Letters to the editor
Vote against Discrimination Amendment #1

I live in South Carolina. It is my home, and it has an important place in my heart. I'm writing to urge my fellow South Carolinians to vote against the proposed Family Discrimination Amendment #1 on November 7. This proposed amendment is a personal attack against all unmarried couples, both gay and straight. It calls into question basic rights such as hospital visitation, insurance benefits, and inheritance. It eliminates the long-held historical legality of the common law marriage.

It sends a message that couples who are not married are not welcome in South Carolina anymore. How can any unmarried couple build a life and a family in such a hateful, hostile environment? I wish for South Carolina to be a place that welcomes and respects all people. Please, vote no on the Family Discrimination Amendment #1. Stand up to hatefulness, and stand up for fairness.

NE Langley

Columbia, SC

Reader agrees Song of Solomon should be off list

Congratulations on your publishing a series of articles in October issues of the Star on the book Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. It is salacious literature and should never been made required reading for high school students in Richland County public schools.

It is so immoral and harmful that I should think you would have received many letters from parents and pastors objecting to this criminal requirement. I am not a parent but want to express a protest because this kind of thing lowers the moral tone of a community. Also there are legal and social codes against such indecency. I am an 84-year-old nondenominational Bible teacher by God's grace. I have taught the word of God in the U.S. and many countries of the world for 55 years. If someone is a disciple of Christ or professing to be one, one Scripture alone gives us warrant for protesting such immorality, namely, Ephesian 5:11: "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, rather reprove them."

Pam Clark, parents, pastors, and others who speak out against the folly of Richland school authorities responsible are to be congratulated for their stand. As Edmund Burke said, "All that is needed for evil to triump is for good men to do nothing.

Warren Wm. Coles