'DCS did more than drop the ball' and more letters to the editors

Friday, January 1, 1904

DCS did more than drop the ball

Someone dropped the ball? Dropped the ball? Dead infants and children are not dropped balls! It is sheer idiocy to use this term referring to this disgraceful situation in which 42 children in the custody of Tennessee's Department of Children's Services died or nearly died as a result of abuse and neglect.

The people responsible for the non-action of investigating these incidents should be prosecuted for negligence of their duties. Is the attorney general's office looking into this? It should be, and all negligent employees should be fired and never allowed to work in any similar line of work.

Why didn't hospitals report these incidents to police? Or did they? This is looking like an embassy cover-up, with bits of information being dragged out a little at a time. This should be on all the late-night TV shows, and daytime news programs, along with the names and photos of the negligent employees.

Were the qualifications of the person in charge ever checked? If not, why not? Things like this don't just happen overnight. There had to have been some kind of work record available. Or was it political? Dropped ball, my foot.

HELEN COOPER, Signal Mountain, Tenn.

Christians often as judgmental as others

"I have never seen a racist who was not a Christian." This was a statement made to me recently, and it has haunted me ever since -- this could not be true.

It did turn my thoughts to the 1960s when I was a deacon in a rather prominent church. I was young then, and I had friends who wanted to save the world, so we were participating in nonviolent protest at lunch counters. I still remember some of the remarks by a few of my patients who walked by and witnessed their dentist making a fool of himself.

We had a deacon in the church who held the undisputed title of "Mr. Christian." He had a string of dime stores, so he took out the lunch counter stools so we could not protest in his stores.

Now in my 90s, and a bit wiser, maturity has taught me to be less judgmental of people.

I also have many memories I would like to forget. It was not the Christians who integrated Little Rock High, but the federal government.

I believe there are too many Christians who see "red" when they witness a black president boarding Air Force One.

FRANCIS A. GREEN D.D.S., Chickamauga, Ga.

Gay marriage a sin and should be stopped

It is sad when a minister doesn't know that homosexuality is condemned in scripture, as was indicated in a recent letter to the editor. He should know that it is immoral, and that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sinful lifestyle. God will discipline this country and all others that condone such behavior, and it won't be an insignificant event when he does.

Obedience to God's word is far more important than the issue of fairness that gay people try to impose on everyone just to get our approval. What is fair about sin? God will judge all sin and punish those who refuse to repent.

God says a man can marry only a woman. If gay marriage is approved by the Supreme Court, what is to stop people from multiple marriages or marrying anything or anyone they choose? It is more important to be obedient to God and establish a Christian home with mother, father and children than to be concerned about being fair to some who live an immoral lifestyle.

WILMA HOLBROOK