Let’s pass on good in town
A recent event in our lives caused me to look around with a dark view. The sudden loss of our 25-year-old grandson made me only see the dark side of Andrews.
Yes, you can drive around Andrews and see negative sights. Backpackers, bicyclers, not all of them are druggies. Empty buildings and overgrown lots.
Take a second look, and we will see good. Hanging flower baskets and flags on the lamp poles. Holiday parades and celebrations of events.
Andrews was a busy, happy town in the 1950s. Women shopping in town, while men played horseshoes under the magnolia tree. Homer Wilson driving through town with his big loudspeaker preaching the gospel. Friday night football.
Then a decline came to Andrews, and people moved away. There was an upswing through the 1960s and 1990s, then decline came again. Despair, prosperity becoming poverty to many. Darkness, drug, alcohol and depression seemed to set in. The battle for hope seemed lost.
It’s easy to see the negative, I did for a while.
But there is good. Hear and see the kids laughing, playing having fun as life goes on. Maybe we can learn from them.
Andrews, my hometown, is still a great town. I found that out at Cameron’s death.
Thank you, Andrews, and other towns for your love and support.
One of my Sunday school students used to sing a little song, “Pass It On.’’ Let’s pass on our prayers and love to those in need around us, and we will see Andrews even better.
God bless Andrews.
John Piercy, Andrews
Plan addresses climate change
The purpose of this letter is to support the plan presented by Michael Briley to address climate change and resulting rising sea levels.
Briley’s plan takes actions that are scientifically grounded and workable to address rising sea levels that provide other benefits from the utilization. These benefits are an increase in arable land, increased food production and increased employment. These benefits are not limited to one nation or a select group of nations but to the whole world.
As a retired military engineer and land manager for private industry, I am well versed in the type of equipment and costs involved with a project of this magnitude. The monetary estimates referenced by Briley are within the cost constraints that would be anticipated. The initial employment surge from the project would carry over into the maintenance of the canals, levees and irrigation equipment. This would foster millions of acres of newly fertile agricultural land for production of environmentally viable foodstuffs.
There will be concern over the impact to the Amazon basin, but the overall impact will be low.
The focus of the project will be the mouth of the Amazon, where it enters the Atlantic Ocean. At this point, there will be little to any impacts to the more sensitive reaches of the upper Amazon and tributaries. In fact, a project of this type could help drive better protective measures. Protection of the upper basin would be paramount in the success for this project.
As a natural resource professional, I am a strong believer that with population growth, we must increase our management of the natural environment. Without management, we jeopardize the survival of not only these areas but the overall world as well. Humanity is a part of the natural environment, and we should stop thinking we are something separate.
Robert H. “Bobby” Mathis, Casper, Wyo.
Blessings are not just luck
As a Christian who believes that luck could be the draw of the card, buying a lottery ticket or going to the casino could bring someone luck, if you win. Then there is always a chance you could be lucky at these types of games, but I have never read in God’s Holy Book the Bible that luck ever played a part in God’s creation plan or that luck was part of God’s overall plan for this universe.
Some folks may say you were lucky that you didn’t get sick or die from some type of illness or even the coronavirus, which has taken its toll. Well, I can assure you it wasn’t luck that saw my wife, Janie, and I through our time with Covid-19 a few weeks back. It was the hand of God intervening on our behalf, a blessing – not luck, a miracle indeed from a loving Father in heaven.
God led us to the right people in the medical field that had the right meds that got rid of our Covid in five days, twice-a-day pills and antibiotics plus Zinc.
My wife and I believe in the power of prayer and healing of God’s sovereign will for each one of us.
Luck has never been mentioned in God’s word, but His blessings are throughout the Scriptures that assures His children that it wasn’t by chance or luck that you and I were born, it was divine ordained of God, His son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
So next time you think luck is on your side, think of what blessings you are missing not being a child of God. His blessings outnumber the stars beyond our wildest dreams.
Frank Combs, Blairsville, Ga.
Bad stuff happening
Americans are frogs in the pot of water being brought to the boil and cooked. We ignore incremental chunks of our freedoms being chiseled away by Marxists determining our social mores.
A co-founder of Black Lives Matter is a self-avowed Marxist and fan of Mao.
Left-wing Antifa is so anti-fascist they have, themselves, become the official brown shirts as they burn, riot, loot, pillage and harm Americans for fun.
A transsexual sitting as assistant secretary of U.S. Health & Human Services appears to favor puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors. School curriculums target sexualizing our children.
About 800,000 children go missing annually in America (from the FBI); almost 8 million worldwide. What happens to our most precious resource?
We go blithely about our business, entrusting our country on all levels to politicians. More than a few are child molesters and traffickers from both political parties. Arrested, charged and serving time.
Traditional values are undermined/eradicated from society, replaced by a Luciferian hymn extolling evil. Politicians and social media are complicit via scripted lies.
All is not well in America. The stock market artificially propped up, inflation rising, the border crisis replenishes child trafficking, wars bubble to the surface worldwide, attempted brainwashing of our military to the Marxist mantra … ditto critical race theory in schools.
Awake, Americans! Your country needs you. Get involved in the running of your communities before the goose is fully cooked.
Lucinda Guthrie, Greenville, S.C.
Don’t rely on the internet
The internet is not a set of encyclopedias with well-researched, true, accurate information. Anyone can post what they want, true or not.
With nearly half a billion websites, you can find anything on the internet. However, this proves nothing.
The American Petroleum Institute has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in its false propaganda campaign saying that climate change is a hoax. Apparently some people still believe their lies.
A friend of mine who lives in Arizona tells me people are using oven mitts to open their vehicle doors or get burns.
In Oregon, the blueberry pickers are quitting at 9 a.m. because it’s hitting record highs of around 115 degrees.
Dogwoods are blooming earlier.
I recorded a record-smashing 102 inches of rain last year.
Parts of the west are the dryest it’s been since 1895, according to NPR.
Climage change is real and serious.
Jack Montgomery, Ogreeta