Letters to the Editor
jhillr64
Published Letters: 197 Editor's Choice: 9
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Animal testing is atrocity
[Read the article: Thugs for puppies]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am torn here, between my extreme disgust that we humans, using convenient belief systems that allow us to degrade all non-human life, are still torturing animals for our commercial gain. Face it, drug companies don't care spit about sick people, they care about money and making themselves and their stock holders rich. They can moan and cry all they want about the "good work" they do and how removing animals from the picture would slow the development of new drugs but we should accept the truth that this wouldn't be a bad thing at all.
On the other hand, it is hard to condone some of the tactics used by some organizations, not because some of these horrible humans don't deserve what they get, but strictly from a "bad energy" practice of condemning violence by using violence.
We have so much work to do, we humans, to get straight with our world. It is daunting to see how far we are from a healthy relationship with our world including animals and ourselves and the rest of our existence. I can't help thinking there is a creative way to work with enemies that doesn't involve violence and terror, while I know that sometimes it "takes a sword" to restore order or in this case compassion through intimidation.
It's a tough ethical question for sure. What's not tough ethically is knowing how truly reprehensible animal testing is, and how bereft of heart and soul are those who are connected to it in any way. It's at times like these I almost wish I believed in hell, so I could know these people will go to the "hell of eternal product testing" to experience what they perpetrate everyday. That sounds like justice to me.
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Death Sentence is indefensable
[Read the article: Saddam: The death of a dictator]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There is no sustainable argument for killing as punishment, be it logical, ethical, moral, philosophical or practical. It is a clear display of how we humans use the power of our large brains to delude ourselves using emotions and the reptilian reactive brain. It is hypocritical for starters, to kill someone because they have killed. But more so, it is bizarre that we assume death is a punishment. This is the most insane operating belief, in my opinion, we have. Without mortality, there would be no life, period. Life is the primary cause of death. This disconnection from reason and intuition is no less than amazing to me. It is also astonishing that so called "Christians" could ever support the death "penalty". Don't get me wrong, I find the unintentional irony delicious and as much a part of who we are as anything else.
As for politics, there can be no real healing for Iraq in the killing of Saddam. There can be no reverse-justification for the war by the killing of Saddam. There can be nothing but the act of killing for revenge, against every single moral code of all three Abraham-originated religious traditions on Planet Earth.
Nothing will be gained from this for anyone but Saddam. He does not suffer, or spend the balance of his life reflecting on his crimes as a captive deprived of freedom. He wins again.
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Human language
[Read the article: Joe Biden's Obama drama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What is most interesting about the hyper-sensitive America I live in, is the assumption that we all speak the same language. It is more true to say we all speak our own version of one human language than to say we are all English speakers with a common language. Each of us has our own internal interpretation of common vocabulary and concepts.
Clearly, Biden-who is a blowhard for sure-was attempting a compliment, not a slur. Perhaps he is completely out of touch? Big Woop!
The bigger message for us can be found in our continuing desire to live our lives in reaction to the words of the "other". What a tiny little life to live, what a petty and bitter way to proceed, reacting to what other people say. There is simply no impact except the one created by the person reacting.
Even more sad is those who search for that offense, who drive to create the opportunity to be offended, to use what one knows is innocently intended to create division and play on the tiny, petty, and bitter impluse.
It's only talk. Just let it go folks. The more of us who do, the less it will happen. It's a principle of Physics. Every action demands and equal and opposite reaction. So, just put down your sword and move along. It's like when your little brother/sister was trying to annoy you, and you learned to ignore him/her for a short time...it worked every time.
It seems a lot of us never learned that lesson? It's never too late, just give it a whirl.