Letters to the Editor for June 8, 2011

Regional library benefits us all

In this economically challenging period we would like to highlight some of the benefits of being a member of the Jefferson Madison Regional Library system.

Since 1972, Nelson’s library patrons have had access to a much larger collection of materials (that novel on a shelf in Greene County is yours for the asking), world-class children’s programming (some of our past programs have played at the White House) and online databases that we would never be able to afford on our own.

When money is tight, pooling costs is a great way to save. For example, Nelson County High School saves thousands of dollars by accessing regional library services. Promoting a good relationship with the local library encourages our young readers to become lifelong learners. As part of a regional system, Nelson Memorial Library can offer more materials and services to Nelson County than it could as an independent library.

As part of the system, we get more bang for our buck.

NELSON MEMORIAL LIBRARY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Ellen Bouton (North Disrict)

Bonnie Holliday (South District)

Nancy Kritzer (East District)

Janet Ngai (West District)

Jane Strauss (Central District)

Relay team’s thanks

Our team, We Are Family, participated in the Relay for Life on May 21-22. We had a wonderful time and want to say thanks to all of our team members, friends, family and businesses who donated money, attendees and volunteers. We were pleased to win the best decorated tent award.

We would like to thank Amber Drumheller Mooney, Jackie Clark and Melissa Thompson for all their hard work in organizing this event. It was well organized, fun, touching and, best of all, raised a lot of money for cancer research and cancer survivors. That’s what this is all about.

Thanks, Nelson County!

HOPE HITE

Team captain

SHERRI BROOKS

Co-captain

Help the Avagyan family

I would like to add to the information about the Armenian family.

As a science teacher at Nelson County High School and a junior varsity soccer coach, I have had the privilege of teaching and coaching Samson, the son of Ara and Gayane Avagyan. As mentioned in the article, Samson is an honors student. He has received three academic letters at NCHS. He is a model student and community member. On the soccer field and in the classroom, Samson is hard working, determined and really just an amazing individual. He is always amiable and a joy to be around in general.

I cannot imagine high school life without him. Interestingly enough, I hear that his younger sister, Ludy, is just as great!

I hope that we as a community can find a way to help this family stay here with us in Nelson County. They have added to our community life not just by what they do but the kind of people they are. I understand that we can contact U.S. Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner as well as Rep. Robert Hurt to support this family. Please consider doing so!

DAWN TINDER

Shipman

Losing our heritage

Today, because of the provisions of the First Amendment that prohibit the federal government from establishing a national religion and Thomas Jefferson’s now famous letter to the Baptist church in Danbury, Conn., addressing a "wall of separation between the Church and State," we as a people have allowed political special interest groups to successfully abolish one of the fundamental foundation pillars of the nation, our Christian heritage.

Most of the first 10 amendments we call the Bill of Rights were not created in Philadelphia in 1787. They were taken almost directly from the English Bill of Rights developed after the rule of Oliver Cromwell in the 1660s. Prior to the demand for these rights being placed before King James II, to have any standing in the government required that you belong to the Church of England. Further, because of the concern that a Catholic king would submit to the instruction of a pope instead of parliament, the king could not be Catholic. We recall this issue with the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960. The intent was not to constrain religious presence in government, but rather to prohibit the king from using a lack of Church of England membership as a bar to standing in the government and to hold the power to govern within the nation.

Jefferson’s letter was responding to the Baptist church of Danbury, which was seeking Jefferson’s support against constraints being placed upon the Baptists by the heavily Presbyterian Connecticut state legislature, which was not constrained in these matters by the national Constitution. As one reads the rest of the letter, it becomes clear that Jefferson’s wall of separation was intended to restrict the government from getting into church matters, not to silence Christianity in government.

"We the People" have by decades of political neglect allowed one of our pillars of "American exceptionalism" to be torn asunder. Are we a Christian nation tolerant of all beliefs, or have we been reduced to a multi-cultural, religion void, politically correct, despotic collection of people? What happened to "endowed by our creator" and the democratic process of governance?

In the 2010 election, more than 75 percent of the citizens of the United States did not care.

BOB DEWEY

Wintergreen