The Readers' Forum: Friday letters

Moral high ground

According to the Bible, Pontius Pilate claimed the moral high ground and washed his hands of any blame for the persecution of Christ. Given that famous precedent, is there any wonder that the president of the United States, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are claiming the moral high ground for themselves and preparing to throw four young combat Marines under the bus ("Video called 'deplorable,' " Jan. 13)?

Marines may take justified pride in having each other's back, but they had better learn not look to their commanders to do the same.

Semper Fi!

ROSS MECHAM

Winston-Salem

Boo Pitts

Why did the federal government spend the latter part of the 19th century enacting and enforcing laws against polygamy?

According to columnist Leonard Pitts ("A loud, vigorous 'Boo!' to Rick Santorum," Jan. 16), "there is not and never has been a large culture of people who felt biologically driven toward polygamous behavior."

So, if polygamy was not a problem, why enact laws against it, and why were Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona required by the federal government to incorporate anti-polygamy provisions into their constitutions as a condition for admission to the Union?

Why does Pitts need to ignore the facts, and why does he resort to name-calling (bigot) in his bias against conservatism and Rick Santorum?

RALPH HOLLAND

Advance

Sum It Up

The Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Do you think the state legislature should approve in their session beginning in May $50,000 for each living victim of the North Carolina's forced sterilization program?

I think the N.C. state legislature should approve the $50,000 compensation for the living victims of our state's forced sterilization program. The N.C. General Assembly had no problem approving $25 million for a fishing pier in one of the more affluent communities in our state this past year, and these victims deserve some type of compensation for the horrible injustice they suffered.

SUZANNE CARROLL

Pandora's box will be opened!

DONALD R. CREWS

No. While what happened is so hurtful and emotionally damaging, there are better and more meaningful ways to apologize. Health care, a memorial, a program in every school that teaches our children what happened and instills in their minds the intrinsic value of every life. Let's get creative in our efforts to respect and honor those who were harmed, and to make sure it never happens again.

It would be one thing if the actual perpetrators could be prosecuted, but what this "compensation" suggestion does is further drain coffers that are running on borrowed fumes already (see any number of articles in the newspaper just last week). Money will not heal hearts — only forgiveness can do that.

RUTH MAGERS

Yes, considering the ignorance of the folks who imposed their foolish notion upon the victims, $50,000 is a minimum.

The writer of the letter "Sense in compensation" (Jan. 15) has excellent suggestions regarding how the awards should be administered.

KENNETH B. SCALF

Of course! We found the money somewhere to sterilize them, we must now find the money to at least say we're (the state is) sorry.

KAM BENFIELD

The idea of payment to the sterilization victims, like the discussions of reparations for slavery, is a knee-jerk reaction to something that, while reprehensible in today's society, was legal when done.

So the questions remains, what is to be done and by whom? Having the state pay this out of revenues means that people who were not even alive and/or living in North Carolina will be paying this with no say in the matter. It means innocent people are paying the fines of the "guilty."

Assuming the governor and legislature in power at that time won't be held financially accountable since they, too, may be deceased or are immune to litigation, then I suggest we allow the people of North Carolina be given the option to designate part of their 2011 taxes toward paying this. Take the money out of the government budget and do not raise taxes.

The government did this, and the government needs to pay the price and suffer the consequences.

KEN HOGLUND

As I see it, there is no amount of money that can compensate those affected for the terrible things that were done to them without their consent. Having said that, before we can make an intelligent statement on this subject, we need many answers.

CATHERINE W. PITTS