Letters to the Editor - Dec. 21, 2012 » Viewpoints

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December 21, 2012

Letters to the Editor - Dec. 21, 2012

Anonymous Weatherford Democrat The Weatherford Democrat Fri Dec 21, 2012, 03:41 AM CST

Crossroads needs your help

Dear Editor,

My name is Jeff Johnson and I am the director of Crossroads Youth Ministries of Parker County Inc. We are a small organization that works with youth throughout the county who are struggling to experience success and stability.

“As a faith based organization the mission of Crossroads Youth Ministries of Parker County Inc. is to model and teach life skills within an ethical and moral framework to today’s challenged youth, so that they will be equipped to become successful and productive members of society.”

We currently have the funds to operate through the next 21 days and then services will immediately cease. Without your generous donation the 352 at-risk youth we currently serve will no longer receive services from Crossroads. There are no other organizations that provide academic mentoring, community outreach, meals, life skills groups and individual skill development activities. Without these services this particular population becomes more and more susceptible to negative peer pressure, delinquent behavior, drugs and alcohol abuse, gang involvement and violent behavior.

We are in desperate need of raising $50,000 immediately. Please help us with a generous donation now.

Unless we garner greater support from around Parker County, we will not be here next year (or next month). This is a hard reality we must face. It is with this in mind that I am reaching out to all of you.

Our services are changing lives, I can attest to this with utmost confidence.

I pray that you will see the potential in all youth regardless of how they look, where they live, or how they act. As a faith-based organization it is our goal to create opportunities for youth to experience success, love, and to realize God’s divine grace that has been laid out for them.

To make a donation visit the Crossroads Youth Ministries of Parker County Inc. website at crossroads-wfd.org and click on the DONATE button. Or checks can be mailed to our physical address at 318 West Spring St., Weatherford, TX 76086.

Your support is much appreciated.

Sincerely,

Jeff Johnson, executive director, Crossroads Youth Ministries of Parker County, Inc.

Better ways to save lives

Dear Editor,

The gun rights and doomsday preppers are very closely related. Both are based on irrational fear and thoughtless solutions.

I always tell my survivalist, doomsdays friends they should buy a lot of ammo and to shoot slowly, because I’m old and slow, but I will be just another of that 6.5 million starving, well-armed North Texas mob listening for gunfire to tell me where the last food and ammo is stored.

If law, order and civilization should ever break down, no person or group will be spared from destruction. All the guns, bunkers and preparation will be like putting on mosquito repellant in an elephant stampede. The only real protection is to prevent the stampede.

The most detached from reality among the gun crowd are the ones who believe they need weapons to fight their own government. Generally, people who think they could resist a modern military have no idea of the capability of that military. They have a Hollywood version of reality with slow moving zombies or house to house small arms combat that no modern military leader would engage in with so many other options available. What really protects our freedom and civilization is a dedication to human rights and peaceful informed political activities.

If you want to actually save millions of lives, demand we stop destroying the environment that makes life possible and use the power of government to stop the cultivation and distribution of tobacco. It kills more people every year than all the accidents, wars, murders and drugs combined. A small step toward sanity.

Respectfully,

Dennis Tilly, Weatherford

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