op ed sent to ny times

OP ED ADVICE FROM GRAND PARENTS, TELL THE TRUTH With Washington D.C. now having to deal with issues of I.R.S. problems and probing questions of impropriety, Associated Press inappropriate reporter interrogation and intimidation, Benghazi truth examination in Congressional forums, and even additional unanswered questions, the elevation of truthfulness is paramount if America is to once again enjoy effectiveness and credibility on a global stage. Truth seeking is the only right answer if we truly desire to eradicate political and moral confusion in the land. At this moment it seems the blame game is at high tide in Washington, D.C. Blame is a factor in seeking the truth of any matter be it controversy or political question, yet honesty’s recognition is to primarily help assure all citizens that improprieties will not happen again. Responsibility for actions of malfeasance must be punished through accountability but understood as to their origins. Yet, what is the answer to restoration of a legal ethos which has often served America as an example to others? It must be the discovery of truth by Americans in discovering why today’s maladies occurred in the first place. If we can determine the why of exuberance leading to line crossing we can prevent by mutual agreement dangerous actions from being repeated by anyone in government service. I would hope that patient truth seeking will lead us as a nation to a model of integrity and truthfulness affecting all those in leadership responsibility regardless of political persuasion. Perhaps in this age of digital marvel, traditional old fashion values can both prevail and lead us to higher and nobler actions. Placing truth on a pedestal of priority would be a beginning for America. Alan and Mary Phillips Bloomington, IL

NY TIMES, MAY 5, HILLARY CLINTON, POST AGP

The Secretary of State bears major responsibility and culpability in the lack of protection and oversight of Ambassador Stevens and the others who died. In 2010 resources were positioned off shore by the department to rescue Hillary if needed when she visited Libya. Testimony confirms that she wanted the American Embassy opened in Benghazi by the time she left office to commemorate her service. She has brought dishonor, death and shame on the department she represented. Mrs. Clinton is neither qualified or equipped for the presidency. Hopefully she will not campaign. Dr. Alan G. Phillips, Ed. D.

GREAT CNS ARTICLE, ARCHBISHOP THOMAS WENSKI, AP Miami Archbishop: ‘Gay Marriage,’ Moral Relativism – Society ‘On Its Way To Totalitarianism’ April 30, 2013 By Michael W. Chapman Subscribe to Michael W. Chapman RSS Follow Michael W. Chapman on Twitter Archbishop Thomas Wenski, Catholic head of the archdiocese of Miami, Fla. (AP) (CNSNews.com) – Miami’s Catholic archbishop, Thomas Wenski, said establishing “gay marriage” would corrupt the natural setting for rearing children by a mother and a father, and further spread “moral relativism,” one of the signs that democracy is “on its way to totalitarianism.” The state has always recognized and favored heterosexual marriages “because such marriages best provide the optimal conditions for the raising of future generations of its citizens,” said Archbishop Wenski in an Apr. 24 homily at the Red Mass for the Miami Catholic Lawyers Guild. “And all honest social research as well as anecdotal evidence shows that children are ‘hard-wired’ to be best raised by a mother and father who are married to each other in a low conflict relationship.” In other words, he said, “it’s about what’s best for children. Only in the marriage of a man and a woman can ‘two become one flesh’ (Genesis 2: 24) and thus create a conjugal society – or family – which provides that the individuals who give life to children should be the ones to raise them in a bonded and enduring relationship.” The push for “so-called same-sex marriage, if it prevails,” said the archbishop, “will fundamentally change” the mother-father-children family and “open a Pandora’s Box of unforeseen and, to be sure, unintended consequences – as the more permissive no-fault divorce legislation did some 40 years ago.” “[T]he proponents of so-called same-sex marriage would now redefine marriage for all as existing solely for the gratification of two (and why just two?) consenting adults,” said Abp. Wenski. The archbishop, who represents 1.3 million Catholics in 118 churches in South Florida, said the push for same-sex marriage is just the logical consequence of the moral relativism found in Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, which “virtually establishes a new secular religion based on the ‘right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and the mystery of human life.’” That is “moral relativism,” he said. St. Thomas More (d.1535), patron of lawyers and politicians. “When a democracy bases itself on moral relativism and when it considers every ethical principle or value to be negotiable (including every human being’s fundamental right to life), it is already, and in spite of its formal rules, on its way to totalitarianism,” said Abp. Wenski. “The might of right quickly becomes might makes right.” In ending his homily, the archbishop noted that America’s founding fathers established a society upon a “vision of freedom” in accordance with “ordered liberties” that are evident in the natural order, such as the complementarity of man and woman, and the right of children to a mother and a father – in short, as he cited from the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident ….” They are natural and obvious truths, said the archbishop, who called upon the legal experts and lawmakers in attendance at the Red Mass to remember the example of St. Thomas More, the patron saint of lawyers and politicians, who described himself as “the King’s good servant but God’s servant first.” Archbishop Wenski also quoted a phrase from Abraham Lincoln to argue that gay marriage is a legal construct not based on reality: “If you call a tail a leg, then how many legs does a cow have? Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it one.”