A global education or pagan propaganda?

To the editor:

The International Baccalaureate Organization, whose programs superintendent Alan Derry is suggesting the Sullivan West school district consider adopting, has endorsed the Earth Charter and is studying ways to integrate it into their curriculum. The Earth Charter is a document written by Mikhail Gorbachev, ex-leader of the Soviet Union, and Maurice Strong, confidant to Kofi Annan.

In its preamble, the document, which may be viewed at www.earthcharter.org, states, “The choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. Fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living… The emergence of a global civil society is creating new opportunities to build a democratic and humane world.” Under article 10, the goal is to “promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations.” The concept of redistributing wealth is nothing new; Marxists have advocated it for years.

More frightening is the religious overtones and trappings of the charter, which could violate the principle of separation of church and state. Gorbachev, in speaking of the Earth Charter, said, “my hope is that this charter will be a kind of Ten Commandments, a ‘Sermon on the Mount,’ that provides a guide for human behavior…” Strong said, “The real goal of the Earth Charter is that it will in fact become like the Ten Commandments.”

As noted on the website www.arkofhope.org, an “Ark of Hope” has been created as a place of refuge for the Earth Charter document. This wooden chest also contains so-called “temenos books,” books handcrafted by artists, schoolchildren, and citizens around the world, “expressing their individual and collaborative prayers and affirmations for Earth.”

“Temenos,” as explained on a page linked to on the site, is “a magical sacred circle where special rules apply and extraordinary events inevitably occur.” At the bottom of this second page is a link to “Temenos bookmaking” that includes a lesson plan for making these books, including “Gaia Meditation, Coming Back to Life, Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World.” This is a blatant introduction of eastern mystical religions to children.

This “ark of hope” is a cynical counterfeit of imagery of the Biblical one. It is carried on poles just like the one in the Bible and its dimensions are larger than the one in scripture. It also has the five elements of Wiccan and Satanist theology: water, air, spirit, fire and earth represented in the paintings on its four sides and top. Has Derry decided he wants to become “High Priest of the Global Cult of Gaia at Sullivan West Central Schools?”

Responsible development

To the editor:

Leslie Rutkin’s cogent letter to The River Reporter regarding ridgeline zoning expressed the concerns of the many area residents who want to maintain the balance between our extraordinary environment and responsible private development.

Although some regulations are in place for the public good, they need to constantly evolve to represent the special nature of the river valley community. Elected officials must remember that they are the government and represent all the residents, not just special interests and those sharing their political ideology. They also ought to consider that unrestrained and unwise private development may be more harmful to our communities, historically, environmentally and economically, than the big government control they fear. I believe the majority of residents both old and new, who live in our beautiful river valley do not want it to become another overdeveloped Rockland or Nassau County.

John Tomlinson

A failure to communicate

To the editor:

This letter is to tell the Sullivan County SPCA’s side of the story on the latest flap published in The Times Herald Record.

On Monday, January 23, while I was driving the SPCA Blazer, I was stopped by an unmarked Sullivan County Sheriff’s vehicle on Route 42 southbound just after I pulled off of Route 17 on my way to a meeting with Chris Cunningham, chair of the legislature.

The deputy asked to see my license, which I showed him. I did not know where the registration was for the vehicle. He went back to his vehicle and then came back and said the license plate was illegal. I replied that, to my knowledge, the vehicle had been driven for years with these plates on it and didn’t understand why it was suddenly illegal. If it is illegal, why was the shelter never notified?

I asked the deputy to have the sheriff’s office send an explanation in writing. Since he didn’t give me a ticket, or anything in writing, I thought we had an understanding and that a letter would be forthcoming.

I proceeded to drive to the meeting and apologized to all present that I was late because the sheriff’s deputy had stopped me. This morning, I got a phone call that there is a story in the newspaper about them coming to the shelter and removing the plates from the vehicle. Is this a set-up or what? It certainly is a breakdown in, or a failure of, communication.

The SPCA board should be replaced

To the editor:

I attended a March 16 meeting at the Sullivan County Government Center that had been set up to address concerns about our local SPCA. In the end, it addressed only the financial needs of the organization.

Those needs are very real. However, my concerns about the SPCA are in another vein. There are constant allegations of abuse of power, unfair confiscations, neglect of animals etc., and they are not coming out of thin air, or from a single source. All of us that were in attendance care deeply about animals and want what is in their best interests. The current board of the SPCA is ineffective and therein lies the entire problem.

The SPCA recently decided to close their monthly meetings to the public so members can discuss amongst themselves whether or not to be a no-kill shelter. I believe what they are really doing is rearranging the board to meet their personal best interests, and to keep concerned residents from becoming SPCA members. At present, one must be sponsored by a current member in order to be considered for membership. This policy prevents any new county residents, or anyone outside the current board and membership and their small circle of friends, from joining. On one hand, they ask us for volunteers and financial support, and on the other, deny us membership.

The board’s constant accusations that there is another entity trying to discredit it appear totally unfounded. What other entity is never specified. Meanwhile, complaints seem to come from sources having nothing to do with one another. Perhaps it is simply people who see wrongdoing and want it addressed.

The SPCA indeed needs more financial support and a better facility. However, a responsible board would have to be blind not to see that it is itself the problem. The current board members should step down and work to get more efficient and effective members to replace them.

No place to run

To the editor:

I must take issue with “Trapping: a skill that controls animal population.”

Trapping is hardly a difficult endeavor for the trapper. For the bobcat, it is very different situation. Sweeping generalizations cannot alter the fact that there is no more wilderness to run away to. If the Delaware River is to be lined with traps as it now is, maybe it should be posted. I still see and treat domestic cats with their limbs gouged with leg-hold traps. The pressure on any species is enough as it is. There is no need to increase any suffering. Leg-hold traps are obsolete, barbaric and bring only misery. Please retire the traps.

Hit ’em where it hurts

To the editor:

How can we really sway policy in this country?

Sometimes when we contact Congress about an issue, they do our bidding. But usually, Congress members bow to their corporate donors. The corporations are watching their bottom lines for financial reward. Unfortunately, this often means decisions based upon short-term profits that hurt society and later, their own stockholders.

So here is a way to get the message to those corporate CEOs making policy decisions that are hurting our country. Write a letter to the CEO saying you will not use their products and why.

I just wrote a letter to the CEO of Exxon-Mobil saying I would not buy any of their products because: (1) Exxon has broken its promise to take proper care of the people and the environment of Prince William Sound following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. People have had their lives ruined by the spill. Exxon has repeatedly appealed the courts’ orders to compensate the victims of the catastrophe. This is callous, cruel and immoral, especially considering the company is reaping record profits off the backs of you and me. (2) Exxon-Mobil has been covertly discrediting the science of climate change, which is now irrefutable and threatening to destroy our economy and dangerously alter life on this planet. Exxon has also tried to discredit organizations that criticize the company’s anti-environmental practices.

The environmental disasters ahead will soon prove that Exxon-Mobil’s policies were dangerously flawed and not in the best interest of the next generation of stockholders or life on this earth.

Can you help spread this? Can you stop buying stuff from Exxon-Mobil and let the company know why? If enough of us do this, the impact will be felt in their corporate board room.

Veterans raise awareness

To the editor:

I keep hearing and reading that the lesson learned from the Vietnam War is that you don’t cut and run. Having fought in that war for 15 months and lived with the effects of that war for 38 years, I say lesson number one is that we don’t commit our young men and women to a war based on lies. Lesson number two is that the public needs to be made aware of the true costs of war in life, limb, and property.

When asked about a problem, the administration’s reply is often that we need to move on. Lesson number three is that we don’t move on until we have resolved the problems created and mistakes made and have had accountability. This did not happen in the Vietnam War. It must happen in this war.

We have created in Iraq the very thing we set out to eliminate. Before the war started, it was estimated that 20 to 60 Iraq citizens died at the hands of Saddam Hussein each week, or 1,000 to 3,000 a year. After three years of war more than 2,550 Americans are dead, nearly 20,000 Americans are wounded, and an unknown number of Iraqi soldiers are dead and wounded. At least 30,000 Iraqi civilians are dead (by some estimates over 100,000), and over 100,000 Iraqi civilians are wounded. Tens of thousands of moderates—the very people who could bridge the gaps between factions—have left the country and more are leaving as fast as they can. Scholars, teachers, doctors and progressive thinkers are targeted and assassinated. Fifty Iraqi civilians are now assassinated each day, not counting those killed in bombings and military action.

Veterans know the costs of war and are trying to share this knowledge with others. There is a group of WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War I and II veterans in Santa Monica Beach, CA that comes together every Sunday to create a memorial installation called Arlington West. Their intention is to raise awareness of the costs, in lives lost and injured, of this war. To learn more about this event, there is a film showing at the Wayne County library at 6:00 p.m. on April 4.

We are at a point where tough decisions have to be made. We need a new approach. This administration is not willing to accept responsibility for this grave disaster and include the rest of the world in deciding the best course to follow. We need to make our voices heard.

Those of us who love peace have a particular responsibility. We are called to raise up and encourage the nurturing model of life in ourselves and one another, without demonizing others and feeding the flames of polarization. We are called to be a living testimony—through our words and actions—to the values we cherish: empathy, fairness, understanding, nonviolence, and equality. We are called to acknowledge, reach out to, and speak to the seed of peace in everyone around us, regardless of our differences, seeking common ground and mutually beneficial action. Above all, we are called to step away from the game of polarization, choosing instead to energize the path of reconciliation and harmony.

Let there be peace and let it begin with me because it ain’t gonna happen no other way.

Tim Shera