Over the course of the past few months, some of our members have written letters and guest columns to the Highlands News-Sun. Here are some of the ones we have been able to retrieve from their archives.
Where are loyalties?
From a patriot “I honest to God believe it’s your patriotic duty,” Mr. Biden speaking to Americans on necessity of vaccine mandate (12/22/2021).
I am a patriot. I respectfully listened to Mr. Biden’s address to America: ‘Virus Fight, Offering Aid to Hospitals and Free Tests’. Mandated virus vaccines are not required to be a patriot.
Does Mr. Biden have any idea what it takes to be a patriot? A man, representing our great nation, who is so disconnected from the American people, telling us it is our patriotic duty to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and all its variants.
Mr. Biden, please stop punishing Americans who hold dear to their hearts the Constitutional rights and freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Stop demanding Americans be submissive to CCP’s harsh, shallow, ‘insane freedoms’ and philosophies on how to run our country.
This is the United States of America, not China. True patriots, vaccinated and unvaccinated, know what you and your cohorts are doing to our beautiful and grand country. We love our motherland and treasure all her history. Patriots will defend our country at all costs to make America free again. Where are your loyalties, Mr. Biden? To the United States of America or to China? For love of country or for love of kick-backs?
Caroleanne Jordan
Avon Park
How soon we forget
Freedom of choice. Is it no longer a liberty all Americans are born with? Remember at the heightened outbreak of the COVID-19 virus last March, nurses were considered heroes. We saw all the signs in front of hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living facilities: “Heroes work here.” Well, nurses died there as well.
Nursing, a most trusted vocation in our country. Loving, compassionate, spiritual, kind, considerate, a healer, a visionary, a listener. Nurses put those they cared for before themselves. They chose to care for patients with COVID, despite the risks to themselves and their families. Long hours, unbearable fatigue, witnesses to abundant loss of life despite attempts to save their patients.
Once angel heroes, nurses are now being threatened under the unconstitutional vaccine mandate to choose: either take the vaccine or lose your job. Nurses will not submit to communist led directives. Nurses, like all Americans, have the freedom of choice. Nurses will not support a government that will decide who will live and who dies. Amidst all the deviations our country is witnessing, these changes are increasingly worse.
Nurses would rather follow the teachings of Christ, than the threatening directives of our federal government. God help us.
Carolanne Jordan
Avon Park
Trump was better president
In the Your View section I once again forced myself to read another unrequited, vengeful, untrue, spewing hate diatribe, about how awful President Trump was and also how all the other similar letters never come close to the whole story.
President Trump knew who he worked for, thought of America first, and was lied about in the national media, which has completely lost its way and is completely unbelievable now.
Never minimized the faith in God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that lead us to be the most prosperous nation in the world.
Never lied about what he thought.
Never sat on his bottom and lived off the overburdened taxpayers of the country.
Never swam in the sea of nepotism so pervasive in our national government.
Never had the media searching every word to pounce.
Never had the national media lead a disappointingly large group of Americans around by nose rings to plow their fields of misinformation.
Never had a family with fists full of money from foreign sources, Trump worked for his money.
Biden has done all the above and more along with most of the Democratic Party, which has been hijacked by the America last group.
Lately, I heard President Biden say we are running out of patience with a certain group of Americans, which is scary because that’s the same thing Joseph Goebbels said about the Jewish people before the Nazis tried to kill them all.
Jay Broker
Sebring
What has Biden done?
This newspaper seems to only print derogatory things about the former president, Donald J. Trump.
I’m asking for all of the accomplishments of the current President, Joseph Biden … on his own … and not reversing President Trump’s actions.
Specifics, please.
Are you better off today, than you were last year?
Catherine K. Nelson
Avon Park
My freedom
To liberals: My freedom does not end where your feelings begin.
Bruce Tooker
Sebring
Punished for Doing the Right Thing
In response to Mr. (Mark) Walczak’s letter on Waste Connection and recycled materials.
I could not agree with you more Sir, as I feel the same way you do about how the county and Waste Connection’s have handled this program.
I, like you, trucked my recycled materials weekly to the big white bin making sure it was in the right container.
When Waste Connection went to the two bins at my home I again made sure the right material was in the green and yellow container. Even after the county eliminated some of the materials that could go into the green container, I adjusted.
And now because some people could not be bothered with separating between garbage and recycled material we are told to truck recycled material to the big white bins. I am being punished for doing the right thing.
One last note: When two sides talk at each other instead of to each other, it takes us to where we are today.
John Larsen
Sebring
Another wake up call
The situation in Afghanistan should be another wake up call to America as to the plan of the Taliban and Islam. They are implementing the teachings of Muhammad and the Qur’an. And this is the same plan they have to take over the USA as Muslims gain control in increments through local and national governments and Sharia law.
Peace-loving Muslims are an insult to their religion. Read the Qur’an and study history. Yes, there is danger at the south border, but we are being hoodwinked into thinking Muslims make good American citizens. The U.S. Constitution/Bill of Rights and Sharia law are miles apart. They cannot support both. They may be good neighbors and business owners, but if they are true to their religion, they are a vote for Sharia law and death to America.
Michael Gerson, in his guest column, correctly observed, “We know exactly what is going to happen to the women and girls of Afghanistan – what indignities, cruelties and violence will be visited upon them. We know that Taliban rule is a tyranny over body, mind and soul. For the Taliban to change its conduct, it would need to change its theology. And I have seen no signs of a Taliban reformation.”
The same mindset that sees no danger at the open southern border, sees no danger in the infiltration of Muslims into America. They better take off their blinders before it is too late. Ask Europe. Wake up America.
Frank Parker
Sebring
Our soldiers should be proud
An open letter to our soldiers:
Always be proud of your dedicated service to your country. Only you know the scars and wounds of warfare that many may see, but so few of us truly feel and understand. Only you know what it is like to to lose brothers and sisters along side you in combat. You sacrificed your life to protect your nation knowing you may not return home.
America loves you. You are held in high esteem. A true leader, a hero, unselfishly putting country, freedoms and family first. You wear your uniform proudly reflecting your devotion to the United States Military, the United States of America, and those foreign nations you also defend. You are compassionate to the less fortunate who look to the American Soldier for survival. You accomplish your missions. You win battles.
Soldier, may you find friendship, joy and a meaningful purpose in your life. Enrich others with your wealth of knowledge.
I pray God will always hold you in the palms of His hands.
Carolanne Jordan
Avon Park
Give to the veterans what is theirs
Veterans. Unquestionable valor. Heroes. Unfathomable courage. Protectors of our freedoms and liberties, all the while knowing they could become sacrificial lambs to the slaughter to preserve America, the home of the brave, land of the free.
A united brotherhood and sisterhood that some of us will never understand. A sacred cohesive union of men and women, scarred as they may be, devoted to the fearlessness and bravery of each other and their survival.
Politics do not belong in the Veterans Administration Health Care System (VAHCS). Veteran health care belongs to every veteran who served his or her country. There are many veterans in this United States of America and overseas who are qualified to hold leadership, administrative, business, legal, medical, nursing, rehabilitation and counseling positions to run the VAHCS. They are the ones who will hire, fire, aggressively cleaning house. They are the ones now struggling to adjust to civilian life. Study the number of suicides among veterans unable to cope with PTSD and addiction. Who better understands military culture, than veterans themselves.
The Mission Act has good intentions, but is only a band aide loosely covering the deeper inadequacies of the VAHCS. Giving VAHCS to veterans will ensure every veteran in the USA will be cared for by their own.
Veterans must be vigilant. Relying on outside VAHCS may sound tempting, but the brotherhood and sisterhood of veterans is unaccounted for. We do not want socialized medicine to exceed VAHCS.
Carolanne Jordan
Avon Park
Biden is not Trump
To all the voters who voted for Biden because he wasn’t Trump, shame on you. You are to blame for where we are right now. Biden is not Trump, Biden is not honest, Biden is not an outsider with very little to no political baggage and minions, Biden is not incorruptable, Biden is not pro-American, Biden is not pro military, Biden is not intelligent, Biden is not a skilled negotiator, Biden is not a successful businessman, Biden is not a tough boss, Biden is not a leader, Biden is not a Constitutionlist, Biden is not unwavering regardless of the political wind, Biden has no moral compass.
You voted in a personality contest instead of a right-man-for-the-job contest. So no, Biden is not Trump, and now thanks to voters who only voted because he isn’t Trump, America is not America. The United States is not united. Shame on you.
Shannon Breeds
Sebring
Prayer is not an insult
This letter is in response to the person who thinks all prayer needs to done in a church. Amendment 1 of the Constitution says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This great country, The USA, was founded on the principles of Christianity. Most of our forefathers believed in our Lord. The Bible is not a badly written work of fiction; it is based on history of many years ago. As for our schools, I would rather see “In God We Trust” not in ‘government we trust,’ because in most cases, government cannot be trusted.
The Day of Prayer is not an insult to the Constitution. If you are not a believer in the Lord, that is your right. So therefore, you can ignore what Christians believe in.
The USA is the last bastion of freedom in the world. If the writer understood that both the Declaration and Constitution are based in Christianity, he might have a better understanding of why the National Day of Prayer is observed annually on the Courthouse Lawn.
Sandra Giegerich
Sebring
Hate, a crippling disease
Why do people hate? It seems like our entire country and world have caught this crippling disease, hate. Human beings do not recognize each other as brothers or sisters anymore. It is not the masks. We forgot how to love, respect and honor each other. We do not appreciate each other as uniquely individual: talented, educators, thinkers, builders, leaders, entrepreneurs, inventors, or caregivers. Race, color, nor creed has ever obstructed our family unification as Americans. We play together. We pray together. We laugh and cry together. We fight wars together. We respond to crises together. We take care of and defend each other.
Our universe is changing. Many a tear are being shed by humanity of all nations. The battles rage within our country and overseas as we destroy each other with evil monies, false promises, deception, open boarders, reduction in economic growth, weak global leadership, missiles, and bombs.
The human race is being put to the test, God’s test.
Americans are a good, peaceful and united people. We must remain strong, vigilant and embrace each other as one. We love. We do not hate.
Carolanne Jordan
Avon Park
Prayer is allowed on courthouse lawn
To the individual who wrote: Holding the National Day of Prayer at the Highlands County Courthouse is against the Constitution, you’re wrong.
An appeals court overturned a federal judge’s decision that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional has ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the president’s right to proclaim the annual observance. As reported, “A three-judge panel of the 7 U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Madison, Wis. Freedom from Religion Foundation didn’t have standing to sue because while they disagree with the president’s proclamation, it’s not caused them any harm.” It’s not a proclamation of any sort proclaiming the government supported any specific religion. It was a National Day of Prayer, did not specify to who, if you prefer Lucifer, then pray to him.
May 2021, Biden became the first president since 1952 to not use the word “God” in his National Day of Prayer proclamation. He did, however, write, “this proclamation was signed in ‘the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one’” and used the word “God” in his oral remarks to commemorate the day.
Guess where he held this prayer, in the White House.
After almost 70 years, the National Day of Prayer this year looks very different in DC. That’s because the permit to hold the annual event at the capital was denied for the first time since 1952. The reason being, the area remains closed off to the public, where the event would usually take place.
If one doesn’t believe in the Bible, or Constitution, there is a simple solution, don’t read them.
John Nelson
Sebring
Strengthen the laws against the abusers
Those who wish to remove the protections from the Constitution are at it again. They have taken aim at the Second Amendment, which prohibits government from infringing on our right to keep and bear arms.
Somehow, they pretend this has something to do with hunting. It does not. The Second Amendment is all about protection. In fact, one reason the Japanese did not continue on from Pearl Harbor to the mainland of the U.S. was their fear of an armed populace. Naturally, there’s fear mongering about those who misuse weapons. Their idea is to restrict law-abiding citizens. That’s like penalizing all drivers for the drunk and impaired people who drive and kill innocent motorists.
There are millions of law-abiding gun owners in the United States. Let us strengthen the laws against the abusers and impose irrevocable sentences. For instance, we should forever prohibit those involved in gun crimes from ever casting another ballot. Their sentences should also come without the ability for parole.
In fact, recent actions to de-fund and restrict police make gun ownership for personal protection more important than ever. Tuesday, May 11, at the Highlands Tea Party meeting, gun law expert John Lott will present “The Myths of Gun Control.” This will be a wonderful opportunity for citizens to learn more about this subject. The meeting will be held at the Vietnam Veterans of America building, 33565 Grand Prix Drive, in Sebring. Social hour is at 5:30 p.m. with the meeting to begin at 6
Roger Giegerich
Sebring
America’s tears – the battle within
America, the beautiful. Rich in traditions and history. Abundant in freedom. Loved by her children of deep faith and readiness to defend.
America, a mother who has always welcomed nations into her home. She accepts them for who they are, not recognizing race, color, or creed. She protects her children from harm. She feeds them, clothes them, educates them, and cares for them when ill. This is the America we know and love.
Today America cries. A battle within rages.
Unprotected, she has lost her Constitutional right to shelter her children from the deceitful Progressives who now dictate to her children with fearful lies, broken promises, division, and lawlessness.
America cries as she witnesses the economic hardships of her children. She cries as her children hunger, loose their place of security and rest, their homes. America cries as her children cannot worship without chastisement. She cries as her children are deprived of the knowledge of their nation’s history. Immoral forces who are above the law are turning America into pure darkness and desperation. She cries for her children who can no longer speak freely.
It is time America’s children embrace their Constitutional rights, put them into action, and defend their rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
The wall surrounding our Capitol must be destroyed.
Harmful Progressive leadership must be removed.
Caroleann Jordan
Avon Park
Who are they?
Apr 18, 2021
Gordan Best, Daniel Mobley, Jonathan Price, Brian Sicknik, Brian LaVigne, Luis Merrero-Diaz, Luis Saloman- Conde, Eliezer-Hernandez-Cartangena, Melton Gore, Christine Peters, Adam Gibson, Brandon Stalker, Michael Boutte, Laura Schwartzenberger, Daniel Alfin, Darian Jarrott, Timothy Sheehan, Michael Magli, Horacio- Dominquez, Eugene Lasco, Jason Lagore, Thomas Albanese, Martinas Mitchum, Dominic Winum, Justin Bedwell, Jose Anzora, Jesse Madsen, Gary Hibbs, Alejandro-Flores Banuelos, Kevin Valencia, Eric Talley, Robert McFarland, Todd Hanneken, Kyle Davis, Joseph Gallagher, James Driver, Chad Walker, Wm Evans, James Kouski, Brent Hall, Christopher Knight, James Smith, Thomas Barnes.
These are the brave police officers killed in the line of duty in the United States this year as of April 9th. They died protecting you and me.
Thank you all for your service to your fellow man and your country.
John Larsen
Sebring
What is it?
The silence of Joe Biden supporters is amazing. Is it the U.S. is no longer oil independent?
Is it that the U.S. is being over run with illegal immigrants (some having Covid)? Is it that a number of schools have been shut down for a year? Is it the silencing of conservative views by the lackey social media? Is it the bailouts of states and cities that have destroyed their own communities? Is it the cost of living going ever upward? Is it the current support of ongoing BLM rioting? Is it the dividing of the country by race not by achievement? Is it ongoing financial support for abortion? Is it that the U.S. is fast becoming no longer united but divided? Is it a president that will not speak to the American people about what he is doing that is destroying America?
John Larsen
Sebring