We’ll never know
Bill Kettenhofen is finally done with his fact-less mission to prove Hillary Clinton a liar on the Benghazi attack. But he confused me with this “last” letter. He states that I misapplied HRC’s words instead of looking at her intent. As this is his last letter on this topic I will not get to find out what Bill thinks her intent was.
According to her call to the Libyan head of state and the e-mail to her family she did not believe the attack was the result of the video. Then her public statements did not connect the two either. The only contradiction was the journal of Charles Wood. There are four possibilities: he lied; he heard what he wanted to hear; he misheard what Hillary said; Hillary lied. Without a recording of the conversation we will never know.
How this proves Bill’s statements is beyond me. And I will never find out.
Kevin Bracken, Kelseyville
God must be impartial
The main theme of Charles S. Nicoll’s December 5 letter to the editor seems to be: “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?”
God has no choice but to be impartial and treat everyone the same as the spiritual battle between the powers of good and evil play itself out on our planet in front of the whole universe. God is at a disadvantage since He cannot use flattery or deceit. Except for the occasional miracle He cannot do anything which would be considered heavy-handed. A chaotic situation would ensue if God were to play favorites.
You might say that God has put Himself on trial. Once sin has been eradicated from this planet it will never re-occur. It is a one-time event for the entire universe.
“God makes his sun rise on good and bad alike, and sends the rain on the honest and dishonest” Matthew 5:45.
If you’re not convinced, imagine Christ coming down from the cross or imagine all of God’s true followers having personas of super action heroes where nothing ever goes wrong for them. The earth’s fallen inhabitants would react with awe and have a tendency to obey God out of fear. This would be a case of free will being tainted by a form of coercion from a whimsical God.
Obviously, this would not be a scenario of perfection. The perfect scenario is the one that we are in despite the fact that we are surrounded by tragedy and suffering.
Bill Kettenhofen, Kelseyville
Authors
We like to read authors we agree with, not only because they write what we believe, but also because they write what may be an extension of what we believe. They help us think by offering us a “leg up,” giving us either the next step in our thinking ready made or starting us on a new train of thought.
Reading an author whose thinking is antagonistic to ours will not help as much, though in the counter arguments that come to mind as we read we may surprise an idea that sparks a flame in the tinder of our intelligence.
Dean Sparks, Lucerne
