the decision that the state's ruling trumps the freedom of the doctor's belief, saying, "You cannot always practice what you preach!"

Whose freedoms are being trashed here? According to Mr. Jacobs' humanist beliefs, we must all tolerate the intolerable in order to keep this world and all the people happy! A quote from Mr. Jacobs: "It is an abomination to start whittling away at those 'unalienable rights' recognized not so long ago." He didn't mention that those rights in the Declaration of Independence come from our creator (not the state). What the state gives, it can take away.

The government is gradually whittling away at those unalienable rights and freedoms. The New Age religion is Humanism. The old axiom of "practice what you preach" is outdated, as are the Bible and the Constitution. The legacy of our Founding Fathers that Mr. Jacobs talks about is nothing like the country they founded! We need leaders in the schools, churches and government who believe in traditional values ---- and practice them!

Bob Swannie

Murrieta

So where do you draw the family values line?

In response to Debra Butler's Sept. 6 letter "Mother of 5 a poor choice for running mate": Is this only a mother of five, or is any mother, regardless the number of children, a poor running mate? If the latter is the case, our country may never have a woman as president or vice president unless she is without child. Mr. Barack Obama and Mr. John McCain are fathers: Does that make them a poor choice for president? Or is it expected that their wives will be at home caring for the children, where all "good" wives should be? If I'm not mistaken, there is a residential home for the vice president in Washington, D.C. If Ms. Sarah Palin were to become the vice president, does Ms. Butler assume she would be living in that home alone ---- that she would leave her entire family in Alaska?

What about women with careers, attorneys, firefighters, law enforcement, senators, members of Congress? Do none of these women have children at home? What about the women who are going to foreign countries and fighting for our country? Does Ms. Butler feel it is OK for a woman with children to give up her life for our country, but a woman with children is a poor choice for a political office such as vice president? Perhaps a mother as president or vice president is exactly what this country needs.

Sue Heringer

Murrieta

Another vote to end the debate

Yes! Please call it quits of the quibbling with the letters supporting creationism and those supporting the origin of species. Enough is enough of all this bull, because no one can possibly win the argument, and it is time you devoted the opinion space to more relevant issues. I, and probably countless other readers, have quit reading your Opinion page because of all that (stuff) your readers have contributed.

Randolf Aragon

Murrieta

Premise just doesn't hold water

One can't help but notice that Mr. Kenneth Ray (Aug. 27) was at one time a member of a school board in Temecula, which leads one to the belief that his views were not accepted by the electorate the next time around. This is not an ad hominem attack on him, just his world view; perhaps atheism is what drives his thinking about evolution in modern technology, and oh, how I do love modern technology! The problem arises on the assumption that natural selection has some innate ability to drive results to some "prophesied" conclusion. It does not, for it can only work within the limitations of its own genetic availabilities; it is not "directed" in any manner.

"Direction" is the very problem; for by their own standards, evolutionists call modern technology "directed molecular evolution." Thus, being "directed," they should also then give equal credit to the "creator," who by His guidance "directed" nature. But atheism cannot accept that premise, for only man's direction is understood by them, while usurping a principle not applicable to a natural event.

No amount of man's "direction" by calling it "evolution-caused" can replace by imitation that which was created by nature, for nature does not cross its own boundaries of limitation of species. Nothing in technology by man's direction is thus replicable in nature, and thus falls outside the theory of evolution by natural events.

Irvin Forbing

Escondido

Attack policies, not family life

I am disgusted with all the things written and said with regards to Sarah Palin. If there were a male governor from Alaska who had five children, would he get the same criticism for taking the VP nomination? Did Joe Biden get raked over the coals like Palin has when his wife and daughter died tragically, leaving him to look after his two small children? Where is the criticism for him?

Just because she is a mother doesn't mean she isn't capable of having a career while raising her children in conjunction with her husband. If people feel the need to attack her, then do it on her policy and not her family life.

Jonathan Briggs

Menifee

Palin's qualifications just aren't apparent

What exactly did Ms. Sarah Palin do to single-handedly unify and energize the Republican convention? She read a generic speech that was largely written before she was selected. It would be fascinating to know how much of this speech shows Palin's own style and views.

Palin's speech seemed to be long on vitriol and short on substance, appealing to the worst parts of the American psyche. If you could listen to Palin's speech again with your eyes closed, you would swear it was Lily Tomlin, doing her "Ernestine" bit!

There are numerous issues concerning Palin's TrooperGate; an investigation involving Palin's involvement in the firing of the public safety commissioner; Internet reports of her membership in an apocalyptic movement called Joel's Army; and apparent sympathies for a secessionist group, the Alaska Independent Party. Palin rejects climate change and implies energy independence can be achieved solely through domestic drilling. There are reports that Palin is a poor administrator, and she has made many enemies of both parties in the Alaskan state legislature. Her management style is a combination of the bully method and "my way or the highway." Does Palin have any background in diplomacy, public policy, international relations, economics, law, world history, military history, a foreign language ---- anything?

John McCain had several superb female options: Elizabeth Dole, Kay Hutchinson, Olympia Snowe, Carly Fiorina, Condoleezza Rice. The thought of Palin potentially being a heartbeat away from the presidency terrifies me. American citizens should be concerned, too.

Gerry Collins

Temecula