Who Deserves The Right To Life?
To the Editor:
I was a bit stunned when I read, "The Right to Life," a viewpoint written by Gerald LeMelle and Lurma Rackley featured in the August 21st edition of the Flyer. The article spoke of America's "backward beliefs" in our sustaining of the death penalty. The authors spoke of how America should be aligned with such countries as Iraq or China for our cruelty in supporting such an awful act as punishment through death. I found this statement to be quite disturbing. Why is it that these authors would gladly save the life of a convicted murderer, rapist, or serial killer while hundreds of thousands of innocent children, who have done nothing offensive to anyone but exist in our country, be legally swept from this world without a second thought? Yes, I am referring to abortion. We are so quick to save the damned, yet we forget those who are the innocent victims. Let us instead focus our strength in saving America's future and not the convicted rapists and murderers.
Alexander Snowden
Memphis (via the Internet)
Free Speech Works Both Ways
To the Editor:
I want to direct these comments to the writers of the letters published in the August 14th Flyer criticizing the Love in Action advertisement: As a Christian man who used to be gay, I empathize with you when you say you are harmed or hurt by the message of an opposing view. That is how I feel almost every time I pick up the Flyer. But that's a risk you take when living in a country with free speech. By barricading yourself only with those of like mind and demanding that no other position be stated, you come dangerously close to looking like the closed-minded Nazi-Baptists so often denounced by those who support your position.
How dare you castigate the Flyer for allowing proponents of an opposing point of view to promote their cause in the free press? If you expect the Flyer to print things which support the gay cause, how dare you forbid it to print things which support another platform? How narrow-minded of you! Besides, the Flyer implicitly stated its gay-friendly stance in a sour sort of disclaimer written by Phil Campbell in the following week's issue. By the way, a more accurate report of what actually occurs in ex-gay ministries might be to say, "where they gratefully relinquish the bondage of homosexual identity and behavior through the power of Jesus," instead of "where they attempt to repress their homosexual feelings." (Emphasis mine). I was a homosexual and now I'm not. And I am not repressed.
David Christie
Memphis
Bankruptcies: Chapter 7 vs. 13
To the Editor:
I read with some trepidation a recent article in Fortune magazine (referred to in your August 14th issue) which gave a very negative impression of Memphis because of a large number of per-capita filings of bankruptcy cases in this district. The Fortune article failed to mention the following facts:
Of the 1.3 million bankruptcy cases filed nationally last year, about 70 percent were Chapter 7 cases, and about 95 percent of those were no-asset cases in which unsecured creditors (creditors with no collateral securing their debt, e.g., home mortgages, automobile liens, etc.) received no money in the bankruptcy case. In the Western District of Tennessee, however, about 80 percent of the cases filed last year were Chapter 13 cases where the debtor attempted to pay off debts over a period of time. Under bankruptcy laws, Chapter 13 cases must propose to pay home mortgages in full, and thus the mortgage company receives full repayment of the loan. Consumer creditor groups are at this time lobbying Congress for laws that would heavily favor Chapter 13 cases over Chapter 7 cases.
There are myriad reasons why the Western District of Tennessee has a large per-capita filing of bankruptcy cases. Consumer debtor groups complain that credit is too easy and that creditors use high pressure to solicit. Consumer creditor groups complain that a lack of personal financial responsibility has resulted in more bankruptcy cases. These complaints are too simple to justify the bankruptcy-case statistics here. The article in Fortune should have at least mentioned that debtors in the Western District of Tennessee are by and large attempting to pay off most of their debts instead of discharging them in a Chapter 7 case.
George W. Emerson Jr.
Attorney, Chapter 13 Trustees
Memphis
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WE
HAVE A COUPLE OF 2-YEAR-olds on our cover this week. Wearing a Tennessee
Oilers jersey is Katie Ward, daughter of Mark and Karen Ward. Wearing Tiger
blue is Rashaan Thompson, son of Jerry and Patrice Thompson. Both of our
young models attend Calvary Place Child Care. Special thanks to Bob Winn
and Chris Williams at the University of Memphis for providing props and
other support.
Coordinating a photo shoot involving a couple of 2-year-olds can be tricky business. But luckily, our photographer, Larry Kuzniewski, has experience photographing small children for department-store catalogs. "You just have to let them get used to the environment," Larry K patiently explained to us.
We're happy to report that our 2-year-olds got along fine during the photo shoot. As for the Oilers and Tigers, the two teams who will be sharing Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium this year well, the jury is still out on that.
-- Dennis Freeland