Regarding Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen's plan to have religion play a bigger role in state government, I'm sure he's talking about his own religion, an extreme fundamentalist brand of Bible-based Christianity.  I deduce this by his eagerness to verbally demonize important values our republic's founders put into motion, particularly those which guarantee individual freedom of conscience with regards to religious belief, a snowballing mantra of the far right.  It makes me wonder how long it will take Wisconsin citizens and voters to wake up to just how hazardous going down this road can be.
      Surely, providing prisoners access upon request to faith-based counsel may well aid in their rehabilitation.  But it would be unwise and imprudent to expect Wisconsin taxpayers to foot the bill for clergy and churches to set up shop in state facilities for the purpose of proselytizing to a captive audience.
      I must question what good the Speaker or anyone thinks will come from pressuring prisoners to subscribe to a theology that sometimes blesses and then magically forgives reprehensible acts against their neighbors and paints the grimmest of possible futures awaiting humanity. 
     Heaven help the poor atheist or agnostic, or any minority sect, who must go before a parole board without a state-authorized clergyman's blessing clearly stamped in the appropriate box.
     And the same goes for "charitable choice," faith-based organizations contracting with the state to administer social services, another pursuit of Speaker Jensen.  Doesn't he realize that ninety-nine percent of the time welfare recipients are already religious?
     The hazard lies with the potential that ninety-eight percent of the time the social services recipient's religious beliefs may not match those of the provider.  Who can doubt that with the opportunity will come the pressure by what will be state-sponsored religious institutions to convert welfare recipients to the beliefs of the provider, potentially adding insult to injury.
     I have no doubt that Speaker Jensen views our state established institutions as fertile mission fields for his narrow brand of theocratic fundamentalism and desires to wipe out constitutional separation of religion and government.  His pandering to other religions is only a ploy to overthrow secularism.  Whether Wisconsin's remaining freedom-loving Christians, many of whom already serve in state government, are wise enough, fast enough, and numerous enough to head him off remains to be seen.

- Dennis Coyier

    Ladies and gentlemen: Wear sunscreen.
    If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
    Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded.
    But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.
    Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.
    Do one thing every day that scares you.
    Sing
    Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
    Floss.
    Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.
    The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.
    Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
    Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
    Stretch.
    Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.
    Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.
    Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.
   Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.
    Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.
    Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
    Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
    Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
    Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good.
    Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
    Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
    Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.
    Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.
    Travel.
    Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.
    Respect your elders.
    Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
    Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.
    Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it.
    Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
    But trust me on the sunscreen.

- Mary Schmich Chicago Tribune June 1, 1997  click here to see original

    A news item that appeared in the September 10 edition of The Dawn group of newspapers, published in Pakistan, reported that "a court sentenced a Shia youth to death on a charge of blaspheming the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH -- Peace Be Unto Him)." 
    According to the news item, Ghulam Akbar, 25, "is the first Muslim to be sentenced to death under the blasphemy law." 
    Pakistani Roman Catholic Bishop Anthony Lobo has noted that 42 non-Muslims have been sentenced to death for either blaspheming the Prophet or the Koran. Now, a Muslim has been sentenced to death for an offense which the late Robert G. Ingersoll called "an epithet bestowed by superstition upon common sense." (India Abroad; August 21, 1998).

- Robert E. Nordlander 
nord@powernetonline.com