Here is a copy of the letter that I have sent to Gov. Siegelman. I urge everyone to write a similar letter and MAIL (as well as email) it to him:
Dear Gov. Siegelman,I was shocked and dismayed to hear your recent statements that men should not wear earrings, and that "If God had wanted boys to wear earrings, he would have made them girls." Perhaps being a boy you were not aware of this, but God didn't actually create girls with pierced ears either. God also doesn't cut either girls or boys hair, and God doesn't create boys circumcised. These are decisions that we have made as people. If you'd like to follow God's intentions for us, perhaps you need to institute laws requiring boys to be pierced -- after all, this was the norm in Biblical times for men. Of course that would be ridiculous though; it is essential in a free society that people have the right to make these decisions for themselves.
I was extremely concerned to hear you say that people with piercings are "stupid" and look like "fools". Perhaps you are unaware of God's teachings, and prefer to simply use his name to project your own hatred, but even the casual Christian must be aware of Matthew 7:1. I am truly outraged at the hatred you project in your support of expelling a child simply for an aesthetic expression that hurt no one. I have to wonder what message this sends to the children of Alabama. I can certainly tell you that the message it's sending me about Alabama is not a good one.
If this was an argument based upon safety or concern for quality education we might find common ground even as we disagreed. However, both the malice in your words and the fact that you applied them only to boys betray the fact that this is a projection of your personal feelings. While you have a right to your feelings, as a public servant you do not have the right to apply your misguided and fundamentally blasphemous interpretation of the Bible to others, and certainly not in schools. It is an abuse of your power and it terrifies me that a "free society" could treat a child in this way.
I hereby demand that you allow Dustin Weaver to return to school with his body as he and his parents desire. In addition, I demand a public apology for your hurtful words.
Sincerely,
Rev. Shannon Larratt
I'll give you another example — feel free to use parts of either of ours, but your own feelings are always stronger than a formletter:
Dear Gov. Siegelman,I am writing in reference to the comments you made in the press conference regarding the young boy wearing earings to school: "I don't think guys ought to be wearing earrings. I think kids who put metal in their tongues are idiots. Parents ought to be there talking to their kids and saying, 'You know what kind of fool you look like with an earring? If God had wanted you to wear earrings, he'd have made you a girl."
Being a member of the Armed forces I realize that I personally cannot have my ears pierced for reasons such as health and because I represent the United States of America.But for you to make a comment like that makes me wonder why I would give my life to protect the rights of our Great Nation.
You, yourself wear glasses, So if someone told you that "God must have wanted you to have vision problems" then you would think that they were Crazy and yet you make a similar comment about males wearing earings.
So far I have given four solid years of my young adulthood to hopefully help our nation live free.I spent seven months in Bosnia seeing the horrors of the war, starving children,mass graves,churches and mosques where hundreds of women and children were slaughtered and I return home only to hear the Governor of one of our great FREE states refered to the Future leaders of America and the children of his voters as "Idiots" and "fools".
Someday these same children WILL be the ones on the front lines who protect your rights and values on a future battlefield! It makes it so much harder to protect this countries rights when they are being violated from within.
Sincerly Yours
CPL *** ***
INF,US ARMY
