Letters to Editor

Dear Terry,

I was both disgusted and saddened by Charles Garrett's submission to last week's Liberal "Can Muslims Be Good Americans?" This article asserts that Muslims cannot be good American citizens due to certain "facts" about Islamic beliefs. I want to assure your readers that all of these socalled "facts" are either taken out of context or completely untrue.

I completely support the publication of different opinions; however, this article is not simply an opinion, but rather a pointed attack on the Muslim community in the United States. What is more abhorrent is that it clearly tries to breed hatred and contempt among your readers towards another group of people, simply because their religion is different from Christianity.

How much longer is the Liberal going to publish this kind of racist slander? Can you not see that this is the same kind of misinformation that the Nazis used to turn public sentiment against the Jews in pre-war Germany? Will you turn your back when a Muslim woman is harassed or beaten in front of her children for simply wearing a head scarf? Will you label as anti-American the thousands of Muslim men and women who have fought and died wearing the uniform of the US military?

At your (or any reader's) invitation, I will submit a supplementary article exposing each and every fallacy in Mr. Garrett's submission for the fear-mongering garbage that it is. Since I doubt that I will be given that opportunity, readers, please do not give in to the hate of prejudice by reading or supporting further articles of this sort.

Sincerely,

Dr. Robin A. Fazio

Dear Terry,

As a taxpayer and a member of the Miller County Library Board, I want to alert the people of Miller County to the recent action taken by your favorite group, the Miller County Board of Education.

As you recall, the tentative budget set by the Board of Education was published in the August 29th edition of the Liberal. In this budget, the local library is listed as a separate line item with an anticipated revenue/expenditure of $99,000. The Board of Education has served as a tax-collecting agent for the local library since 1994, and the library board was assured by Superintendent Phillips that this year would be no different.

Then I received a call on Wednesday afternoon, September 5, informing me that Superintendent Phillips had brought the letter sent to him in April with the library's budget request to the Miller County Commissioners' office. According to the office staff, Mr. Phillips stated that the Board of Education met on Tuesday night, September 4, and three members voted to take the library out of its final budget. However, I do not think that the total amount of the budget was decreased! In other words, the board of education kicked the library out and kept the $99,000!

The library board and the people of Miller County were in a critical situation. With no funding, Miller County would be the only county in Georgia without a public library! Thanks to the leadership of Barbie Womble, an emergency meeting was called for Friday night, September 7. Representatives from the Library Board, Board of Education, Board of Commissioners and City Council were asked to come together to work out a viable and timely solution to the funding issue.

After much discussion and in the absence of representatives from the Board of Education, the library board voted to ask the Board of Commissioners to put the public library on the tax bill as a "special district"; information about this process should be in this edition.

Terry, I want to thank the taxpayers for their support of the library in the past and ask for their understanding when the new tax bills are received. I also want to thank the members of the Board of Commissioners and City Council for their assistance to the library board. These leaders recognize that the public library has been a vital part of Miller County for decades! I am proud to be associated with the James W. Merritt, Jr. Memorial Library and its continuing efforts to make us a more literate community.

Jo S. Davis