Readers Write (Sept. 5): Gay and Catholic, urban violence, evolution, God, 9/11

A simple thank you is hardly enough for Ron Bates' eloquent Sept. 1 commentary ("I tried for years to pray the gay away"). It is difficult to imagine anyone who is still "stuck in neutral" on this issue after reading his piece.

Individuals in families, schools, workplaces and churches should be motivated and mobilized to support those whose life stories are just as compelling as the one written by Bates.

By doing nothing in support of the gay community, we are allowing more lives to suffer this pain and isolation.

Guilt and shame should not be words that Bates has to use to describe his orientation, but should be applied to those who do nothing to encourage understanding and acceptance.

SHARYN HOLCOMB, MAHTOMEDI

* * *

Regarding Gary Marvin Davison's Aug. 31 commentary ("Don't weep at urban violence; prevent it with better schools"): I have been an education activist since 1995, when I discovered that my daughter, who had been educated in a highly rated suburban public school system and was nearing the end of fourth grade, could not write a coherent paragraph or tell me what country she lived in.

Most of the American public doesn't care about education, otherwise we would already have great schools, wouldn't we?

Editorial complaints and vague calls for improvement like Davison's are utterly naive. For example, Davison claims that teachers tend to come from other disciplines "rather than from departments of education.

Teachers too often see themselves as classroom facilitators, rather than as expert conveyors of solid knowledge and skills." How wrong he is. Nobody encourages teachers to be "facilitators" more than teachers colleges.

I doubt that you could get hired in most schools today if you claimed to hold any other view.

Improve the schools? If we eliminated them entirely, we'd probably do better left to our own devices.

* * *

Yet another reader claims to refute evolution as a science by misrepresenting both evolution and science. He argues in an Aug. 30 letter that "the idea of evolutionism is to place different life forms side by side and show how each successive level is more adaptable than the previous one. This represents a 'juxtaposition fallacy.'"

This is gibberish. Evolution, grossly simplified, is the change over successive generations in the inherited traits of populations of a species, and a study of the mechanisms that cause those traits to change. There is no "juxtaposition fallacy" in this.

The reader further writes that "where it is unobservable, it may still be considered a construction of the mind --a theory." More nonsense. Evolution, like any scientific theory, is grounded in empirical observation.

Furthermore, as has been pointed out innumerable times, the word "theory" in the context of science does not mean a conjecture, as it does in common usage. In science, a theory -- again grossly simplified -- is a body of principles and observations constructed to explain a class of observable phenomena.

KEN BAKER, SHOREVIEW

* * *

In defending those who have heard from God, the Rev. Leonard Freeman said in his Sept. 2 letter that God spoke to Gandhi, Mother Theresa, St. Augustine and St. Francis, among others.

I would like to observe that all the examples he gave were peacemakers who cared for their fellow humans, quite unlike the current crop of "God spoke to me" Republican/Tea Party politicians who apparently couldn't care less about the downtrodden or the needy members of our national community.

LARRY ANDERSON, PLYMOUTH

Congratulations to reporter Curt Brown, photographer Jerry Holt, and behind-the-scenes editors, proofreaders and layout artists for an excellent series on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Decades ago, my journalist teacher told us that each person has a story to tell. This series proved that and more. Each day, the stories captured the cross-country connection and impact of that horrific event on the lives of people who directly and indirectly experienced it.

Thank you for sharing stories from the Twin Cities, Iowa, Chicago, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York City. This is journalism at its best.