Taxing the wealthy not about envyIn response to the Bob Thomas column that appeared on Jan. 10:No, Mr. Thomas, making the wealthy pay their fair share is not about envy, it is about our urgent need to restore social justice as well as fix our economy.Among Mitt Romney’s 47 percent of non-income-taxpayers are millionaires (the 47 percent figure may be bogus) along with the elderly, disabled and others who can’t find work through no fault of their own. Anyone getting $400,000 or more of income (from any source) is wealthy by any reasonable standard, and those people should pay their share of the cost of keeping America going as something more than a banana republic. Giving the “job creators” a free ride has never resulted in a significant increase in employment. As a nation we have been laboring under this delusion for about 30 years. If it has not worked by now, it will never work. What is needed is a 21st century version of Roosevelt’s New Deal, and the sooner the better.Andy HaroldCarson CityRight to life is paramountWriter Elfyn O’Halloran cannot understand the connection between the killing of innocent life in a classroom and the killing of innocent life in his or her mother’s womb.The writer seems to believe that only if a child is wanted, only if someone is willing to “adopt or foster those children that you so desperately want to be born” (note that the writer refers to these babies as “children”) that the child then has a right to live. The right to life, the very first right enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, is then abrogated to whether or not an individual is “wanted.”Throughout history societies have allowed the killing of the unwanted person. Jews in Germany, blacks in the Southern United States, political insurgents in communist countries, all of these persons were legally killed because they were “unwanted” in the society in which they lived.If an individual’s right to life is dependent on anything other than the fact that they are a human being, then there is no right to life. There is only the tyranny of the more powerful over the less powerful. Killing innocent human beings, whether in a school room or a mother’s womb, ends the life of that innocent human being. The evil is the same.Kate SciaccaCarson CityThomas column criticizedIn response to Bob Thomas, first, Joseph was not Jesus’ father, God the Father in Heaven is. Secondly, Mary was not divine. She spoke of needing a savior herself. Luke 1:46-47: “And Mary said, ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.’” The only mediator between God and men is Christ Jesus. 1 Tim 2:5-6: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”Acts 4:12: “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” That includes Mary, sir. It is against God’s word for us to pray to him using any other name but Jesus. Matt 7:13-14 speaks of the straight gate. Jesus himself is that straight gate you need to be born again. John 3:7: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”Jesus told Nicodemus that very truth, and he was a leader in the temple. Stop kidding yourself sir, you need a savior just like Mary knew she did. For all our good works will not save us on that day. Only repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ alone will.Rosalee Barnwell HintonCarson City
