We hope that today’s “READERS FORUM” will provoke honest and open dialogue concerning issues that we, as responsible citizens of this community, need to address in a rational and responsible way? 

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND TODAY?

Todays“Readers Poll” question is:  Are you excited about the diverse group of individuals running for a seat on the 2019 City Council?

Please go to our link of our media partner Channel 44 News located in the upper right-hand corner of the City-County Observer so you can get the up-to-date news, weather, and sports.

If you would like to advertise on the CCO please contact us at City-County Observer@live.com

FOOTNOTE:  Any comments posted in this column do not represent the views or opinions of the City-County Observer or our advertisers.

Dear EVSC School Board members, Vanderburgh County Commissioners, and Vanderburgh County Council,

On behalf of the Tri-State Alliance, I am writing to you about EVPL’s Drag Queen Story Hour.

I view this as an issue of censorship. Some members of the community are trying to limit what library programs are available to the public. It is similar to banning books. As an EVPL patron, I have a choice of what books I read and what programs I attend. However, it is not my right to decide what books other patrons are allowed to read and what programs others are allowed to attend.

In one of the media articles, I read that some elected officials feel like this program is dividing the community. Actually, there is a segment of the community fighting a cultural war saying the LGBTQ communities are not welcome here. It is the same people who have been saying the same thing for decades.

Some Christians oppose Santa Clause, stating it takes away from the reason for the season. My pastor does Santa Clause Story Hour at the EVPL locations. Those who oppose the character Santa Clause do not try to stop other parents from bringing their kids to the event. They just don’t take their kids.

The same is true for Halloween. Some Christians oppose the celebration of Halloween. But do we end Halloween events at EVPL, or do we let parents choose what programs to take their kids to?

What is different about this program? Those doing the reading are from the LGBTQ communities. So this is being used as a way to attack the LGBTQ community. Opponents are stating this will influence kids to be LGBTQ, and implies that being LGBTQ is bad. And opponents are sexualizing kids story hour.

What is, in fact, truth is that most people, including elected officials, have LGBTQ friends, family, and Co-workers. The demonizing of LGBTQ citizens isn’t working anymore, at least for most people.

There are 2 major petitions online about this issue. Close to 3,000 have signed a petition against this event. Close to 5,000 have signed the petition in support of this event. I am sure both petitions have people who live outside our area …. and the petition against the event allows ‘anonymous’ signers. What does this mean? I believe it means most residents of Vanderburgh County don’t care one way or the other. I also read that 2 speakers at a Vanderburgh County Commissioners meeting opposed this program. I suggest that 2 speakers do not represent a majority of Vanderburgh County.

Discussions of banning a book, banning a program, eliminating funding for libraries or firing a librarian for reaching out to the community will help us make national news. It will make us a bad example on the issue of censorship and discrimination.

E is for everyone is Evansville’s slogan. Is Vanderburgh County Government going to call out the mayor and disagree with this slogan? I hope not.

I urge you not to support censorship. I urge you not to support discrimination. And I urge you not to use inflammatory language that refers to drag queens as the same as prostitutes. Please remember that you are talking about taxpayers and yes voters. People can disagree, but the level of dialogue about this issue has sunk to a new low in Vanderburgh County.

We can and should do better. Thanks for your attention and consideration.

Sincerely,

Wally Paynter, President
Tri-State Alliance
501 John Street Suite 5
Evansville IN 47713
812-480-0204, WallyPaynter@aol.com
http://tsagl.org/
https://www.facebook.com/tristatealliance/

The Internet: Blessings, Courtesy of the Free Market

By Richard Moss, MD

 It is an astonishing time we live in although it is easy enough to take it for granted. Most people would not appreciate that the poorest American today lives a far better and more comfortable life than the richest American a hundred years ago. By any measure: life expectancy, health, access to sophisticated technology including life-saving medical devices and pharmaceuticals, handy comforts and devices, food, clothing, heating, cooling, electricity, lights, refrigeration, transportation, powerful computers that the poorest among us now hold in our hands, and so on, speak to an endlessly transformative economic system known as the free market, which continues to dazzle and improve our lives.

One of the greatest of these developments has been the internet. Overnight, as it were, untold volumes of information have become available to us at virtually no cost, with the click of a finger on a smart device or another computer. There are many benefits to this, but one of the most important is the ease with which any of us can start a business, an online business, with relatively minimal costs: a domain, hosting service, and website; then marketing your product online, through social media, email, and so forth, and, of course, monetizing it in some way, if possible, generally by deploying good and appealing content, goods, and services – on a steady basis.

None of this is terribly costly, just time, labor, imagination, and marketing.  But contemplate the price tag in starting a business pre-internet. It would require an office, phone and fax lines, furniture, printers, employees, rent, insurance, equipment, supplies, advertising, and so on: the expense and overhead would put it out of reach for many if not most people, regardless of how creative the business idea or content might have been.

Writers, columnists, novelists, bloggers, commentators, essayists, fiction, non-fiction, professional, trade, artistic, fantasy, have opportunities to develop, promote, and publish their work with an ease that would have been unreachable to writers of yesteryear – and in any genre or style: a plethora of subjects, perspectives, styles, and agendas that would have been unthinkable before. It is a new writer’s market that, thanks to American ingenuity and the free enterprise system, any such vagabond scribe can now join.

The writer’s journey can be taken by anyone with the will, wit, skill, and desire to ascend it. Or any business or creative journey for that matter. The world has opened.

FOOTNOTE: Dr. Richard Moss is a board certified head and neck cancer surgeon and was a candidate for Congress in 2016 and 2018. He graduated from the Indiana University School of Medicine and has been in practice in Jasper and Washington, IN for over 20 years. He is married with four children.  

Dr. Moss is the author of “A Surgeon’s Odyssey” and “Matilda’s Triumph” available on amazon.com and at Barnes and Noble in Evansville, IN.  For more information visit richardmossmd.com.  Find Richard Moss, M.D. on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.