Time to stop
To the Editor:
We are greatly saddened by the Your Turn section of the newspaper. Your Turn has figuratively allowed individuals to wield a large stick and does not provide protection for those assaulted.
We are fortunate to live in a town where doors can remain unlocked, cars can remain running in bitter cold or sweltering heat while people run into the grocery store or post office, people wave at each other as they pass by, and it seems that the UPS woman can track you down no matter where you are. This is an incredible community to be part of and essential to any community is communication.
Communication cannot occur when it is one-sided. We are left with someone speaking an opinion as fact, without allowing for direct response from those attacked. For example, had the person bothered who was bothered by Mr. Winkler's trailer simply called him or stopped in we wouldn't have had to read a passive-aggressive Your Turn comment about it and then the following week read Winkler's reply. It is possible and hopeful that these two individuals could have worked out their differences outside the public eye. Without the Your Turn section as an easy place to dump our community's attempts to lash out at one another, perhaps we could learn to communicate civilly with one another.
As ministers we represent a variety of denominations in our community. We do not agree on everything, but we do communicate with one another. In order to be effective servants of our churches and this community on the whole we must be able to communicate with each other. Having said that we do not agree on everything, this is one thing on which we do agree.
If this town is hopeful that it will grow and attract new families, we need to set ourselves apart from the run of the mill communities. Will there be division and disagreement? Absolutely. However, we can be the community that actually communicates with each other without attempting to hurt one another.
To the Editor:
Please stop running the Your Turn section of this newspaper. It is not healthy. It will do nothing but tear us down and pulls us apart.
To the community: Should the editor choose to continue running Your Turn, please sign your name on all comments and send it through the Letters to the Editor section. Strive to communicate with those with whom you disagree. If you can't sign your name on what you write, it is the equivalent of a letter that you write out of anger that you should burn and not send.
Your Turn is not a tool, it has become a weapon. Let us be responsible enough to not use such a weapon against one another.
Rev. Jeremiah Lange,
Marion Presbyterian Church
Rev. Carl Helm
Marion Christian Church
Rev. Bethann Black
Aulne and Florence United Methodist churches
Rev. Joshua Wesner
Emmanuel Baptist Church
Rev. Larry King
Good News Christian Fellowship Church
Rev. X. Phil Smith
Valley Methodist Church
Rev. Keith Allison
Retired minister of the
Presbyterian Church (USA)
