LEO welcomes letters that are brief (250 words max) and thoughtful. Ad hominem attacks will be ignored, and we need your name and a daytime phone number. Send snail mail to EROSIA, 640 S. Fourth St., Louisville, Ky. 40202. Fax to 895-9779 or e-mail to [email protected]. We may edit for length, grammar and clarity.

Holy Christ!
I would like to respond to the letter titled “Fundamental Questions” in the Erosia section of the Nov. 30 LEO. While I most definitely agree with the theory of evolution and the idea that the Creator (whoever or whatever that may be) wanted it that way, I am rather offended by the writer calling Jesus Christ an “ignorant shepherd.” I am not a church-goer and I’m not even sure if I believe in the idea of Jesus being the Savior, but the one message Jesus (who may or may not have been a messenger from the Creator, and who may or may not have even existed) seemed to consistently stress was, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I find that message to be highly intelligent. If Jesus ever said anything about evolution not being possible, maybe it was a result of the teachings of his culture or religion, or a lack of scientific research at the time. I think it’s also important to note that the New Testament was written by others who may have added their own thoughts and beliefs. I refuse to put the words of ignorant fundamentalists in Jesus’ mouth. To quote Ghandi: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.”
-Kelly Kapp

Bad Doggy Style
I have been confronting a nightmare recently as I am forced by Louisville Metro Council to decide how my dog, my children’s best friend, should die. Should it be of old age, well loved and cared for by the family he grew up in, or coldly euthanized in an overwhelmed shelter? See, just because my dog is a rottweiler, Metro Council wishes to tear him from his family, in the name of my family’s safety, by forcing heavy registration fees, insurance costs and restrictions upon all of us.
But no rottweilers were involved in the recent fatal dog attacks.
Louisville already has strong vicious-dog laws. What we lack is the funding and personnel for Animal Control to enforce current laws, much less handle the new proposals aimed at pit bulls and rottweilers only.
This stinks of racism, against the breeds charged as vicious and against the minorities and poor who are more likely to own these breeds. But mostly, it smells of the tears of hundreds of children who will lose their childhood friends because of politics and ignorance.
-Michele Freel

Score one for Cyclists
In an important victory for cyclists everywhere, the Kentucky Supreme Court has struck down a decision blaming a cyclist for being on the road when a passing vehicle hit her. In reaching this decision, the Supreme Court specifically noted that a driver’s duty when passing a cyclist, such as the plaintiff in this case, requires that the driver not pass “unless he can do so without interfering with the safe operation of bicycle, and that if, in fact he did pass that he not drive to the right until he was reasonably clear of .”
“This decision is important because it reaffirms cyclists’ right to the roads. As an appellate decision, it is binding precedent for future cases in all of the courts in Kentucky,” says League Region 1 Director John S. Allen, who has served as an expert witness in bicycling cases. “And we can expect the decision, as it is by a state Supreme Court, to be cited by other courts in future cases throughout the United States.”
The League, in conjunction with local Kentucky bike clubs, filed an amicus brief in support of the cyclist.
-Jackie Green and Cindy Baker

Repeating History
It’s high time we were honest about the Vietnam War. Oldsters like John Yarmuth and me are old enough remember what really happened. Let’s spell it out.
Back in 1963, the U.S. government pushed for regime change in South Vietnam and wound up taking charge of their war against the North as a result. We were fed up with South Vietnamese Ngo Dinh Diem after nine years of cooperating with him and decided he had to go. He’d always been an authoritarian. Everyone knew that. But now, Diem was being accused by the international press of persecuting Buddhist priests, students and political opponents. This was the final straw.
So, the CIA and the U.S. State Department secretly aided and abetted Diem’s ouster and assassination by the South Vietnamese Army. Things only got worse after that. The government of South Vietnam was never again to be as stable as it had been under Diem’s iron-hand rule. A series of weaker presidents followed. Within a year, the United States was sending in thousands more troops to prop things up. We saw the rest on the nightly TV news throughout the ’60s and early ’70s.
That was what regime change in South Vietnam got us. Apparently, we didn’t know the difference between the realistic alternatives and the unrealistic. Maybe we should have studied the situation more thoroughly in advance. Do you think history is repeating itself?
-Tom Louderback

Letter to the Holy Father
Your Holiness,
The reaction from the church regarding child molestation among your priests, nuns and teachers has become an insult to Catholics, Christians, gays and just about anyone who cherishes truth and justice!
For years, the Holy See has put aside, ignored, disgraced and denied wrong-doing by its leaders. Finally after years of protest and complaints followed by law suites that just about bankrupted the church, your attempt to lay blame for this on homosexuals only serves to prove you are a coward!
What about all the young girls who were molested by priests? Just by their demented actions alone it certainly proves that NOT ALL of the crimes were committed by men against boys!
This, Holy Father, was a pedophical problem, not a homosexual problem. In the church’s failure to see this, it has failed its faithful, dishonored a minority that has faithfully, discreetly and quietly served and disenfranchised future priests and nuns who may have wanted to serve, but cannot now because they are gays and lesbians.
-Mique Davis