After reading the accounts of these mass shootings, especially the school ones, I came up with a question for which all parents of school-age children should be demanding answers. That question is, “While my children are at preschool, grade school or high school, how and by whom are they being protected?”
While reading The Monitor on school topics you can find out that in HidalgoCounty this protection varies widely among the 17 ISDs and even more within the several non-public parochial and private systems.
Observing these stories of emergencies and lockdowns that appear weekly in The Monitor and on television, one finds that this gamut of available dedicated security falls into four categories. These are none, security companies, ISD/in-house security staff or city police officers. That fact alone indicates that we are not protecting all our children as well as we could.
Could Uvalde happen here? Even the answer of “possibly” is not acceptable.
Should we be OK with assigning less than the best to protect our children in these times where public organizations and some news media are advocating that no American should be denied a gun and that restrictions on their possession are unconstitutional? I think we shouldn’t, but what can you do?
You can and should contact the superintendent of the school system your children attends and demand to know who protects your children. Have they been completely vetted to eliminate felons, sex offenders and pedophiles? Are they certified peace officers, who trained them, what were the subjects, where and for how long?
If the security is provided by the local police, in my opinion the only safe option, call your chief and ask him what specialized education those officers assigned to the schools have received.
Don’t you think that is the least you can do to try and improve your children’s safety?
Ned Sheats
Mission
People want
gun control
Two polls taken since the Uvalde school shooting reveal more than two-thirds of Americans (including 53% of Republicans) believe enacting new gun control laws should take precedence over unfettered access to assault weapons. Among the types of new measures advocated by the majority are raising the age to purchase a semi-automatic weapon to 21, “red-flag” laws and background checks coupled with a multi-day waiting period.
These measures are reasonable, much needed and do not threaten Second Amendment rights.
Politicians who take the position that unfettered access to an AR-15 is more important than the right to life by young children (such as the 19 young victims of the Uvalde school shooting) should be voted out of office.
Roger Brown,
Mission
Homosexuality
condemned
The Bible is consistent through both Old and New Testaments in confirming that homosexuality is sin (Genesis 19:1–13; Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26–27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10; Jude 1:7). In this matter, the New Testament reinforces what the Old Testament had declared since the Law was given to Moses (Leviticus 20:13).
The difference between the Old and New Testaments is that the New Testament offers hope and restoration to those caught up in the sin of homosexuality through the redeeming power of Jesus. It is the same hope that is offered to anyone who chooses to accept it (John 1:12; 3:16–18).
God’s standards of holiness did not change with the coming of Jesus, because God does not change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). The New Testament is a continuing revelation of God’s interaction with humanity. God hated idolatry in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 5:8), and He still hates it in the New (1 John 5:21). What was immoral in the Old Testament is still immoral in the New.
The New Testament says that homosexuality is a “shameful lust” (Romans 1:26), a “shameful act,” an abandonment of “natural relations” (Romans 1:27), a “wrongdoing” (1 Corinthians 6:9), and “sexual immorality and perversion” (Jude 1:7). Homosexuality carries a “due penalty” (Romans 1:27), “is contrary to the sound doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:10), and is listed among the sins that bar people from the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9). Despite the attempts of some to downplay these verses, the Bible could not be clearer that homosexuality is a sin against God.
As a Christian I am not the one to judge someone for their sins. But I feel that sharing what is in God’s Word is the role for which we were created. We were commanded to love the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul and to love our neighbor as ourselves. But I pray that we all would recognize our own sins, repent, ask Jesus for forgiveness and come into our lives and change us to be His light.
B.A. Wilkinson
Weslaco
