I am complete disagreement with the shameful decision and vote allowing openly gay youth into the BSA. I know this is only the first step with gay adult leaders to follow shortly. As an ordained minister who actually BELIEVES the Word of God, and as a father and grandfather, I can not and will not be part of an organization that would willingly and knowingly expose children to such filth, perversity and danger. This will be an absolute field day for homosexuals and pedophiles. What is next? Cross dressing merit badges? Awards for best makeup on a camping trip? What a sad joke the BSA has become. Please remove my name and all information in any way concerning me from your rolls and records. Do not mail, email, call or in any other way contact me ever again.

I pray God will protect the children and forgive the BSA leaders for what you are endorsing and promoting.

Phillip D. Burnette
FORMER Committee Member and Chaplain
Pack 423
Clanton, Alabama

Tom Hoefling

America is about to be overrun by 100,000,000 new illegal aliens, unless We the People put a stop to it

Here's the tried and true formula for amnesty: If they tell you a number, you've got to triple it. And, if granted amnesty, ultimately, ten times as many will come.

In 1986, Congress told President Reagan that they wanted to amnesty one million foreign nationals who had entered our country illegally. After garnering his signature with false promises of future reforms that included the securing of the border, promises that of course afterwards went completely unfulfilled, more than three million illegals actually took advantage of Washington's generosity.

Enter the factors of three and ten.

How many additional illegals have been drawn here since by our largesse? For more than a decade now, the political elites have admitted to at least eleven million. Putting aside for a moment the mystery of how this number has remained static, considering the fact that we know thousands per day on average have continued to flood across our porous southern border, we'll use this number as our baseline. If they tell you eleven million, you can be fairly certain that there are actually at least thirty-three million illegals now in our country. Those who have traveled extensively, especially in our urban centers, almost uniformly agree with the much higher number.

So, be sure, if the current drive to legalize by the Gang of Eight in the Senate succeeds, the borders will not be secured, and the next wave will completely over-run the country, with one hundred million or more coming here in the next few decades, secure in the knowledge that they will be coddled by the politicians, that our laws will not be enforced, and that most likely, they and their children will ultimately receive the reward of their law-breaking: American citizenship.

We must stop this dead in its tracks NOW. The message must be sent NOW to all of our Congressmen and Senators that any support for this invasion will be a career killer. To use a Texas colloquialism: we've got to 'show 'em the rope and point at the branch.'

We've stopped them before. We can stop them again. And we must.

But it's up to you.

Officials kept the peace by keeping pact with public

Boston Globe

Letter to the Editor

Educators and other leaders often say that if you want people to act like adults, you have to treat them as adults. That’s an aspect of last week’s activities that should not go unremarked.

Just as with the blizzard in February, when drivers were urged to stay off the roads, government officials told us what they intended to do as they pursued the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. Equally important, they told us why they were doing it and asked our help in accomplishing it. They said they would update us as conditions changed, and they kept their word.

For our part, we judged their requests as reasonable, and almost uniformly we complied. The video footage I saw showed public safety people treating citizens with respect and concern, and citizens reciprocating.

As someone who had to “shelter in place” at work on Friday, I was relieved by the announcement in the afternoon that I could go home. However, I also realized that officials were thinking about all aspects of the situation.

Our leaders created a partnership with us in addressing the crises of last week. I believe that is one significant reason that the police, firefighters, and others involved were celebrated when the second suspect was captured.

Public safety requires public agreement and participation. I hope that this type of interaction continues to be repeated in future challenges to the safety and security of the Commonwealth.

Gregory A. Baryza

Newton

Tom Hoefling

Sadly, many good, decent, well-meaning lovers of liberty have become a bit unbalanced by the events of last week in Watertown, Massachusetts. The massive law enforcement response to the bombings at the Boston Marathon, to the murder of an MIT police officer, to the explosive, bloody confrontation between police and the two bombers on the streets of Watertown, is being characterized in some quarters as illegal and unconstitutional. Most particularly, the searches which were conducted while the police were looking for the surviving terrorist seem to be troubling many. 

But, in fact, those searches were well within established constitutional parameters concerning what is and isn't a "reasonable" search . The authorities seem to have faithfully followed accepted legal practices and procedures .

First and foremost, those operations were designed to protect innocent human life, because that overriding concern must always precede concerns about privacy or property or lawyers. If impinged upon or destroyed, privacy or property can quickly be restored. But a life, once taken, is gone forever.

The God-given right to life is the supreme right, and it is unalienable. Constitutionally, apart from just war and justifiable homicide, the only way your life can be legitimately taken from you is if you are found guilty of a capital crime by a jury of your peers.

The right to liberty is also unalienable, but it is not without natural limits, limits that are prescribed by the natural rights of other individuals, and by the rights and security needs of the whole body of the people. When you enter into society, any society, but especially one that governs itself by the rule of law and constitutions, you have agreed to accept the limitations on your liberties that are inherent in balancing your rights and liberties against the rights and liberties of others. As the old saying goes, "your right to swing your fist ends at my nose."

We might also say that "your right to swing your door ends at my nose." Your important, absolutely legitimate, God-given right to the privacy of your home does not outweigh the rights of other individuals, of your neighbors, or of the whole community, to be secure in their lives, liberty, and property.

Your legitimate right to the privacy of your home also does not outweigh the right of law enforcement officers to be sure that they are not shot in the back as they pursue a dangerous terrorist. Cops are people too, and they bleed just like the rest of us. They also have rights, starting with the right to live.

The primary purpose of government is to protect the lives of the people. And that's exactly what law enforcement personnel did in Watertown. They fulfilled their purpose. The searches that were carried out were not only legal, as even the ACLU has admitted , they were absolutely necessary to protect the people in their homes, to protect other lives throughout the community, and perhaps even to protect other communities from further attacks. As important as the right to privacy is, it does NOT trump the right to life. (By the way, this is equally true if you're talking about heartless terrorists roaming the streets or heartless killers in the abortion clinics.)

Chances are extremely high that if a terrorist was running around the neighborhoods of the critics they would respond pretty much the same way that the people of Watertown responded. If the tranquility of their community were to be shattered, they would likely be working with police to bring about the speediest, safest resolution possible. They would also likely be giving voice to a heart of deep gratitude toward those who helped restore peace to their town, just as the people of Watertown and Boston have done.

Thank God for those who put themselves in harm's way to protect the innocent. Appreciate them, don't denigrate them. 

The founders of this republic were also willing to put their lives on the line to protect the lives and the liberty of their families and fellow countrymen. And they did. But I see no evidence that they thought that the rights to privacy and property trumped the right to life or the overall security needs of the entire community and nation. They had a balanced understanding of the concept of rights. They had a sense of proportion.

In May of 1781, during the American Revolution, when British troops commandeered her house for use as a military outpost, Rebecca Motte, whose husband had died early in the war, was living there with her children. Colonel Light Horse Henry Lee described the Motte estate as being “situated on a high and commanding hill...surrounded with a deep trench, along the interior margin of which was raised a strong and lofty parapet.” When the Americans finally surrounded the house, Mrs. Motte is said to have told Lee and General Francis Marion, “If it were a palace, it should go.” She presented a set of combustible arrows to him that were then used to set the roof on fire. The British promptly surrendered.

When the enemy attacked, Rebecca Motte put the lives of her fellow Americans and the needs of her country ahead of her own rights and material possessions. She kept her balance. She kept a sense of proportion. She understood what was truly important. May we follow her sterling example of reasonable, balanced patriotism and selflessness.

Some musings before this blessed dawn:

What is a miracle? It's the LORD, the Almighty, doing for us what we could never do for ourselves.

The greatest miracle of all, of course, is the Resurrection, the fact that He went to that cruel Roman cross and died for our sins, and then rose again, delivering us once for all from the eternal penalty of our sin, all as a free gift, one that we don't deserve, one that we could never earn.

But every day since has been filled with additional miracles.

America itself - the fact that we were born and live in the land of the free, where there is no king but Jesus - is a miracle, come to think of it.

Miracles are occurring all around us, every day. Even in the midst of trials and encroaching darkness in the world, so much good, good that we could never bring about by our own power, continues to take place.

Take notice, then praise Him and thank Him for all that He is doing for us, no matter how large or small.

And then speak and act as if the Gospel, the Good News, really is. Rejoice! Allow Him to use you to be a miracle in others' lives, especially on behalf of the weak and the helpless, doing for them what they cannot do for themselves.

God's heart is to save, to give, to help, to heal. Be an instrument of mercy and love in the nail-scarred Hand of the God of Miracles.

-- Tom Hoefling