OUR COLUMNISTS Not Enough Words Commentary by Brad Locke Call Pat Tillman "The Last Action Hero" if you want, though he was much more than that. He was a committed patriot, an exceptional brother, an honorable son, and a strong husband. Oh yeah, and a pretty decent football player. The Power of the Word Commentary by David Sisler When was the last time you were talking with a friend and you overlooked a kindness that had been done for you? Later, did you think of something special you might have said, and think, "I wish I would have said that." Moms Rule Commentary by Mark Creech It's been said that no other force in life is as great as that of a mother. Truly, a mother's influence can be marvelously seen in the lives of some of the most famous people from every strata of social order.

...Students at Cornell University want the school to cut funding to a conservative publication on the New York campus because of a column it published questioning why it was that, of two racially motivated attacks in Ithaca, only the one with a black victim sparked rallies, forums, and public outrage. The Cornell chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People held a protest against the conservative Cornell Review and accused it of publishing racially offensive material. However, Review editor-in-chief Paul Eastlund says the article was justified because the school has remained silent about the brutal beating of a white Cornell student by three black females. "We went into this trying to figure out why the university possibly responded as they did," Eastlund says, "and why they didn't come out really strongly saying this is a horrible thing that happened. And the reason that we've seen is because there's this powerful lobby that is going to racially identify with any perpetrator or victim, and they're just going to innately take the side of whoever has the same color skin as them." Eastland contends that if Cornell officials had come out and publicly decried the horrible incident, that same lobby "would have been out there calling the university racist." But that did not happen, so the editor felt compelled to let the Review address the double standard. Now, Eastlund says, the fate of his paper's funding rests in the hands of the University's student assembly. [Jim Brown]

...An American evangelical Christian leader says President Bush should publicly apologize to the Iraqi people for U.S. troops' alleged mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. Vonette Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ says the outrage over pictures of Iraqis stripped and humiliated by their guards needs to be answered "by the President saying that we are sorry -- the American people express sorrow." The widow of Campus Crusade founder Bill Bright also believes that as part of their punishment, any troops found guilty of abusing prisoners should go before cameras in Iraq to publicly confess, apologize and ask for the Iraqi people's forgiveness. [AP]

...A Christian homeowner in Michigan says Muslims in his area are involved in a calculated effort to take over the once largely Polish Catholic community where he and his wife have lived for years. Bob Golen says the neighborhoods in his hometown of Hamtramck have drastically changed over the past few years as Muslim immigrants have transformed them into increasingly Islamic communities. The city is already embroiled in a controversy over its council's vote to exempt local Mosques from a noise ordinance so they can blast calls for prayers over loudspeakers -- this in a place where the Ten Commandments or other Christian displays are considered politically incorrect. And now Golen feels the Muslim newcomers are engaging in what area realtors call "block busting." In other words, he says, "They came in, paid outrageously high prices for some of our homes that you wouldn't give $20,000 for, paying 60 and 70 thousand, which then entrenched a number of [Muslim families] on every block." Golen believes this is part of a "concerted effort" on the part of Muslims to use their financial power take over the city, and he says, "they're doing a heck of a job because nobody's standing up to them." Now that area homeowners are unable to sell without bringing their prices far below what they have invested in their homes, Golen says the Muslims will try to bring the rest of their people in to stabilize the housing market for themselves. [Chad Groening]

...Polls indicate that most American voters find presidential hopeful John Kerry aloof, cold, and not someone with whom they want to associate. Cliff Kincaid of the advocacy group America's Survival thinks these polling results may have something to do with Kerry's anti-war activities and contacts, including his association with controversial former attorney general Ramsey Clark, and his past membership in Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), a group that allegedly debated assassinating certain anti-war conservatives in Congress at one time. "This is damaging in and of itself," Kincaid says, "that Kerry was associated with people like Ramsey Clark -- that's damaging enough. But then to find out he was actually present at a meeting where they discussed killing members of Congress is even worse." According to WorldNetDaily, VVAW's plot to kill members of Congress was reported in Gerald Nicosia's 2001 book, Home To War, which claims one of the key leaders of the organization, Scott Camil, "proposed the assassination of the most hard-core conservative members of Congress, as well as any other powerful, intractable opponents of the antiwar movement." A cover blurb on the book quotes Senator Kerry as saying it "ties together the many threads of a difficult period." The Democratic presidential candidate also hosted a party for the book in the Hart Senate Office Building, according to the Sun. [Bill Fancher and Jenni Parker]

...Thirty men who served with John Kerry in Vietnam have questioned his fitness to serve as president of the United States. Representing well over 200 others, members of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth held a press conference to challenge the Democratic presidential hopeful's ability to tell the truth about his three months in Vietnam. Commander John O'Neill outlined the purpose of a letter the veterans group sent to the Massachusetts senator: "First it condemns Kerry for his misrepresentation of both our record and his in Vietnam. Second, it reflects our condemnation of the hypocrisy in posing our unit as war criminals, throwing medals away, and then passing himself off as a war hero at a later point in time because it's politically convenient. Third, we don't understand why [his self-described actions of] 35 years ago would even be significant." The Swift Boat Veterans say Kerry exaggerated his service record and even lied about certain events. They are demanding that the candidate release his military record. [Bill Fancher]

...An Israeli Middle East expert says the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants to strengthen the position of a Palestinian leader in Gaza because it believes he can co-exist with the Jews. Prime Minister Sharon is apparently scrambling to come up with a new plan for an Israeli pullout of some Palestinian areas. The Israeli leader had promoted a "unilateral disengagement" from the Palestinians, but it was defeated by members of his own party. Former Israeli government official Victor Mordecai says Sharon wants to withdraw from Gaza because there is a Palestine Liberation Organization leader there with whom the Israelis can cooperate. Mordecai says the PLO's Mohammad Dahlan is the one who will be running things in Gaza if Israel pulls out. "So what Israel is trying to do," the Israeli political analyst says, "is to knock out those people who oppose Dahlan, because with him we can coexist. With the Hamas we cannot coexist." However, Mordecai says right now Sharon is looking at other options, including a possible pullout from just a few Jewish settlements. [Chad Groening]

...International Christian Concern reports that more than 250 Christians were killed in clashes with Vietnamese authorities during protests over the Easter weekend. Amnesty International says it has confirmed at least eight deaths of Christians, but adds that the overall death toll could be "considerably higher." The human rights organization says the confirmed eight included a blind woman killed during demonstrations in which thousands of members of the ethnic minority known collectively as the Montagnards took to the streets demanding religious freedom and return of their lands. Many of the Montagnards are Christians that belong to Protestant churches banned by Vietnam's communist government. Vietnam has been restricting access to the area for several weeks. [AP]

© 2004 AgapePress all rights reserved.

E-mail this page to a friend

Printer-Friendly Version

Read all of our current headlines