West Newsmagazine Letters To The Editor

West Newsmagazine is West St. Louis County's exclusive direct-mailed community newspaper.

Letters To The Editor

Proud Marines

To all who read this, I have just returned from one of my friend’s grandson's funeral who died in Afghanistan. He was in a Hum-V with three other soldiers and they hit a land mine and all died. He was 19 years old and just married six months ago.

I have never been to a visitation of a Marine and I have never cried for someone I really did not know personally. But I did at this visitation because of the Marines present during the visitation.

The great respect, the great care, the great admiration that these young men (and I mean young) have for their fallen comrade was felt throughout the room at all times. I believe, the comfort, the protection and the peace they provided by just being there was absolutely amazing.

The visitation was from 2 to 9 p.m. and every 15 minutes to the second they would come into the room and very politely ask everyone to please step aside. Everyone in the room then would stand up, face them and the room became completely silent. At that point, two fully dressed Marines would enter the room, walk to the middle of it in unison, turn in synchronized formation and walk towards the closed casket of their fallen comrade.

Then, there were two fully dressed Marines standing at each end of the casket who would walk towards the two Marines who came into the room, slowly they would salute each other in perfect time. Then, the two Marines leaving the casket would come together and walk between the two Marines who came into the room.

This was the changing of the guard every 15 minutes throughout the whole day. Each soldier then would stand at each end of the casket facing each other as if they were stone statues.

Never, not once, would they look away, smile, speak, rub their nose, scratch their head, absolutely nothing but, pay their disciplined respect to their fallen comrade.

The soldier who died had a friend in Afghanistan and his father also is a

true U.S. Patriot who left from Minnesota that same day of the visitation on a motorcycle and came to St. Louis. He was expected to be joined by 300 other U.S. Patriots on motorcycles to ride in the funeral. What a site.

Please God, bless them all.

It was indeed a very emotional experience for me and one that I will never forget as long as I live. This young man, who I did not know, died for me, for all of us, so that we can enjoy the freedom that I believe we all take for granted at times.

So, next time you hear someone knocking the war, our soldiers or anyone connected with defending our great country, I hope you remember this event and stand up for the few, the proud, the Marines.

Luke E. Kaiser

Creve Coeur

Common sense

To The Editor:

Many thanks for your rousing editorial insisting that the U.S. government take action immediately on gas prices and energy independence (“Enough already,” June 25). Not many remember that President George W. Bush, time and time again for eight years, has begged for drilling and resolutions to the oil problem.

And kudos to (letter writer) Steve Burkard of Ballwin for his common sense on many important issues. How nice to hear common sense that only seems to be prevalent in your publication.

The U.S. Supreme Court just squashed states' (in this case, Louisiana) rights to execute inhuman predators for the rape of a child. The rights of a sex offender who takes away innocence, mental stability and physical safety of a child is more important to five members of the Court than the horrors inflicted on the child. There is no effort here to protect our children who depend on adults for safety. A death penalty is "inhumane and cruel" punishment for this vermin. It makes one wonder whether the Supreme Court justices are smart or compassionate enough to interpret law. They wind up "making" bad laws.

Before the heinous ruling regarding consequences for a child predator, the other corker was that ruling that terrorist "detainees" may use the rights and privileges of our Constitution. Terrorists who wish to kill us and overthrow our government are to be coddled. The votes in both cases have been 5-4, with Justice Kennedy being the tiebreaker.

Two positions will open up on the bench during the next administration. God help us all if the Supreme Court gets more liberal. For a justice organization, has anyone seen a more unjust majority?

Joann Hopkins

Town & Country

One man’s opinion

To The Editor:

I am a young resident of West County; however, I have not been a frequent reader of West Newsmagazine. I felt compelled to write a letter after reading some of the other "Letters to the Editor" in the magazine that arrived at my parents' residence today.

I believe that political opinions have no place in a community publication such as West Newsmagazine. It sickens me to hear such closed-minded comments published unrefuted, but I would be hypocritical to debate their true worth.

What bothers me even more is the elitist undertones of those comments. Many West County residents feel that they are above the social norm, like they live in some Midwestern high society. Many think that South County is full of "hicks" or "hoosiers," that North County is rundown, that St. Charles is just a relief valve for North County, and that the city is full of dangerous minorities.

While most West County residents are respectable, down-to-earth people, there is a surprisingly large number who feel like they are better than the rest of St. Louis.

And what source of pride does West County have, besides high property values? Shopping malls? Strip malls? A gas-guzzling SUV fleet?

West County has the least culture and the least heritage of any part of St. Louis, but is home to the snobbiest of people.

Consider this: A friend of mine from Chicago is living in St. Louis working at a West County swimming pool as a part-time job over the summer. This is her first time in St. Louis other than a family vacation to see the Arch.

She is from a wealthy area in Chicago. While lifeguarding, she was forced to give a child a "time-out" for excessive horseplay. The child's mother pulled her son out of "time-out" early and told him to go play in the pool again. The mother told my friend never to punish her child again because my friend just did not "know how to deal with this class of people."

Outrageous.

Think about your actions and words. Try to envision how they reflect on the values of your community. After all, nobody wants to move onto a street with a bunch of snobs. And if no one wants to move in next door, you might just lose some of that high property value.

As for me, when I graduate with two Bachelor's degrees in less than a year from now, I do not plan on ever coming back to West County, except to visit.

Mark Jensen

Ballwin