Thanks from the Harlem Ambassadors
Dear Editor:
On Feb. 19 Upward Cleburne hosted the Harlem Ambassadors professional show basketball team for a night of high-flying slam dunks, hilarious comedy and feel-good family entertainment.
The Harlem Ambassadors would like to extend a special thank you to event organizer Missy Nelson, who planned and promoted the game.
Upward Cleburne proved to be an energetic and enthusiastic challenging team, and we thank all the players for their good sportsmanship.
The event would not have been possible without the support and generosity of local community sponsors, the Upward Cleburne committee members and the event volunteers.
The Harlem Ambassadors thank the community of Cleburne for its warm hospitality and look forward to returning to Cleburne in the future!
Ashley Eich
Harlem Ambassadors
Slouching towards Gomorrah?
Dear Editor:
About the recent controversy in the Cleburne School District over the selection of Ken Follett’s “The Pillars of the Earth,” — I read two lurid pages of this book, and it’s pornography.
It doesn’t matter if it’s literature. It is inappropriate for this age group.
This is the last thing high school students with surging hormones need — a detailed anatomic description of a gang rape of a prostitute. Oh sure, some of the students will love it.
One young man testifying for the book’s adoption said, “I like sex.” Is that our only standard?
The pages I read are not just calculated to describe but to inflame and incite the sexual impulse.
Some proponents of placing this book on the high school reading list have called their critics “small-minded.”
Well isn’t that the way? When you don’t have facts, you answer with insults, with ad hominem attacks.
But let’s deal with “small-mindedness.”
I’m a urologist in Cleburne. Before the “sexual revolution” of the ’60s, probably fewer than 1 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases were diagnosed annually in America, though no one knows for sure.
In the 1980s, an estimated 6 million new cases of STDs were reported annually in the United States. The bitter harvest had begun.
Some STDs are curable; some cause devastating complications in women. Some are treatable, but incurable, and highly contagious; some are lethal.
Condoms are variably effective, like a form of Russian roulette.
In the 1990s the estimates rose to 12 million new cases of STDs in America annually.
At a recent urological meeting, the estimates were for 15 million new cases of STDs annually, maybe as high as 19 million. It’s small-minded not to be aware of and act on these facts. These are19 million real reasons to strike this offensive book from the reading list. These are facts, not cheap insults.
Is this the job of the schools, to incite destructive impulses in a susceptible population? To encourage students to play Russian roulette with their bodies? To recklessly pour gasoline on the fires in our sex-saturated society?
No. Schools should inspire students to the best behavior.
It could be argued that the rape described teaches students good behavior by showing how ugly bad behavior is.
But a great work of literature would describe the ugliness with far less graphic detail, inciting rejection of bad behavior. Follet’s work of pornography incites imitation, and the author’s motive could be shock value to sell books.
One scholar testified that the book gives a good description of life in 12th century England and is a relevant study of the oppression of women.
But there are more relevant books about the savage oppression of women — and men and children — by godless governments from the 20th century.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago” is majestic, soaring history and literary commentary on the blood-soaked convulsions of a society that rejected God.
I think it’s the most relevant book of the century as our nation wavers between two opinions.
It’s ironic, isn’t it?
Teachers are placing pornography in the schools. The best literature, the Bible, and the highest behavior code, the Ten Commandments, have been expelled from public schools.
That’s the fault of a small-minded Supreme Court denying very large-minded ideas: morality, and the creator mentioned in our Declaration of Independence.
The school district needs to reject this book. And we can demand that the Bible and the Ten Commandments be brought back into the schools.
Go to www.againstthepillars.com and sign the petition against “Pillars of the Earth” being used by our schools.
Barney Maddox, M.D.
Cleburne
