Sensibility on sex at WHS

April 2 "" To the Editor:

Regarding the edition of the high school newspaper dedicated to sex, I commend the courageous students who chose to educate fellow students about this important subject. Shame on the parents who are "outraged" "" they need to stop being self-focused and hypocritical about sex so that their teenage children can be well enough informed to make good choices. Denying reality does not change it. With nearly half the student body sexually active, it is absurd to withhold the facts that will prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. When parents stop thinking about their own antiquated sensibilities and start thinking about what's best for their children, they will be doing their kids a huge favor.

Alex Hayes

Stratham

Knowledge, not 'smut'

April 1 "" To the Editor:

Hampton schools made national news recently, not the kind I wish for. It made news for publishing an article in the school newspaper more worthy of space in a smut magazine. We were told that the curious students wanted to explore the provocative subject. The last time the school made national news was a few years ago when it kicked out a student for wearing a Santa Claus outfit to a school Christmas party "" sorry, holiday party. Do we see a trend here?

Just imagine that only a few weeks ago we voted for $18M school budget to "educate" our children at the rate of $14K per student per year. The hottest debate is exploration of sexual perversion. I protest that my hard-earned tax dollars are going to support the kind of vile activities elevated to academic discourse.

I wish for the school to engage in debate about mathematical topics such as solution of Fermat's equation or existence of dark matter in the universe. Or, how about devising an experiment to understand how the CO2 generated in the fall and winter when the vegetation is dormant is absorbed or dispersed?

There are any number of topics to debate and enhance understanding about the U.S. Constitution and history to provide a better perspective of our country among the countries and cultures of the world. All those topics would be derisively termed "nerdy" and deemed unworthy of notice.

We have to turn around the attitude and focus of parents and teachers concerning public school education in this country. Striving to achieve academic excellence should be the main focus of our schools. It is a requirement in a global marketplace. More importantly, adults have to channel the natural curiosity of youngsters toward constructive buildup of knowledge for their future well-being and not destructive buildup of unrestrained indulgence in sexual deviancy, just because of the freedom of choice. Deficiency in the knowledge about sexual perversion in our students is completely acceptable.

Art Gopalan

Hampton

Freedom, not suppression

March 31 "" To the Editor:

This letter is in support of the Winnachronicle advisor. While understanding the concern of "knee-jerk" alarmists to the thoughtful, edgy, well-written article in your student newspaper, I find sad irony that these same critics hadn't done a better job of preventing the alleged 50 percent of the student body from engaging in intercourse before marriage, as was noted in a survey of the students.

Hadn't these self-righteous board members considered educating their charges to embrace "sexual abstinence" with the same vigor?

I took time to read the article this afternoon and didn't find the salacious scandal sheet ardent board members were crying about.

Upon reflection, I'm hopeful your school board and administrators will recognize their focus has been misplaced.

It isn't a stretch to consider that students either know too much or not enough, as they confront a national media blitz in this country that raises rather than answers questions about sexuality. The students who tackled this issue deserve applause, not scolding.

Hopefully, the advisor, bless her courageous heart, correctly determined that the ignorance that fueled "witches trials" of days gone by would not be rekindled by bringing words to bear on that which is often acted upon in "stumble-bum" fashion "" yes, the "S" word!

Your school board should see this as an opening to show students that dialogue doesn't require suppression.

J. Michael Fitzgerald

Miami, Fla.

Islamic world is not all evil

March 31 "" To the Editor:

In his anti-Islam diatribe (March 31 letter), Peter Bresciano uses a distorted and self-selected set of facts to paint Islam as an aggressive political ideology and its founder, Mohammed, as a mass murderer. As evidence, he repeats disinformation worthy of the anti-Semitic "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in its hatefulness and falseness.

Here is just one of Mr. Bresciano's whoppers: "Mohammed himself conceived jihad campaigns in India, during which tens of millions of Hindus and Buddhists were slaughtered or enslaved to further Islamic influence." The fact is Mohammed died in 632 AD, while the Muslim invasions that conquered India began in 1000, and mainly occurred between 1200 and 1328, 600 years after Mohammed died. I don't know what Mr. Bresciano's definition of "conceived" is, but events that happen 600 years after someone's death surely can't be blamed on that person, can they? And, if Mr. Bresciano wants to criticize militarily powerful civilizations for conquering and decimating weaker peoples, he can find more recent examples in what Christian Europeans did in North and South America after 1492, in Africa from 1600 to 1800, and in Australia during the 1800s. Muslims do not have a lock on barbarism, Mr. Bresciano.

Mr. Bresciano goes on to list four or five places in the world where Muslims have recently attacked non-Muslims (or in the case of Darfur, fellow Muslims) and on the basis of this deduces that all Muslims are aggressive and warlike. If this is true, does recent "Christian" aggression in the Congo, Rwanda, Bosnia, Chechnya, Colombia and Iraq prove that Christianity is a religion of murder? Does the fact that the Oklahoma federal building bomber Timothy McVeigh was a devout Roman Catholic "prove" that Catholicism is a blood-thirsty sect? Obviously not, and for the same reason the isolated attack on a single Buddhist monk in Thailand cited by Mr Bresciano does not "prove" Islam is evil.

Islam has been the source of some of the most sublime religious prose and poetry even composed. Sufi writers like Rumi, Al-Ghazali, Ibn-Arabi and Farid Ad-Din Attar are still revered throughout the Islamic world, and their message of love and striving to join God is followed by hundreds of millions of Muslims today. Are there dangerous Muslims who are using terror tactics in the world today? Of course, there are. But don't paint all Muslims as extremists, as Mr. Bresciano chooses to do, and don't use the bad acts of a few Muslims as evidence that the religion itself is evil.

Michael Marsh

Greenland

Pease perfect for housing

March 30 "" To the Editor:

On March 29, I attended a regional impact meeting on the proposed 220 residential unit independent and dependent retirement care community in west Rye, practically North Hampton. While I certainly admire Webster at Rye's attempt to provide additional senior options for the Seacoast, the proposed location of this development demonstrates the lack of political will by Seacoast residents to demand that the former Pease Air Force Base be a part of a broader-based planning objective by this region. We hear a lot about the lack of affordable housing, a lack of senior facilities to address our graying communities, and yet we are ignoring the one location that has the infrastructure, the space and the best location for addressing these problems. Instead, we chose to fill the state coffers, after the great land grab by state authority of this land, which once belonged to both Newington and Portsmouth. Only Pease has the proper infrastructure to absorb these large-scale developments. Yes, it would currently be unfair to have affordable housing and senior retirement communities absorbed by the taxpayers of Portsmouth or Newington. However, It seems to me we can arrive at a solution to that by either incorporating a new town/city at Pease, and or coming up with a plan to share the burden of those increased municipal services to neighboring communities and or a state reallocation.

The planned Webster community at the corner of South and Mill roads will change the character of both of these towns, and this is the real issue behind such a large, out-of-character facility. The roads leading to this facility are rural roads and are substandard, regardless of what their highly paid lawyers and traffic engineers might say.

They said similar things when the Home Depot went into North Hampton, and the roads around it will never be the same. The residential nature of the properties surrounding the proposed development is rural.

Last I checked, rural characteristics are disappearing quickly on the Seacoast. This facility will draw more people from outside of the Seacoast than within it. They want it in Rye because they can market Rye, and that is what drives the decision to place these facilities in Rye.

Lawyers can make a case out of anything, and they will tell you that you can't compare the 10 percent increase in housing units for the town of Rye that this represents because these units are smaller. That is convenient lawyer-speak; everyone knows a lawyer would sell their mother swamp land. Their traffic study will tell you that there is no impact, but by my calculations, peak-hour traffic will expand by nearly 50 percent. I can tell you that Mill Road, West Road and Washington Road are already overburdened roads, and the South/North Road intersection at Lafayette Road may be the worst intersection on the entire Seacoast stretch of Route 1. Not exactly the best place to introduce senior drivers unfamiliar with the area to Route 1.

I encourage all citizens to contact their state representatives as well as local planners to promote a broader set of uses at Pease. Pease should not be reserved only for corporate addresses. It needs to be a part of broader-based solutions facing the region, and currently it is not and it makes absolutely no sense at all.

Shep Kroner

North Hampton