Letters on climate change, freedom from religion, Pete Rose, new puzzles

Encourage leaders to meet climate pledges

Two statements in a Dec. 14 Eagle article about pledges made at the Paris climate conference summarized how effective this agreement can be in reaching the newly adopted goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

First, President Obama and other leaders have “endorsed the idea of a price on carbon.” Those who oppose the Environmental Protection Agency regulations should consider Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s market-based approach of a revenue-neutral carbon fee as a fair and effective alternative to regulation. By putting a fee on the carbon content of fossil fuels and returning the revenue from the carbon fee to households, the plan is good for the economy as well as for the climate.

Secondly, Miguel Arias Canete, the European Union’s energy commissioner and top climate negotiator, said: “Today, we celebrate. Tomorrow, we have to act.” This stresses the importance of citizens holding nations to their promises.

The Citizens’ Climate Engagement Network, a global framework to support and expand direct citizen input into climate solutions, was launched during the Paris conference. Now that governments, businesses and investors have a clear road map, the network is working to ensure the citizens’ voices are heard as nations begin negotiating to ensure that all citizens have the right to affordable, reliable, 100 percent clean energy.

Citizens must speak up and encourage leaders to address climate solutions and support legislation to reach that 1.5 degree goal.

Freedom from religion

With recent court rulings and certain religious freedom attitudes taken by adamant religious rights people, I feel I should comment.

Only a small percentage of immigrants came here purely for religious freedom. Those who did left countries because of persecution and intolerance by other religious groups. Some of those who came for religious freedom were, in turn, quite critical of other religious groups.

Our Founding Fathers were adamant about the necessity of a separation of church and state. This was based on their knowledge of how repressive were the governments controlled by religious groups.

This is the way it is in the United States, and how it should be: You have freedom of religion as you see it, so long as it is not used to try to circumvent duly passed laws. If you are a government official and do not want to enforce or carry out the law because of your religious beliefs, you should have the courtesy to resign. By refusing to act because of your beliefs, you are, in effect, pushing your beliefs onto someone else.

Some of the most bigoted and narrow-minded people I have known were self-anointed people of God.

Freedom of my religion can be freedom from your religion. And freedom of your religion can be freedom from my religion.

Bible-thumping politicians should disappear.

Recognize Pete Rose

Regarding “MLB rejects Rose’s plea for reinstatement” (Dec. 15 Sports): I believe the message sent by Major League Baseball in this ruling is absolutely unfair and should be overturned.

Pete Rose was absolutely wrong in what he did. He had an addiction. It was gambling. He was, and could well still be, a compulsive, unrepentant gambler. However, there was only one Rose, as a player, and he deserves recognition.

Look at sports today. There are wife and family abusers, drug users, rapists, and character that is unbecoming to how we want to express ourselves as a society. But for many athletes, a quick suspension makes it OK for them to carry on.

I have not been and am not now a Pete Rose fan. However, look at the guy for what he was – a tremendous baseball player. He was Charlie Hustle.

As his recent stint as a World Series analyst showed, Rose is not in command of the most articulate verbiage, or the expression of acceptable body language. Shouldn’t this on-air behavior reinforce the fact that one of the greatest baseball players was not necessarily one who could make the best decisions, especially with a probable addiction?

Pete Rose should be recognized as a great baseball player.

Keep the new puzzles

I have read several complaints in Opinion Line recently about The Eagle’s new puzzle page.

In my opinion, the old crossword puzzle had lost any real challenge. I find the new puzzle enjoyable, entertaining and challenging. Some of the clues require some hard thinking and a few letters acquired from other clues to finally fill in the blanks. I think this new puzzle stimulates the brain very well.

Although the author of the old Cryptoquip came up with some very clever quips, the solutions were seldom challenging.

The Celebrity Ciphers are interesting in that there are no routine beginnings, and it amazes me how many celebrities there are of whom I am ignorant.

The new Word Game is one of my favorites (along with the Sudoku puzzle). It requires that I dredge up some of my lost vocabulary to enable me to exceed the average word count.

The new 7 Little Words is interesting. It sometimes challenges your mental thesaurus to come up with the right word.

I am a fan of the new puzzles, so please keep them.

This story was originally published December 16, 2015 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Letters on climate change, freedom from religion, Pete Rose, new puzzles."