Wednesday, July 22, 1998

Yes, siree, Bob!

I been readin' them Abilene Reporter-News politick letters an' I done got hit all figgured out. We's gonna git rid of that sneaky, do-nothin', don't-care-about-us professional politicker, Charlie Stenholm, that 17th Districk voters have been stoopid enuf to re-lect for 20 years, an' replace him with a feller that fixes bad teeth!

You bet! an' he's a clean one at that! He's clean because he ain't never been in politicks an' nobody outside of "down yonder" knows him nohow. He won't take no perks an', singlehanded, he's a-gonna force Congress and a veto-wielding president to cut our taxes!

Ol' Crooked Charlie, he done rat-holed (or so I red) a lifetime retirement fund equal to how much a professional athlete makes in one year. Oh, wow!

In a spirit of retterbution, I hope all the dummies who have re-voted Charlie for 20 years is ignorant enough to vote fer him agin' an' he gits recollected! They disurve him an' hit will surve them right.

I have heered it said, "Shoemaker, stick to yur last." So if'n I had a mouth full of bad teeth, I sure wouldn't go to a time-tested, world known, proven veteran of 20 years of political battles such as Charles Stenholm. Would you? I'd druther go to a tooth fixer, even if he was a Re-publican.

In Roman times, you know, a "publican" was "a collector of public revenues, tolls, etc." Therefore, I guess a Re-publican is one who keeps on doing it.

Well, so much for tax relief.

JIM JOHNSON

Abilene

Evolution gap

Evolution's arch advocate, Stephen Jay Gould, stated recently that there is an "innate decency and urge for calm that marks homo sapiens. Home sapiens is a remarkably genial species."

These statements can be found in the July 5 issue of the Abilene Reporter-News on page 19A, "Humans desire just 15 fundamental things." The author of the article implies humans have a propensity for being peaceful brought about by evolutionary effects.

Ironically, directly above this article was another article, "This year's summer school of educators is on violence."

If evolution has produced us as a species that loves and is devoted to peace, why would teachers have to spend time learning violent crises management techniques?

There is another reason for the violence we are experiencing in schools and other places. Some kids are not being taught the difference between right and wrong by their parents and just grow up, not trained up.

If evolution is the real cause for our being here, then surely with three to four billion years of time for genetic tinkering, evolution surely by now could give us a society devoid of mindless violence. It hasn't, can't and never will because, in reality, it's really just junk science.

LOU DAVID ALLEN

Merkel