An official complaint
Dear Editor: The Letter to the Editor, “Offended by officer” caught my attention. Like Kim Thomas and her friend, I too am disappointed in officers and political figures taking advantage of their leadership for their own personal gain, whatever the gain may be.
Monetary, power, position, drugs, and sex, our justice system has been soiled by corruption. People of such flagrant acts have utterly stripped me of my faith and reliance in the system. These are the people that make it difficult for the reputable ones who pride themselves with integrity when the uniforms go on.
As a child growing up in the ’60s, I was taught respect for the law. I was told and trusted that the person in the uniform was my friend. But people, this came from a man of sound morals and principle, honesty and sincerity, retired Washington County state police officer Bill Gaghy and I’m so proud to say my uncle.
He put great effort into building my confidence in the system, and worthless people took it, chewed it up, and spit it back in my face. Kim, I beg of you and your friend to take your story to higher authority, not the officer’s major in this case but to Citizen Police Review Board, 816 Fifth Ave., Suite 400, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, 412-765-8023 and ACLUF, 313 Atwood St., Pittsburgh, PA 15213.
God bless Kim and her friend.
Cathy J. Harman
Brownsville
Finest hour
As Sept. 11 recedes, sometimes I still wonder why. Some said a loving God wouldn’t allow such things; others implied an angry God did. And so on. But have we missed something?
Hard things can spark healthy self-examination. When insight comes, we can leave harmful paths that once seemed right, for better paths that are right. Is that the good God can bring out of this?
But what, in a deeper sense, could ever explain something as hard as 9/11? Possibly this. The setting: a nation lost, withdrawn from God, far down paths that first looked like freedom and enlightenment; proselytized by reasonable-sounding philosophies and their unruly offspring: confusion, alienation, and moral anarchy. This was us, 1973. Believing ourselves freshly liberated and enlightened, we boldly removed legal protection from our children before birth. Then, disregarding the moral compass of Scripture, we began taking their lives on an industrial scale. A practice plainly called offensive to God.
When we consider this, and 9/11, and compare the thousands lost to terrorists with the millions lost to “choice,” don’t we need to get the log out of our own eye before we can get the (relative) speck out of theirs?
So many innocent lives. For generations we knew the child in the womb was a gift from God, fully known and loved, worthy of life and protection. We cherished them. Now, however, we often prefer them gone.
Could it be the One who is “gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love,” longs to save them? And awaken – liberate – us from paths so toxic to sanity that we abandon our children when they need us most?
Thank God people like me, and nations like ours, can be forgiven and restored. If we’ll no longer disregard, but diligently seek God and his ways, we’ll find the way.
Jesus spoke of a father who was grieved by a wayward son’s choices, yet never stopped looking for him, and rejoiced when he returned. God’s heart isn’t judgment – it’s restoration. That’s why he sent his son. True freedom and enlightenment comes with believing and following him – truest friend, the sure way – to God’s forgiveness, and becoming the caring, wiser people we need to be. A people God can bless and protect.
If we’ll return, the best is yet to come. This could be our finest hour.
Elijah and Merri Tabor
Waynesboro