Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

Every two seconds someone in our country needs a blood transfusion.

Like the emergency room of a hospital, the American Red Cross needs to be prepared to respond to patient emergencies 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Right here in the Greater Alleghenies Blood Services Region, the Red Cross must collect approximately 5,000 blood and platelet donations each week to meet the everyday needs of patients at area hospitals.

Who receives the blood products so generously donated by Red Cross blood donors?

About 18 percent of blood products are transfused to patients undergoing care for cancer, including leukemia and lymphoma. Patients experiencing gastrointestinal blood loss unrelated to cancer receive approximately 15 percent of blood products. Those undergoing orthopedic or urological surgery receive about 14 percent of blood products. Two groups -- those undergoing other surgeries and those with anemia other than cancer-related -- each receive 13 percent of transfusions. Trauma patients receive approximately 12 percent of blood products and cardiac care patients 11 percent.

Each day approximately 44,000 units of blood must be donated to meet such needs experienced by patients in the United States.

For additional information about blood donation or to make a donor appointment, call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or visit redcrossblood.org.

Dr. John B. Nobiletti
Medical Director
American Red Cross
Blood Services
Greater Alleghenies
Blood Services Region
250 Jari Drive
Johnstown
Feb. 1, 2012

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

There is not one individual reading this letter who has not been touched by cancer, either personally, a loved one, friend or family member.

2012 celebrates the 17th year for Relay For Life in Shenandoah County and there will be a new team this year.

An organizational meeting to form a community Relay For Life team will be held Monday, Feb. 13, at 7 p.m. in the Community Center room at Queen Street Station, next door to the Strasburg Diner.

A team of individuals experienced in leading the St. Paul Relay For Life Team, who will be joining in the community team, will be on hand to offer guidance. Information on "where our dollars go" will be available, as well as information about services provided by funding in our own Shenandoah County.

Please come. Join us in our fight against this dreaded disease. If you have questions, feel free to contact me at kjmm@shentel.net or call me at 465-8459.

We are all in this together, and we all have our personal reasons of why I relay. Ask me my reasons.

Kitty Miller
Co-chair
Shenandoah County Relay For Life
234 S. Massanutten St.
Strasburg
Feb. 7, 2012

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

Mr. VanDeGriek (letter, Jan. 6 issue): Dictionary: "hoax -- intention to deceive, a trick or serious fraud"; "fraud -- deliberate deception, trickery, or serious deception for personal gain."

Piltdown Man was claimed to be the missing link until proven a hoax. You place blame and motive without proof. Peking Man (Wikepedia): skull fragments, lower jawbones, many teeth, few bones; touted to be missing link. Not even a whole man. Dated by systems currently proven wrong. All of which, conveniently, disappeared. It cannot now be subjected to "carefully designed experiments." See "Evolution: Fact or Belief" available on YouTube.

Dictionary: "miracle -- an event that appears unexplainable by laws of nature and is held to be supernatural in nature or an act of God." Nowhere does it say "myth." Both Juan Diego's tilma in Mexico City and the shroud of Christ in Turin, Italy, have been subjected to "carefully defined experiments." They are publicly displayed. Tilma reflects Juan Diego in the Virgin Mary's eyes. The shroud is a negative picture. Even today, there is no technology to reproduce these.

You call me ignorant and arrogant for accepting miracles and questioning Darwin's evolution theory. What are you for accepting Peking Man with no scientific proof?

Darwin traveled five years around the world, finding different flora, fauna, animals, in different places. The people all stood erect, talked, used available materials to provide homes and food for themselves. Nothing proved life started in the sea, crawled on land, stood like apes, then stood erect. His book is a theory with no "carefully designed experiments" behind it.

Because evolutionists control academia they fire scientists who mention intelligent design. George Mason fired a tenured professor for this. I urge you to get Ben Stein's "Expelled" DVD and Illustrated Media's "Intelligent Design Trilogy" showing current experiments disproving evolution. Doug Aux of the Discovery Institute in Seattle says one cell needs 260 proteins, which has one in a trillion, trillion, trillion chances of coming together in a primordial pool.

So if you believe your ancestors came from apes, that's your right. I know my ancestors stood erect in the garden of Eden and that's my right.

ILLEEN RENINGER
20 Gloucester Road
Front Royal
Jan. 26, 2012

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

In response to Gene Rigelon's letter (Feb. 1 issue):

Mr. Rigelon, you may have found that "happier way" when you "rejected the "theistic conception of God," but it was not by rejecting the God of the Bible, or his son.

They are not responsible for the evils that you write about in your letters. Those who perpetrate these evils do so in disobedience to them. Those who obey them do "respect the dignity of all people, even those whose lifestyle they disagree with." We are taught in God's word to "do good unto all men" (Galatians 6:10).

Humanists sometimes do bad things, too (humanists are humans, after all). So it is illogical and hypocritical for them to reject God because those who follow (or at least claim to follow) him often do bad things.

We do not reject "gay marriage" solely because we find homosexuality "an abomination, and disagree with what others do in their bedrooms." We reject the redefinition of "family" being perpetrated by the homosexual movement. We reject the attempts to abandon the historic and biblical definition of marriage acknowledged almost universally throughout world history. We realize that such redefinition will undermine the very foundations of human civilization and has already begun to do so.

You are right. We have no right to force our religion on others. Neither do humanists have the right to force their religion on others. Charles Francis Potter, signer of the Humanist Manifesto and author of "Humanism: A New Religion," wrote, "Education is the most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American public school is a school of Humanism. What can the theistic Sunday Schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?"

Humanistic teachings permeate public schools. Christian teachings are banned. The "refusal clause in the 'Affordable Health Care Act,'" forces religious organizations to do things that violate their religious teachings and conscience. These are two of many examples of humanism forcing its religion on others.

L. John Bost
367 Lee St.
Strasburg
Feb. 6, 2012

Editor's note: The following letter is a shortened version of an essay by a student in a junior AP English class at Handley High School. The complete essay is posted at www.nvdaily.com/opinion.

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

Distracted driving was the cause of almost 5,500 deaths and half a million injuries in 2009. While texting is not the only type of distracted driving, it is an important component of it. But with proper law enforcement, texting would solely be a way to keep in touch with friends, instead of doubling as one of the leading causes of death and injuries from automobile crashes.

To decrease distracted driving deaths, texting while driving should be a primary offense in all 50 states. Currently, 35 states ban texting while driving, and in 32 of those states it is a primary offense. Yet eight states are left with no type of restriction on texting behind the wheel and in three states, including Virginia, texting while driving is only a secondary enforcement. This means that police cannot pull over drivers for texting while driving unless they are also violating a primary enforcement law.

Many underestimate how greatly a driver's ability is impaired when texting behind the wheel. A University of Utah study found that using a cell phone delays a driver's reactions so much that it is equivalent to a blood alcohol level content of .08 percent, the legal limit.

While many question the success of harsher laws for texting while driving, both historical evidence and new studies prove the benefits provided by stricter laws.

Historical evidence is provided by the seat-belt campaign, which became effective when the slogan was changed from "Buckle Up for Safety" to "Click it or Ticket." Also, two pilot studies conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Syracuse, N.Y., and Hartford, Conn., which combined stricter laws, high-visibility enforcement by police and public education campaigns, showed drastic reductions in distracted driving.

In conclusion, making texting a primary offense in all 50 states would be beneficial to all. Accidents that result in expensive repairs, injuries and even death could be easily prevented.

A 120-character text is not worth a life. It is time to make texting while driving a primary offense in all 50 states.

Anna Mueller
945 Meadow Court
Winchester
Jan. 12, 2012

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

I am a retired Army NCO and, as such, the letter by a retired Army officer (Robert Thomas, Feb. 3 issue) had a special meaning to me.

During my years of service I met many officers, all created by an act of Congress. Most of them knew the meaning of true leadership, but there were a few whose style of leadership depended solely on that act of Congress and nothing more.

Unfortunately, a few carry this trait over into civilian life when they retire. They confuse their Army experience, where they led only by an act of Congress, and the civilian political life where we, the electorate, decide who will serve in Congress and make known to them through our votes and other means what we wish for them to do while in office. If this is contrary to what the president and other members of Congress want, so be it. That's the way our democracy works.

Bob Goodlatte has served in Congress for a good many years and has won many re-elections. The reason why is simple. He understands the desires and needs of the majority of us, his constituents, and leads and votes in Congress to support us, not politicians whose policies are diametrically opposed to our best interests.

What the middle class -- and the whole country for that matter -- needs is more people like Bob Goodlatte in Congress and a president who will lead this country back to prosperity and away from the present deficit socialist agenda.

Howard Fenton
435 Indian Spring Road
Woodstock
Feb. 3, 2012

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

I agree with retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro when he offered his views on the U.S.'s Republican presidential primaries and I quote, "The greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been."

I hope you Republicans who think it's big to say "I voted for the party," instead of what is better for your country, will have the good sense not to vote for one of these idiots.

JUNE CULLERS
346 W. 11th St.
Front Royal
Feb. 6, 2012

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

Several leading citizens of Mt. Jackson have asked me to run for re-election to a seat on the Town Council. Following up their requests, I've discussed re-election with many trusted and knowledgeable folks in town. Each and every one has told me to "stay on council."

Today I've submitted my declaration of candidacy to the Shenandoah County general registrar to be on the May 1 ballot.

In the past four years Mt. Jackson has seen:

• Completion of the community park north of our town hall. Didn't the Christmas decorations look especially lovely this year?

• Completion and dedication of the Veterans Memorial Park. Each and every day, I see another family stopping by to pay their respects.

• Installation of new, safer sidewalks in the historic district. (No, we are not finished. More work is to be done, but we have a good start.)

• Installation of a new and safer kids' playground at Lyon's Park. (This project received generous civic donations.)

• Completion of a $6 million wastewater treatment plant. Having a state-of-the-art plant facilitated the Bowman-Andoros expansion and their new projects.

• Recognition in a cover story in Virginia Town and City Magazine, featuring the town's decade of renovation and progress.

Now that we have completed so many renovations, we can start looking to future Mt. Jackson projects and issues.

In my mind the biggest opportunity is the southern I-81 interchange. This remains one of the last undeveloped interchanges in the Northern Shenandoah Valley. We have a real opportunity to turn this into a landmark tourist welcoming area.

No immediate big development plans are under way, but this site has great possibilities and needs encouragement, coupled with careful guidance.

What you have not seen in Mt. Jackson in the past four years is the hateful, vengeful, partisan bickering that contaminates the Washington and Richmond elected environment. Our council conducts the town's business in a quiet, positive, professional atmosphere. I want to keep it that way.

Rod Shepherd
117 Bridge St.
Mt. Jackson
Feb. 9, 2012

Editor
Northern Virginia Daily

Sir:

We have a shortage of specialized health care in Shenandoah County. My wife and I, for example, have to travel about 60 miles round trip between Woodstock and Winchester.

We are being treated by specialist doctors as follows: dermatologists, eye retina specialist, breast cancer specialist, lung specialist and aneurysm surgeon.

Further, this area needs a gastroenterologist, neurologist and an endocrinologist.

We need a medical building to house doctor offices, too.

VINCENT DECERBO
203B Southridge Court
Woodstock
Feb. 8, 2012

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