Letters to the editor: 12/06/02

Contrails reading suggestion

To the Editor:

Horowitz has advanced degrees from Harvard, Beacon College and Tufts University. He has written many books and articles and received the "Author of the Year Award in 1999 from the World Natural Health Organization.

One of his books, "Emerging Viruses," was on the best-seller list a few years ago.

Mary A. Joyce

Sylva

'See what you think'

To the Editor:

Instead, they cover the skies with a haze that makes a tic-tac-toe design or crisscross, which spreads over the entire sky. Is this a very unusual display of extra civilan or military planes or what?

Look up and see what you think.

Betsy Phillips

Pumpkintown

What is being sprayed in contrails?

To the Editor:

Strangely, the beautiful blue skies turn into a white haze within hours of the appearance of pattered white trails left by aircraft. Blue skies covered with crisscrossing line, X marks, streams of lines leading to a focal point, parallel lines changing formation as they spread out to form an all-white sky. Why? A cloudy day was not predicted in the weather forecast.

I walk in the mountains daily, and for the last two years I have observed the activity noted above. I would have to be blind not to have noticed the rapid change as the aircraft, busy as bees, do their job.

The question I have is what is being sprayed by the aircraft and why? My concern and curiosity led me to search the Internet for information, which much can be found by searching "chemtrails.com." I found out that these sprayings are conducted all over the United States and internationally. Why?

There are many theories and much concern but no real answers. The question remains: What is routinely sprayed by aircraft and why are the skies being sprayed?

Thank you, Mr. Urban, for bringing this to our attention. I am very concerned.

Evie Auerbach

Cashiers

Controlling ministers are 'trampling' TBA

Editor's note: The following is the text of a letter sent to Tuckaseigee Baptist Association Interim Director of Missions Claude Conard:

To Rev. Conard:

I have been shocked and dismayed at the articles I have been reading about things going on in the TBA during the past months. I am also confused as to how the very basic tenets of the Baptist church are being totally ignored and trampled. I realize a few people always feel they are above the rules of our Lord, but believe me, there will be some surprises for them when they get to Heaven.

My dismay of how you conducted yourself in public began when I was at an associational meeting a few years ago, when you first came to fill this interim position, and you made the very un-Christian-like statement that someday we might ask blacks to be part of our association, but that you had at some time in your past gotten into trouble by having "one of them" in your association.

I feel I failed the Lord at that time by not bringing to your attention that Liberty Baptist Church has been part of the goings-on in the Baptist community for a long time and part of the TBA before you got to Sylva. It will be shocking how you handle "one of them" when we are with our master in eternity.

The very basis of Baptist theology from the very beginning is that each church has its own autonomy. That is to say that as long as a church conducts itself in such a way that lost souls are saved, with no Satanic worship, etc., then that church is a body unto itself.

This is not to say that TBA can make up its own rules in order to control churches that seem to be for the glorifying and publicity-seeking itself, and forget about the Great Commission that was given to us by our Savior.

How many souls have been lost because of you and your group's public haranguing? What lost soul wants to be part of something as mean-spirited as the TBA has become?

I am saved, and I am appalled by what you and your friends are doing. Please do not attempt to show me in the Bible where you are doing what the Lord says we should be doing. You make such a mockery of the Holy Scriptures.

My daughter and her family are very active in the Baptist church in Sylva. This is a church that she is proud to be from, and her 4-year-old loves church better than anything she does. You are making the TBA become a mockery of what my relatives - the Rev. Thomas Henson, the Rev. Julius Carson and the Rev. Dave Dean - worked so hard so many years ago to establish in Jackson County as the bedrock of Christianity. They laid their groundwork in love and concern for lost souls.

Mr. Conard, I fear that for the past few years if they are looking down from Heaven, where I know they are, they have tears in their eyes. Not only in their eyes, but also in the eyes of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave us that Great Commission that you and a few other "ministers" are trampling under your feet.

My prayers are with Jackson County and those churches, both members and non-members of the TBA, who still are working to do what the Lord left us to do. Please quit making a mockery of what the good Christians of Jackson County, both living and passed on, worked so hard to establish.

We are all supposed to be about our Father's business. It is time that prayer, love and concern for our fellow-Christian and the lost become the number one priority of the TBA. Stop putting the horrible things that Satan has put into the TBA on the front page of the newspaper. You are losing your witness to the community. I hope you all know how very, very difficult it is to re-establish your witness to the saved, and most importantly to the lost. Are you willing to meet your maker with the blood of the lost on your hands?

I pray, as I have been praying for a long, long time, that sanity can somehow be brought to reign in the TBA again. We do not have a choice, Mr. Conard. Jesus did not tell us to preach to the lost if we wanted to. He said it is our mission as one of his disciples to tell others about Him. He told this to me, a female, just as much as he told it to you, a male. He told this to the black Christians, just as much as to you, a white Christian. Please make sure you are listening to the Lord and not just to some rumblings of the evil that the devil can produce to trick us into thinking we are doing as we have been told to do. Pray fervently that the Lord will help you do what you should be doing in the position you hold.

I am so disappointed in the TBA. My prayers and the prayers of the community are with the decision-making body of the TBA. Please start looking to the Lord for guidance and not just to each other.

In Christian concern,

Pauline Dean Ensley

Morganton

Placing blame in Blue Ridge scandal

To the Editor:

This time seems to have passed. Nothing could provide a better example of this than the decision by Judge Marlene Hyatt to allow Sybil Smith's lawsuits to go forward through our judiciary system.

Mrs. Smith has filed lawsuits against six separate defendants stemming from the sex scandal at Blue Ridge School last spring. Among the defendants are the Jackson County Board of Education, Blue Ridge Principal Lib Balcerek and former Jackson County Sheriff Jim Cruzan. She is seeking more than $10,000 from each defendant for the harm suffered by her daughter because of negligent supervision of certain employees by each defendant.

It is not my intention to undermine the severity of what happened at Blue Ridge School. It was a terrible thing. However, the aforementioned parties dealt swiftly and justly with the situation when it was brought to their attention. The appropriate parties were taken to court and punished accordingly. The proper firings were administered and the proper investigations were carried out. Many actions have been taken by all three of the defendants to help insure that nothing like this will ever happen again.

I feel that each defendant handled this situation in a more than adequate manner. If these defendants were negligent in handling their employees and Smith's daughter was harmed because of it, is it so ridiculous to think that Smith herself could be negligent as well in the care of her own daughter?

Mrs. Balcerek, Mr. Cruzan and the Board of Education have many employees, constituents and students to take care of. It is very hard to know everything that everyone does, especially when such great lengths are taken to insure secrecy.

Is Smith mad at the defendants or is she mad at herself for failing to take a more active interest and role in her daughter's life? If the defendants were expected to know that this was happening to her daughter, should she, as a mother, not also be expected to know it was happening as well?

It also seems, to me anyway, that the best thing Smith could do for her daughter would be to let all of this blow over and begin to go away. Bringing it all up again in a messy court battle only seems like it will make things worse.

But hey, then again, what do I know? I'm only one of the few remaining Americans unfortunate enough not to be wholly driven by greed, over-indulgence and self-importance. Poor me. Maybe I'll see the light someday.

Travis Roland

Cullowhee

Mentors make Senior Projects successful

To the Editor:

Senior Projects are required in many high schools for graduation. It involves writing a research paper on a topic of specific interest, relating an aspect of the research to a physical product, and delivering a presentation to a panel of five judges.

On behalf of the SMHS Senior Class, I would like to thank those businesses and individuals who have helped this year and shown support for Senior Projects.

Sincerely,

Lindsay Jenkins

SMHS Senior

Balsam

Sylva's a beautiful town

To the Editor:

Also, you are fortunate to have such an excellent facility as the Fontana Regional Library, and the helpful people employed there.

Lynne P. Crawford

Moscow, Idaho

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