New Year’s resolutions
As a year-end tradition, it’s customary to formulate New Year’s resolutions with a resolve to forgive and forget. To be meaningful and challenging, I’ve selected some issues that really bug me. These will put “forgiving” to a true test:
I acquit Al Gore for inventing global warming, since it’ll go down in history as a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernard Madoff’s recent gargantuan fraud.
I pardon NFL quarterbacks who wear their billed caps backward, even though it is the “dress style” of big-city, teenage gangs.
I excuse Nancy Pelosi for being the worst speaker ever in the history of our nation’s House of Representatives.
I’ll try to tolerate gay marriage, even though it symbolizes further decadence of our social and moral values.
Now, here are some items to forget from an unforgettable 2008:
For starters, I’ll forget the abundance of unrealistic promises Barack Obama has made.
Next, I’ll forget the mess that congressional leadership has made of our economy and the unconscionable national debt it has created. (Sorry, but I won’t forget that “congressional leadership” is an oxymoron — and that an “economic stimulus bill” is nothing but pork legislation for more wasteful projects).
The trend toward rewarding mediocrity provides much to overlook, such as:
The “federal school system” concept of social advancement replacing “scholastic achievement.”
Elimination of score keeping so as not to offend losers.
Creating more than 35 college post-season games, which include lousy teams instead of the few great bowl games that were meaningful because only great football teams were represented. (What’s happened to our value system?)
I’ll also ignore the un-American attitude that’s the lifestyle of Hollywood’s rich and famous. I’ll watch old movies from Netflix rather than today’s trash.
And, lastly, I’ll not snicker at the overweight, over-40 wannabe jocks parading in public with their No. 7 Elway jerseys.
So, “let’s drink a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne” — while acknowledging that resolutions are apt to be broken.
Happy New Year.
RICHARD DORAN
Parachute

‘War on Christmas’
column was ill-timed
Rick Wagner is obviously an attack dog for the far right locally. That is perfectly understandable, where his ramblings are very favorably received by a sizable portion of the population.
His Dec. 26 mean-spirited, highly-exaggerated “observations,” coming the day after Christmas, a time of universal fellowship and good cheer, show very poor judgment on his part, and regrettably, that of The Daily Sentinel, which approved the column.
There is no war against Christmas. And people interested in the environment, no matter how enthusiastic, are not out to remove religion from people’s lives. There are many people who, however, do want religion  — any religion — separate from government activities.
That apparently is what Wagner is ranting about and, no matter how he tries to claim otherwise, the founders of our nation very purposefully wanted people to have the right to worship as they choose, or not, but did not want to get it mixed up in government, which was meant to respect all religions and favor none.
The founders knew very clearly that government historically getting involved in religion in any way was an invitation for trouble. Our laws may include Christian ideals but those same ideals are held by many other religions, so our government is not “Christian” merely because of espousing those ideals and that most of the founders were personally Christians.
Wagner has a perfect right to preach his partisanship and bigotry every week, but coming the day after Christmas is over the top and a regrettable display of poor judgment. He could learn a lot from the letter from Mr. Kearsley, a fellow Republican, who doesn’t seem to feel the need to demonize those with different beliefs.
JOHN BORGEN
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 at 5:53 am and is filed under Printed letters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.