We are four days away from knowing who our next president will be.  I’m not even going to take a guess.  Though Romney has gained steam and, at the time of this writing, it looks like there’s no stopping him, we just don’t know what Obama has up his sleeve. The two campaigns couldn’t be more opposite then they are right now.

Romney/Ryan supports smaller government and bigger business. Obama/Biden supports big government, tax and spend, and expanding socialism.

Romney/Ryan supports the idea that, given a much needed hand up, folks can pull themselves up by the bootstraps.  If government would jut butt out, small businesses can play a large role in improving our crippled economy. ObamaCare must be stopped.

Obama/Biden supports the idea that, the government is there to make the playing field level by taking from the evil rich and trickling down to the poor in for form of government handouts. Raising taxes on “the rich” is at the top of their to-do list. And making sure that every woman who wants an abortion can get one at no charge is also a priority.

Romney/Ryan leans toward citizens taking personal responsibility for making things happen.  Obama/Biden seems to be saying, “You need to let us take care of your needs.”

At this point, there should be no “undecideds.”  If you are undecided, I encourage you to visit each of the candidates’ websites and side-up.  Go vote. If you are not registered, or don’t plan to vote, you have no room to complain when things don’t go your way. 

No matter who wins the election, America deserves just what she gets. I believe that no one is placed in a position of authority except that which God has established (Rom. 13:1). I know that not everyone believes in the God of the Bible. However, a lot can be gleaned from its words.  There is a lot of wisdom packed into its pages.

For instance, when the Israelites clamored for a human king over God as their leader, they were warned what to expect.

This was part of God’s warning through Samuel: The king who will reign over you will take your sons…and some will be made commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties…others will make weapons of war. Sounds like the draft.

Your…cattle and donkeys, he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. We work almost half a year before our money is our own. And we pay much more than ten percent.

Samuel then says, “When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day.” (1 Samuel 8:18)

I’m sure there will be much crying Tuesday, no matter who wins this election.  

No man, party, Democrat or Republican, is going to fix what’s wrong with our society. If that’s what we’re expecting, we’ll be severely disappointed no matter who wins.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George. She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com

presidential election is about bigger picture

For some people the 2012 election has boiled down to protecting women’s reproductive rights.  Seriously? Is that all we are dealing with here? 

At the democratic National Convention women’s rights activist Sandra Fluke spewed out a bunch of nonsense about the threat of women’s reproductive rights being on the line. That’s a bunch of fear-mongering hooey. No president can make abortion illegal, and Congress and the Supreme Court won’t.

We have had four years of money pouring into extremist social issues, and what do we have to show for it? A runaway deficit, a depressed economy, foreclosures and job losses like we’ve never seen before, and a hit on small businesses so hard that many of them won’t recover. Enough is enough.

If I had to choose between a government that would guarantee my daughter a federally-funded abortion-on-demand, or a government that would back off and allow private enterprise to work to allow both of my children to receive a good education and a good job that would provide them with decent medical insurance, I’m going to choose the latter hands down.

We can’t afford to have a community activist in the White House any longer. 

We need a businessman.  We need a person that can turn an economic deficit into a surplus. We don’t need someone to create a bigger divide between blacks and whites, rich and poor, Democrats and Republicans, or Christians and Jews and Muslims. We need someone who can heal the scars and bring people together for the common good; someone who can eliminate this “it’s all about me and my rights” mentality and say, “it’s all about US.” 

We don’t need a president who tries to cover up terrorist attacks on our embassies and ignores the crisis in the Middle East.  We need one who isn’t afraid to show a little superiority and take care of business.

We need a president who can show us how to lend a hand to a weaker brother.  Not by way of government subsidy, but by actually caring for the needs of one another; by supporting charities, crisis pregnancy centers, homeless shelters and churches that reach out to help.  Romney donated nearly $7 to 8 million to charities in 2010 and 2011.

As a country, we suffer from ingrown eyeballs.  We are so busy throwing ourselves a pity party that we trip over people who need our help.  We sit around and wait for the government to fix our problems and they make them worse.  We cry like a spoiled brat because we want federally funded abortions while 46 million people live in poverty.

There has always been rich and poor.  Being successful is not a crime.  Private citizens can do more to help the needy than the government.  Taxing the “rich” does not help the poor.  Obama is not Robin Hood.  Taxes don’t trickle down to the needy. They go into the black hole of government misspending for programs that don’t work.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of the writers group.

Can Obama run on his current record and win the 2012 election?

With Republican and National Conventions behind us and campaigning in full swing, I’d like to revisit the 2008 Democratic National Convention and see just how President Obama has since taking office.

On August 28, 2008, President Obama said: “Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less.” The unemployment rate in July of 2008 was 5.8%.  In July 2012, that rate was 8.3%. 

Obama went on to say, “More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet.”

 USAToday.com stated that the foreclosure rate was at 3 million in 2008. According to Newsmax.com, “About 5 million borrowers are at least two months behind on their mortgages and industry experts say more people will miss payments because of job losses and also loans that exceed the value of the homes they are living in.” This was in January of 2011. Bankforeclosuresale.com says, “With the new foreclosure settlement, critics are suggesting that 2012 could easily exceed 2011’s foreclosure numbers and even compete with 2010 for the worst year on record for the foreclosure crisis.”

Obama stated that the “failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.”  I suppose the same principle would apply to the failed politics of the Obama Administration?

“We (Democrats) measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a new business…an economy that honors the dignity of work.”  Why are there so many more on unemployment and welfare compensations, then?

The total number of Millionaire households in the US has declined by 129,000 since 2011. Globally, millionaires increased by 175,000. People with money are the ones who take the risks to open a business and hire those in the lower- to middle-class.

“Change means a tax code that doesn’t reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small business owners who deserve it. I will cut taxes for 95% of all working families.”  According to Washingtopost.com, if Congress allows the tax rates for the nation’s highest wage earners to expire at the end of this year, millions of small businesses may be forced to cut jobs and wages to the middle class.  So we won’t tax the middle class, we’ll just cause them to lose their jobs.  Good plan, Mr. Obama.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this would drain $607 billion out of the economy next year, pushing us back into a recession. Is this how we “honor the dignity of work”?

According to Forbes.com, Medicaid is expected to grow from $425 billion taxpayer in 2010 to $800 billion by 2018.  And under ObamaCare 85 million Americans will be on Medicare, growing to over 100 million by 2021.

St. George has experienced its share of business downturn. These numbers speak for themselves. You have a chance to speak on November 6.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of The Spectrum and Daily News writers group.  She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com

Dissecting Intolerance

“We are much supportive of the family—the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family owned business, a family-led business. We are married to our first wives and we give thanks to God for that.” These words were printed in the Baptist Press on July 14th, reportedly said by Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy.

These are the most volatile, intolerant words probably ever spoken though there is not one word showing intolerance.

 Let’s take a look at a few more quotes that evolved since the BP report. Rosanne Barr had this to say, “Anyone who eats at S**t-fil-A deserves to get cancer.”

In a drive-thru video posted on YouTube, one anonymous man berated a Chick-fil-A employee by saying, “I don’t know how you work here. This is a horrible corporation with horrible values.” The cashier responded with a very intolerant, “It’s my pleasure to serve you.”

MSNBC correspondent Jonathan Capehart urged protesters to burglarize the food chain. Now, that’s tolerant and mature. The Daily Show’s John Stewart used words I can’t repeat in this column to show his tolerance toward the company. MSNBC’s reporter Thomas Roberts referred to gay rights supporters who eat at Chick-fil-A as “chicken-eating Judases”.  He was being tolerant of people who share his own views on gay rights. 

In a Torrance Chick-fil-A someone vandalized it posting a picture of a cow and a sign that said, “Tastes like hate.”

Vice President of Marketing, Steve Robinson issued a statement after all the brouhaha saying, Chick-fil-A appreciates all of its customers and “is glad to serve them at any time.” Yep, that sounds pretty hateful.

Then there were the complaints that Chick-fil-A uses a small portion of its profits to support Christian organizations. How intolerant can they be!? Using their own money to support causes they believe in.

Gay activist Luke Montgomery of Los Angeles, said that Jesus Christ never said anything about gay people, and Cathy should open the Bible before he opens his mouth.” He went on to say, “We have separation of church and state. It’s great if they want to have their religion, but it should not interfere with our civil rights.”  Huh? Chick-fil-A is neither a church nor a government entity, and Cathy never mentioned the name of Jesus Christ.

Just for the record, there are places where Jesus addresses the issue by directing us to the Law of Moses. And the Apostle Paul explains things quite clearly in Romans 1. 

But the point here is who has shown the most tolerance? One man shared how God has worked in his own personal life.  That’s all he did.  Never once did he show any distain for anyone else.  He was merely talking about how God had worked in his life. Because of that he has been labeled has a homophobe, among other things, by people who are threatened by his life style. These traditional-family haters remind me of something else I read in the Bible, “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.”

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of the writers group.

Good commonsense protects our freedom

How many freedoms are Americans willing to sacrifice? How many decisions are we willing to let our government make for us? How many laws are on the books that wouldn’t be there if we all just used commonsense?
Let’s take texting while driving, for example. It’s a national epidemic.  According to The Center for Disease Control, one-third of today’s teens reported in a survey to texting while driving. There ought to be a law. Oh wait, there is. Roughly 44 states have enacted some form of texting-while-driving law. But it’s not just teens who participate in such activity.  I’m amazed at how many adults I see looking down at their laps with one hand on the wheel and their brain disengaged from road.
Other laws that take away our freedoms to use common sense include seat belt laws, public smoking laws, speeding laws, and driving without headlights laws. 
Thinking people will never get cited for violating them.  We really don’t think of them as a lessening of our freedoms.
Let’s take a look at laws that have had to be passed over the centuries that have taken away freedoms.
The second Amendment was ratified in 1791.  Governments have been trying to limit guns ever since, with great success. Gone are the days when Charles Ingalls would grab his shotgun and head out the door to protect his little house on the prairie.
For the most part gun laws have been put in place for our own protection. The National Firearms Act brought about the first major gun control in 1934.  It was established as a direct response to the rise in gangster violence. Since then there has been thousands of gun laws established at the Federal, State and Local levels. Each new law chinks away at our personal freedom to own guns.
During a recent news interview a proponent of open field target shooting was upset because his right to do so is being suppressed during this wicked fire season.  It was determined that some of these fires were caused by such activity.  His comment was something like, “Because of the carelessness of the few we all have to suffer.”
He drove home my point.  It is either because of carelessness, lack of common sense or sheer disrespect for human life that everyone’s rights are winnowed away.  Authorities have to protect us…from us.
The city of St. George made at least two mass telephone calls to residents to let us know that aerial fireworks were prohibited over July 4th due to the high fire danger.  There were still numbskulls shooting off aerial fireworks.  There was even a city-sponsored fireworks show.  Go figure.
As long as we continue to show our lack of commonsense and do stupid things, we will, little-by-little, give our freedoms to make good decisions over to government entities.  Eventually, we will become a people who is comfortable only when someone is thinking for us.  Soon we will become like the characters in Lois Lowry’s book, The Giver. 

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of The Spectrum and Daily News writers group. She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com.

Lesson learned: dogs need boundaries, too

We recently made a move from a two-story house in Santa Clara Heights to a single story in St. George, for which my bad knees and neuropathetic feet are very grateful.

After moving we had to reinstate the drip system our Labrador puppy had dismantled at the Santa Clara house when she was a young one.  Winnie celebrated her first birthday last month, and has matured (or at least grown)…somewhat.

Little did we know that while we were repairing her masterpiece of a destruction job in Santa Clara, she was “remodeling” the back yard at the new house more to her liking.  Within a matter of days, Winnie managed to remove all of the drip hoses from the trees, frustrating but fixable.  She then went to work on the bigger job of disconnecting the main sprinkler lines from both the front and back yards.

This was quite a feat considering she had to locate the lines under dirt, rock and paper.  She has a very keen and precise sniffer.

Needless to say, my husband had had enough, and the order of the day was to find a new home for Winnie.  But there are not many folks who want to adopt a juvenile Lab who has a mind of her own and a seemingly less-than-teachable spirit.

Not willing to take her to an animal control shelter, we amended our thinking.  She was no longer allowed in the back yard unsupervised and she would make more trips to doggy daycare. We also reinforced our new sprinkler lines with a six-inch deep ditch, wire mesh, more paper, rocks and dirt, which, by the way, she’s already started to work on.

When we weren’t home, she would stay in the house. Before we would leave the house we took Winnie out in the backyard and run her legs off so she would be tired enough to take a nap.

This last step seemed like a good one until we came home to a chewed up Dish remote control and half-read paperback.  It was then we realized that Winnie’s separation anxiety issues were much deeper than originally thought.

We were left with two remaining choices: hire a doggy therapist or buy a crate.  Calculating the cost of these two options I hit the internet to learn how to crate train a wayward pup.  We purchased our crate and set out to save the world from mass destruction, at least our little corner of it.

I have become a firm believer in boundaries.  Winnie eats her meals in her crate, and she is confined there when there is no one home.  The wire crate has become a         

And to my delight and surprise, Winnie likes her new boundaries as much as I do.  She has a plethora of new chew toys, some of which hold hidden edible treasures to keep her busy while confined.  Winnie has even managed to find favor with Mr. Tommer. Yes, miracles do happen.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of the writers group. She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com

Lesson learned: dogs need boundaries, too

We recently made a move from a two-story house in Santa Clara Heights to a single story in St. George, for which my bad knees and neuropathetic feet are very grateful.

After moving we had to reinstate the drip system our Labrador puppy had dismantled at the Santa Clara house when she was a young one.  Winnie celebrated her first birthday last month, and has matured (or at least grown)…somewhat.

Little did we know that while we were repairing her masterpiece of a destruction job in Santa Clara, she was “remodeling” the back yard at the new house more to her liking.  Within a matter of days, Winnie managed to remove all of the drip hoses from the trees, frustrating but fixable.  She then went to work on the bigger job of disconnecting the main sprinkler lines from both the front and back yards.

This was quite a feat considering she had to locate the lines under dirt, rock and paper.  She has a very keen and precise sniffer.

Needless to say, my husband had had enough, and the order of the day was to find a new home for Winnie.  But there are not many folks who want to adopt a juvenile Lab who has a mind of her own and a seemingly less-than-teachable spirit.

Not willing to take her to an animal control shelter, we amended our thinking.  She was no longer allowed in the back yard unsupervised and she would make more trips to doggy daycare. We also reinforced our new sprinkler lines with a six-inch deep ditch, wire mesh, more paper, rocks and dirt, which, by the way, she’s already started to work on.

When we weren’t home, she would stay in the house. Before we would leave the house we took Winnie out in the backyard and run her legs off so she would be tired enough to take a nap.

This last step seemed like a good one until we came home to a chewed up Dish remote control and half-read paperback.  It was then we realized that Winnie’s separation anxiety issues were much deeper than originally thought.

We were left with two remaining choices: hire a doggy therapist or buy a crate.  Calculating the cost of these two options I hit the internet to learn how to crate train a wayward pup.  We purchased our crate and set out to save the world from mass destruction, at least our little corner of it.

I have become a firm believer in boundaries.  Winnie eats her meals in her crate, and she is confined there when there is no one home.  The wire crate has become a         

And to my delight and surprise, Winnie likes her new boundaries as much as I do.  She has a plethora of new chew toys, some of which hold hidden edible treasures to keep her busy while confined.  Winnie has even managed to find favor with Mr. Tommer. Yes, miracles do happen.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of the writers group. She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com

Santa Clara Kidnapping

The recent kidnapping of a young girl in Santa Clara has people talking.  Kids are talking at the schools.   People are talking in the Vent. Even The Spectrum & Daily News editorial board had their say on the topic. 

I’ve made a few observations of my own. First let me say to the victim, you are a very strong young woman.  You fought back and got yourself to safety.  That took a lot of guts. You chose not to be a victim. You go, girl! By taking charge of your situation and taking the opportunity to escape, you very well may have prevented these perpetrators from doing something else stupid.

Some have referred to this stunt as a prank, performed by otherwise innocent boys who don’t get into trouble.  Well, good boys don’t just randomly kidnap people. Even the victim’s father, under pressure from others I’m sure, referred to them as “good kids who made a huge mistake.” Seriously? It’s okay to be angry about this and to expect these “good kids” be held accountable to the extent of the law.

The victim has gone from enjoying a jog in her neighborhood to sleeping in her parents’ bedroom, and has not returned to school. It’s not just the trauma of the initial crime that she is dealing with. There are lasting ramifications.

Had that been my daughter, I would not be going from “furious” on the night of the incident to “I hope they realize their mistake someday” in a week’s time. There can be room for forgiveness and expectation for strong punishment to coexist.

 And why were they not held by authorities that night? If I received a call saying that my son was picked for locking a girl in the back of his truck and driving her around my first response would be keep him overnight and call me in the morning.  A night in detention would allow him to realize what a stupid thing he did, and allow me to cool down long enough to come up with a proper punishment. 

It would start with the relinquishment of his keys and the selling of his truck. Then it would move to a face-to-face apology to the victim and her family.  I would not consider asking them not to press charges.

I don’t care if these boys are the sons of the mayor, police chief, bishop, or judge. What they did was wrong. It wasn’t a prank, it was a crime.

Within a day or so a rape occurred on one of the walking trails nearby, and the perpetrator is still at large. People don’t just wake up one day and decide to be a rapist.  It starts out with behavior that is less aggressive.  Like, kidnapping, perhaps, that goes uncorrected. They get away with lesser crimes, either by having charges dropped or by not getting caught. Letting these boys off easy is not helping them.

 If you do the big-boy crime, you should do the big-boy time.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of the Spectrum and Daily News Writers Group.

Santa Clara Kidnapping

The recent kidnapping of a young girl in Santa Clara has people talking.  Kids are talking at the schools.   People are talking in the Vent. Even The Spectrum & Daily News editorial board had their say on the topic. 

I’ve made a few observations of my own. First let me say to the victim, you are a very strong young woman.  You fought back and got yourself to safety.  That took a lot of guts. You chose not to be a victim. You go, girl! By taking charge of your situation and taking the opportunity to escape, you very well may have prevented these perpetrators from doing something else stupid.

Some have referred to this stunt as a prank, performed by otherwise innocent boys who don’t get into trouble.  Well, good boys don’t just randomly kidnap people. Even the victim’s father, under pressure from others I’m sure, referred to them as “good kids who made a huge mistake.” Seriously? It’s okay to be angry about this and to expect these “good kids” be held accountable to the extent of the law.

The victim has gone from enjoying a jog in her neighborhood to sleeping in her parents’ bedroom, and has not returned to school. It’s not just the trauma of the initial crime that she is dealing with. There are lasting ramifications.

Had that been my daughter, I would not be going from “furious” on the night of the incident to “I hope they realize their mistake someday” in a week’s time. There can be room for forgiveness and expectation for strong punishment to coexist.

 And why were they not held by authorities that night? If I received a call saying that my son was picked for locking a girl in the back of his truck and driving her around my first response would be keep him overnight and call me in the morning.  A night in detention would allow him to realize what a stupid thing he did, and allow me to cool down long enough to come up with a proper punishment. 

It would start with the relinquishment of his keys and the selling of his truck. Then it would move to a face-to-face apology to the victim and her family.  I would not consider asking them not to press charges.

I don’t care if these boys are the sons of the mayor, police chief, bishop, or judge. What they did was wrong. It wasn’t a prank, it was a crime.

Within a day or so a rape occurred on one of the walking trails nearby, and the perpetrator is still at large. People don’t just wake up one day and decide to be a rapist.  It starts out with behavior that is less aggressive.  Like, kidnapping, perhaps, that goes uncorrected. They get away with lesser crimes, either by having charges dropped or by not getting caught. Letting these boys off easy is not helping them.

 If you do the big-boy crime, you should do the big-boy time.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of St. George and a member of the Spectrum and Daily News Writers Group.

Keep the Scriptures in proper context

At a recent prayer breakfast President Obama gave a speech on the need to help those who are less fortunate.  In the context of helping others he stated, “But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’ teaching that ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.’ It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who’ve been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others.”

The scripture he quoted can be found in Luke 12, verse 48.  Jesus is talking to his disciples about being watchful. He was paralleling his return with a parable about a servant who is given authority over his master’s dominion.  The King James Bible quotes this part of the verse as thus, “…for unto whom much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more.”

The New King James Version puts it like this, “for everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.” Looking at the verse Mr. Obama quoted we must ask ourselves, “much what?”  Mr. Obama used this verse to say that if you are given much prosperity then it should be shared with others. This was the main theme of his speech.  But upon further observation we see that what Jesus was talking about here was not things, money or possessions.  It was authority.  If your boss gives you authority over his business in his absence he expects you to do a good job. The context of this verse has nothing to do with the theme of Obama’s speech.

The high school and college kids I teach call me the “Queen of Context” because they know if they quote a verse, they better be able to give the context surrounding that verse.

We can all agree that it’s important to help our neighbors in need.  When we do that out of love for our neighbors, it’s a very good thing. I have not found anything in Scripture that says the government should be the middleman in that relationship. 

What is equally important is to know when someone is taking Scripture and twisting it out of context to make it say something it doesn’t.

On March 2 and 3 Precepts Upon Precepts training workshops will be held at St. George Community Church for those who are interested in studying the Bible for themselves. Learning to observe, interpret and apply what is learned helps us to instinctively know when Scripture is being misused. All are welcome to attend these workshops. Pre-registration is required. 

Mr. Obama stated in his speech that he wakes up each morning and “say(s) a brief prayer and spends a little time in Scripture.” I applaud his efforts. But if he’s going to quote Scripture, I suggest he watch his context.  

Rhonda Tommer is a member of The Spectrum and Daily News writers group and a resident of Santa Clara. She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com.

Abortion comes down to decisions

Sanctity of Life.  Do those words strike a nerve?  On January 22, as a nation, we acknowledged the 29^th year of celebrating the Sanctity of Human Life.   In 1983 former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop asked President Ronald Reagan to create a special day to focus on the intrinsic value of human life. That same year, President Reagan issued a proclamation establishing a National Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.

The idea came out of an organization, now known as Care Net, which is an international organization that provides support to the nation’s ever-growing number of life-affirming crisis pregnancy care centers.  Hope Pregnancy Care Center of St. George is a member of Care Net.

In President Reagan’s speech addressing SOHLS he acknowledged that more than 15 million unborn babies have died due to legalized abortion. In the year 2007, the last reporting year available, Centers for Disease Control reported that 827,609 legal abortions were performed (cdc.gov).

SOHLS has a special meaning to me because my son, Ryan, was born at 1:47 a.m. on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in 1990, weighing only 1090 grams (two pounds, six ounces).  He fought for his life, with help from a plethora of doctors, nurses and specialists. 

Ryan came home from the hospital 80 days later, just a week before his original due date, weighing only four-and-a-half pounds.  Over 80 thousand babies were aborted during the time that Ryan was in the hospital.

To date there have been more than 50 million legal abortions performed since the passing of Roe V. Wade. Some would say we don’t need 50 million more people in this country anyway.  But my point is, if those babies were unplanned to begin with, they should not have been conceived. There is no reason, with today’s methods of pregnancy prevention, that even one baby should be lost to abortion.  I support abstinence outside of marriage.  But those who don’t live by this moral conduct can go to any local store and find a myriad of contraceptives available.  Though not one is one-hundred-percent effective, a combination of more than one method can prevent pregnancy.

Abortion is not just a moral issue. It’s a question of good discernment.  We take precautions everyday in life to avoid negative consequences. If we don’t want a speeding ticket we don’t speed.  If we don’t want to get lung cancer we don’t smoke.  If we don’t want to fly through a windshield in an accident, we were a seatbelt. 

Why should unplanned pregnancy be any different?  Again, I am one-hundred percent in favor of abstinence outside of marriage.  You might not be. And that’s okay.  But can you agree with me that abortion would be totally unnecessary if precautions were taken?

I’m not addressing the moral issue of sex outside of marriage. I can’t do that in 500 words.  I’m simply stating that with today’s technology there is no reason for almost a million babies to be aborted every year. Abortion always leaves one dead and at least another one wounded.

Rhonda Tommer is a resident of Santa Clara and a member of The Spectrum and Daily News Writers Group.  She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com.

Hostility can drag down your health

One of the most amusing things I do in a given week is to read The Vent in this newspaper.  If you want a feel for how your neighbors are feeling on a given subject, spend a few minutes in this most informative section of the paper.

According to contributors of the vent the city’s purchase of a merry-go-round was a waste of city money and was good for the city to invest in.  Bicyclists are lawbreakers and motorists don’t give bicyclists a break.  The speed limits of some roads are too low, and yet on those same roads they should be lower. 

There are too many motorists who run red lights, don’t use their turn signals and talk too much on the phone while driving.  Police are pulling over law abiding motorists when they should be out catching criminals.

The powers that be need to fix the roads, yet there are too many roads under construction.  We need slow down the growth Washington County and we need to improve the infrastructure so the community can grow. 

Yep, if you want to put your finger on the pulse of what’s important in Washington County just read The Vent. I particularly like the comments that start out with, “To the guy who…” or “to the driver of the…” I presume that if we were required to put our names on our comments there would be fewer people ranting about what displeases them the most.

The Vent gives a good sampling of some of the negative emotions that run deep in our community.  For every page of complaints we will find two or three “Kind Thoughts.” 

I recently finished reading my new favorite book, Deadly Emotions by Don Colbert, M.D.  By using his own patients as examples, Dr. Colbert makes a good argument for the need to “understand the mind-body-spirit connection that can heal or destroy” us, as his subtitle suggests.

He makes a good case for how anger and hostility can be closely related to hypertension and coronary artery disease; resentment and bitterness can bring about autoimmune disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and multiple sclerosis; or how anxiety can produce panic attacks and heart palpitations. Repressed anger could cause migraines, TMJ, Fibromyalgia and other chronic pain.

As I and others in a book discussion group dissected this book it became very obvious that negative emotions could prove to be at the very least physically debilitating.

Anonymously writing to the paper when we get bent out of shape could mean that there’s an anger issue that needs to be addressed.

Prolonged stress and the inability to relax is another topic addressed by Dr. Colbert. As a society we need to learn to relax.

I will continue to be amused by The Vent each week. But I would enjoy seeing a whole page of “Kind Thoughts” and fewer negative comments.

Now, to the guys riding their bikes on Red Hills Parkway: There’s no bike lane during construction.  Are you trying to get yourselves run over?

Rhonda Tommer is a member of The Spectrum and Daily News writers group and a resident of Santa Clara.  She can be reached at r.tommer.writersgroup@gmail.com