MailbagThanks for editorial on organ donationTo the editor:
I wanted to say thank you for your recent article about organ donation, for which I am a very strong advocate. My own family was touched by this important cause almost four years ago. My father was placed on a list for a heart transplant. He had heart disease for over 20 years - his heart just couldn't take it anymore and he was dying. Our family was blessed on Dec. 30, 1999 at 11 p.m., when they found a perfect match - a 25-year-old young man. Dad is now 68 years old and is in the prime of his life. My mother and father are young again and living life happily for 45 years together. He has had no sign of rejection. The family members of the donor have become become a part of our family - I think of the young man like a brother to me - even though I have never met him. He is someone whom I love and give thanks for every day. It is nice to know that someone like him is watching over my dad and my family. This gift is not just a gift from his family, it is also a gift from God. I echo your words to please sign your driver's license and use the orange sticker, and tell your family about it. When my dad was in the hospital, he made friends with people who were waiting for transplants, but many of them didn't get a new heart in time and passed away. It was very hard - that would not have to happen if everyone knew what a marvelous gift they are giving by signing a driver's license. Bill Frederick, Madison Actively support pro-life candidatesTo the editor: I have read your editorials and articles dealing with the upcoming elections. Obviously your writers are more concerned with preserving a tyrant in power than in supporting pro-life candidates. Why? Why doesn't the church actively support pro-life candidates? We hear meek "vote your conscience" pleas that might mean the church is against the pro-abortion groups and candidates. If The Catholic Herald and the church are really for life, we should proclaim it from the pulpit and in the press. I recently lived in the Detroit area for five years. The Detroit non-Catholic churches actually staged rallies in church for Democrat pro-death candidates, while the Catholic churches issued a mild "vote your concience." Guess who won all the congressional races - the pro-death crowd. Catholics historically vote at least 50 percent Democrat, which is 100 percent pro-death since they tolerate no dissent from that tenant of their faith. Catholics get no firm guidance from the church. Is it any wonder the slaughter continues? Mike Badger, Mount Horeb U.S. should strike only if Iraq attacksTo the editor: As an alternative to a U.S. preemptive strike on Iraq, the U.S. government should issue a congressionally approved ultimatum that if Iraq uses conventional, biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons in an attack on any group, the U.S. will counter with an appropriate and adequate attack on Iraq to eradicate the source of aggression. These tactics would agree with the Catholic Church's guidelines for a just war. Then we would be recalling the words of St. Augustine, "We do not seek peace in order to be at war, but we go to war that we may have peace." Charles J. Sippel, Waterloo Unborn babies are not public enemyTo the editor: The Catholic Herald issue of Oct. 24 ran a political cartoon that lambasted Congress and President Bush. It showed President Bush taking the keys to an army tank and gleefully going off to a war against Saddam Hussein. As long as The Catholic Herald is seeing fit to run political cartoons, here is another idea. It could show our Wisconsin senators, Feingold and Kohl, gleefully taking the hand of a scared, pregnant young woman and escorting her into an abortion clinic. People will hold differing views as to whether we should go to war with Iraq. All will agree, however, that Saddam Hussein is guilty of being a murderous dictator who is accumulating chemical and biological weapons. What crime have the millions of aborted babies been guilty of? Yet, when we look at the voting records of Kohl and Feingold, one would think that public enemy number one are the unborn babies, not Saddam Hussein. Greg Wagner, Middleton Bush photo doesn't belong on front pageTo the editor: I find it quite disgusting that you use almost the entire page of The Catholic Herald showing President G. W. Bush as he signs a congressional resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. In my opinion it would have been more appropriate to have shown a picture of a bishop or priest offering up prayers in hope of a peaceful solution to this grave matter. Geraldine Moser, Middleton To the editor: In view of the fact that the bishops of the United States have clearly stated that a preemptive war against Iraq would not be morally justified, I find it strange that The Herald would run a flattering front page picture showing the president signing the bill authorizing him to begin a war, "glorifying" an act the bishops said would be immoral if carried out. Fr. Tony Schumacher, Madison
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