Letters to the Editor

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Reader: Time to spice up homilies and petitions

Nowadays, in my opinion, homilies are weak.

Just a repeat of the readings, same old, same old.

Homilies need to inform us of modern-day sins and then how to combat them. In other words, scare the devil out of us.

Something else needs to be spiced up: the petitions. Most petitions now are so soft they lull you to sleep. We need to add:

• Respect for life.

• Victims of weather-related disasters.

• Favorable weather for farmers and gardeners.

I know the Catholic Church was totally against the Iraq war because it was not a just war. Now we have to pray for a quick and peaceful end to it.

One more thing: We have so many immoral laws in this great land. Don’t you think we should be praying for the conversion of the United States like we used to pray for the conversion of Russia?

- Al Scheller, Elizabethtown

Food stamp challenges need more attention

I would like to make a comment about the article which appeared on page 1 in the June 1 issue of The Criterion concerning the members of Congress who lived on food stamps for a week.

I am a mother of two. I am married, and my family receives food stamps.

Does the government and the rest of the country and its leaders realize that spaghetti and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches get old really quickly?

Secondly, people are more healthy when they receive a variety of foods, and with what little we get, you can’t buy the appropriate foods to help your children grow and develop correctly.

Yeah, sure, you can buy a month’s worth of frozen TV dinners for four people for $40 and lunch meat is cheap, too, but come on, honestly, can you really provide a wide range of meals with that?

No. You can’t buy fresh fruits, decent cuts of meat or healthy snacks and drinks. If you did do that, you would be out of your food stamps in one week rather than getting 31 days of good healthy food.

I think people need to make a bigger deal about this issue. One week of government leaders trying out what I go through every month, please, that is just an insult and a slap in the face.

Let’s see them eat Spam and Banquet pot pies for months out. See what they say then! Please, with your help, could we make this a bigger deal?

It needs to be brought to the rest of America’s attention.

- Neallie Knox, Martinsville