YOUR VIEWS

Test the legislators

Let’s give our legislators the same “state tests” we expect our students to pass, then publish their scores. Of course, they would need to share books for studying.

Sandra Cook, Oklahoma City

Something in common

Robert E. Lee and I have something in common. We both fought in an unpopular war and lost. We both were not received well when we came home after the war. A portion of Lee’s estate was taken for a national war dead cemetery. In 152 years, will we tear down the Vietnam memorials because they don’t reflect the current values?

All citizens have the right to speech under the First Amendment. All citizens have the right to trial when they are accused of a crime. Free speech is not a crime, no matter how offensive or disagreeable.

Phillip Christian, Oklahoma City

Don’t blow up the past

It’s alarming how the practitioners of political correctness, running amok and destroying several historical monuments and endangering more, seem to have embraced some kind of new “rights” unto themselves alone. Many protesters have crossed the line into criminality, and the authorities don’t seem to be able to do much about it.

Besides the anarchy ensuing in several American venues, there is the actual destruction of historical relics and memorials that are works of art and can’t be replaced. Didn’t we, even liberals, lament the destruction of centuries-old architectural relics and structures in Iraq and Afghanistan by Islamists? All of this stuff, there and here, is part of the historical record and cultural heritage of our nation and of the world. Moreover, their loss will end up as the loss of our memories of how our civilizations evolved. When did an extremely tiny minority get to make these decisions?

I have written Gov. Fallin to object to the removal of any monuments or memorials on state-owned properties unless the decisions are submitted for a popular vote, and I would advocate the same for municipalities. We’re a relatively young country and if we “blow up our past,” we’ll be cast adrift and become a people without a country.

Derel Schrock, Edmond

Red light runners

Let’s teach our children the lesson of accountability for our actions while increasing necessary funding for Oklahoma’s future. Require front license plates and install traffic cameras at busy intersections to record, fine, and most importantly decrease the perpetual red light runners. This will also stop distracted drivers.

Jan Reimers, Warr Acres

Recall the Protestant Reformation

The toxic political atmosphere reminds me of the need for reflection on one of the greatest anniversaries of all time in the history of the Protestant Church. Oct. 31 is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther posting his 95 theses on the church door at Wittenberg. It started a firestorm eventuating in the Protestant Reformation. While numerous, I mention just three effects. First, it broke the power of the church over the state. Second, it led to a recovery of the doctrine of justification in which the righteousness of Christ is imputed to the sinner as the sole and entire basis of one’s salvation. For the reformers, this was a judicial and not a moral event. Lastly, the Reformation led to a recovery of the importance of Scripture and its teaching in the life of the church.

The motto of the Reformation was Post Tenebras Lux, out of darkness light, as an implicit warning that whenever the church loses the importance of doctrine, conformity to Christ and the centrality of Scripture, it will retreat back to darkness. To compress all of this for our day, only God can affect radical change of the heart.

Philip G. Bowersox, Oklahoma City