The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 236, Ed. 1 Wednesday, July 5, 2006 Page: 4 of 10
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THE BAYTOW N SUN
4 '
Wednesday, July 5,2006
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Texas Views
Minimum
wage
In the name of honor
LOPEZ
I
I
i
The Sun welcomes letters of up
to 300 words and guest columns of
up to 500 words. Guest columns
should include a photo of the
writer. We publish only original
world would come to an end if we
stopped whaling because it would cause
David Bloom
Managing Editor -
Jane Howard Lee
retired Reporter
Keith Magee
Asst. Managing Editor
&. I
FRED HARTMAN
Publisher Emeritus
1950-1974
202-224-2934
713-572-3337
Fax: 202-228-2856
Fax: 713-572-3777
cornyn.senate.gov/
contact/index.html
Ted Poe,
Dist. 2 Rep.
866-425-6565
866-447-0242
www.house.gov/ ’
poe
Ron Paul,
Dist. 14 Rep.
202-225-2831
979-230-0000
www.house.gov/
paul
Gene Green,
Dist. 29 Rep.
202-225-1688
713-330-0761
www.hbuse.gov/
green
OPINION
®tie Bwtoton &un write to us
1301 Memorial Drive, P.O. Box 90
Baytown, Texas 77522
Main: (281) 422-8302
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Web site: www.baytownsun.com
This kind of speech can have a global effect.
, ' sil fuels. Folks lost jobs and swore the
The murders of Samaira Nazir and Ghazala like Iran and Saudi Arabia can be shamed by
1_______n j x—_ nnhlir pvnnciirn ThArA arA pvomnlpc wIiArA -- -
mass unemployment arid loss of every-
thing they held dear. Well guess what?
-IFXWR&AUif
UMDME.yoU'P u
my Mt w EtKTIoN’
by her father)
EDITORIAL BOARD
Clifton E. “Cliff” Clements
Editor/Publisher
Jim Finley
retired Managing Editor
Doyle Barlow -
Sports Editor
riphe U.S. Senate should reconsider its
I vote that stopped a proposed
JL increase in the national minimum
wage, which has been stuck at $5.15 an
hour for about nine years.
With the Bush administration touting a
healthy, growing economy, and after bil-
lions of dollars of tax cuts including cuts
for businesses the nation can well afford a
wage increase for those of us at the bottom
oftlie work ladder.
A Democratic proposal to raise the mini-
. mum wage to $7.25 an hour won a small
majority of the Senate last week on a 52 to
46 vote, with most GOP senators including
Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn,
both of Texas opposed. But that was eight
short of the 60 votes needed to clear a pro-
cedural hurdle. A Republican alternative, to
raise the minimum wage to $6.25 an hour,
was rejected on a 53 to 45 vote, with
Democrats opposed.
The Senate and the House, whose GOP
leadership appears to be ducking the issue,
ought to be embarrassed by their failure to
raise the minimum wage for so long. Early
this month, the House rejected a challenge
to its own scheduled salary increase of
$3,300 a year, which would raise House
members’ salaries to $168,500 a year
“because secrecy is the best friend of crimes.”
Denounce them not just’for the sake of
those who died; the Samaira Nazirs and
Ghazala Khans; whoxan’t tell their own horri- _
ble tales; denounce them also for the “lucky”
ones like Noor Jehan, a 14-year-old Pakistani
girl who was shot five times by her cousins
(by order of her father) because she wouldn’t
submit to her arranged marriage. She told
reporters, “They thought I was dead but...
somehow 1 got courage to come but of that
ditch.”
Hundreds of women and girls are believed
to be killed this way in Pakistan annually.
Muslims need to start leading, and take their
religion out of that deadly ditch.
ADVERTISING
Angle Pagel, Advertising Director
angie.pagel@baytownsun.com
PRODUCTION
Wayne Oxedine, Production Mgr. ■
wayne.oxedine@baytownsun.com
MISS YOUR PAPER?
You should receive your
Baytown Sun by 6 a.m.
Monday through Saturday and
by 8 a.m. Sunday. If you do not
receive your paper on time,
call (281) 425-8048 by 10 a.m.
to ensure redelivery.
itics, money and fashion. There are
many things on a daily basis that are
inflicted on us which are harder to
escape than tobacco smoke: all kinds of
pollution, carcinogens, allergens, smells,
noise, etc. No one suggests, either, that ,
diet, lifestyle or genetics may be factors.
Antismoking sentiment has become so
inflamed in certain parts of America that
it makes you wonder if there's something
darker at work than concern for public
health. In conclusion smoking is risky,
but not as dangerous as zealous officials
and antismoking activists would have us
believe. The danger of "passive smok-
ing" is pretty much a hoax.
Patsy Kalsne
Baytown
Government officials
Federal
George W. Bush,
President
202-456-1111
Fax: 202-456-2326
president®
whitehouse.gov
Dick Cheney,
Vice President
202-456-2324
Fax: 202-456-2461
vice-president®
whitehouse.gov
Kay Bailey
Hutchison,
Senator
202-224-5922
713-653-3456
Fax: 202-224-0776
Fax: 713-209-3459
hutchison.senate.
gov/e-mail.htm
John Cornyn,
Senator
untgxas-
a
Sun bearing the writer’s signature.
An address and phone number not
for publication should be included.
All letters and guest columns are
subject to editing, and the Sun
reserves the right to refuse to pub-
lish any submission.
Send signed letters to: David
Bloom, The Baytown Sun, P.O. Box
90, Baytown, 77522; fax them to
(281) 427-1880 or e-mail sun-
news@baytownsun.com.
Items featured on this page are
the views of the persons identified
with each submission and do not
necessarily reflect the views of The
Baytown Sun or its advertisers.
HOW TO REACH US
Clifton E. “Cliff” Clements,
Publisher
cliff.clements@baytownsun.com
Sandy Denson, Business Mgr.
mi sandy.denson@baytownsun.com
NEWSROOM
David Bloom, Managing Editor
david.bloom@baytownsun.com
Keith Magee, Asst. Managing Editor
keith.magee@baytownsun.com
Doyle Barlow, Sports Editor
doyle.barlow@baytownsun.com
As the free world wages an
international war on rnili-
tant-lslamic terrorism,
nations like Britain and
Denmark need to confront
this far more domestic form
of terrorism. And it is
Muslims who face a special
KATHRYN challenge, as word of these
honor killings spreads. All
of the stories I’ve mentioned
have involved Muslim fami-
lies, they need to make it clear that they will
not tolerate these atrocities — often commit-
Here in, the West we are constantly cau-
tioned, when we encounter news of a terrorist
plot in which Muslims happen to be involved,
not to take outbur anger on Muslims in gener-
out at awhotegroupof people becausea------
Global warming
Is global warming George Bush’s
fault? No.
China has a much worge pollution
problem than we do and it is getting
worse by the day with their new found
ownership of the automobile. In China
almost everyone smokes cigarettes too.
In most Third World countries, people
bum everything and I mean everything
including tires. They dump,everything
into the rivers and streams.
Flaring at chemical plants in Europe is
not regulated by fines like it is here in
the USA. When they clear equipment or
have a shutdown, they open up their
vents and smoke the flare until they are
done. In this country Chemical plants
are fined out the kazoo every time they
smoke a flare.
Our problems here will not be solved
in many of years of mandatory environ-
mental emission (EPA) reductions with-
out individual citizen detriments, includ-
ing job loss. It’s very complicated and
no one wants their lifestyle impinged
upon, unless they do it voluntarily.
We need OPEC oil because we con-
sume 25 percent of all the refined oil.-
We have to drill here immediately in vir-
■ gin forests if we are going to break out
of this dependency. Of course, we could
become militant as a country, draw our
belts up a notch, and get on with reduc- t
ing emissions by using alternate sources
of fuel.
I don’t see that happening anytime
soon, as no one wants to sacrifice.
That’s why folks are buying gas guzzling
SUVs even now with gas at $3+ a gal-
lon. Blaming this country for global
warming, while the rest of the world
dumps, bums, vents and belches to the
atmosphere and oceans is not realistic. It
is going to take a concerted effort around
the globe by individual countries to slow '
down pollution.
To me, it doesn’t matter who is in the
White House when it comes to solving
our energy needs. If a Democratic presi-
' dent imposessuperstrict environmental .
, controls to protect the/our “sustainable
resources,” we will see mass unemploy-
ment and a general exodus of* companies
going overseas. They will pickup pollut-
ing the environment; right where they
left off, but in another country that has
nb EPA laws and we will have no jobs.
We are at the same place this country
was when We went from whale oil to fos-
Folks changed because times changed
and many folks clung to the old ways,
but over time we made the transition and
we will weather this one too.
Contact Kathryn Lopez, editor of National
Review Online (www.nationalreview.com), at
klopez@nationalreview.com.
time Congress raised the minimum wage.
Congress has awarded itself a pay increase
the past seven years in a row. A _____
In comparison, a worker earning mini-
mum wage for a full-time job makes about
$10,700 a year. If the Democrats had their
way, that would go up to about $15,000 a
year; if the Republicans had theirs, it
would go up to $13,000. Democrats say
about 7 million workers would benefit
from a minimum wage increase.
Republicans voting against the"proposed
increase gave the usual arguments: It’s too
expensive, especially for small businesses,
and discourages hiring at the low end of
the wage scale. Democrats noted that the
price of just about every necessity housing,
food, utilities, gasoline have gone up over
the past eight years. But Senate Democrats
voted against the smaller increase proposed
by Republicans because it had provisions
to cut taxes and exempt more businesses
from the federal wage and hour law.
PoirFshow that most Americans support
V* a higher minimum wage. A survey in
March by the Pew Research Center for the
People & the Press found that 83 percent
of Americans favored raising the minimum
wage by $2 an hour. The same survey
showed that 72 percent of Republicans also
supported a $2 increase.
People making the lowest wages don’t
have much political or market power. Just
because we can keep their wages so low
doesn’t mean we should. Republicans in
Congress should drop their opposition and
raise the minimum wage.
— Austin American-Statesman
Secondhand hoax
I'm convinced that the dangers of
1 smoking (and secondhand smoke in par-
ticular) are being greatly exaggerated for
a number or reasons, many of which
have lessee do with health than with pol-
•material addressed to The Baytown
wine auuui — in paii uuuausu nicy arc su oru- ’-----------------------
tai. No one realty wants to read that Samaira’s v^e nee(^ denouncejhese atocities.vigorously
A clarification
In my recent letter to the Baytown Sun
on VoTech schools I made this statement:
“Boiler-makers are bolt up people? It
takes little actual skill to be a boiler-
maker.”
I would like to clarify this statement
and say people hire in on turn-arounds as
boiler-makers that are not the true crafts-
men that the title implies.
A true boiler-maker builds boilers,
vessels, welds, and constructs elaborate
structures. There is an extensive training
and apprenticeship for true boiler-makers
that these people do not have and these
are the people I was referring to. My sin-
cere apologies to all true boiler-maker
craftsman and especially to the man who
pointed this out to me.
Bert Marshall
Baytown
Samaira Nazir was brutally and nefedlessly
murdered. The 25-year-old in Southall,
England, was killed in April of last year by her
30-year-old businessman brother — all in the
name of “honor.” He stabbed her, cutting her
throat in front of his young children, ages 2
and 4.
Samaira had turned down family arrange-
ments for marriage and ultimately fell for
another man, an Afghan her family said was
from the wrong — lower — caste. As a prose-
cutor put it, “It would appear she lost her life
for loving the wrong man.”
Her brother, appropriately, has been found
life in prison. And the good news, if it can be
Samaira and her story. Her
makes headlines. And in her memory, we it noi u> uuw out out uiigci uu iviusnms m geiiei
keep any veil from covering the next time this al, which is only sensible. One shouldn’t lash
l happens—-until, finally, there is no next time but ata who te'group- ofpeople because a—-.
for these “hot$r killings” that are anything but member of the group did something awful.
But what we really need are loud Muslim
voices of outrage. They’re out there, but not
quite loud enough yet. Moderate, mainstream
Muslims — those who abhor the kind of val-
ues that condone honor murders — need to
speak out against those who are bringing such
shame upon their religion.
As Nina Shea of Freedom House has pointed
out, “even Islamist totalitarian governments
public exposure. There are examples where
these governments have desisted from execut-
ing stonings and other hideous human-rights
atrocities after a public outcry either in the
West or at home."
Bat Ye’or, a scholar of Islamic culture, says
guilty of murder, and is facing the prospect of ted in the name of Islam.
p£U L— A — 4 Uoro in th a WacI u/a ar;
$34,900 higher than it was in 1997,' the last called “good,” is that you’re reading about
~ ' • - • j Lor name lives on and
makes headlines. And in her memory, we’ll
happens --until,finally, there is nd next time
frxr TViaca “Vioriftr VilliVicrc” that arA am/thrinw k>i1
honorable.
Well remember, too, Ghazala Khan, who
was shot dead in a town west of Copenhagen,
Denmark, this past September, by her brother,
just two days after her wedding. Her death
won’t go unpunished, either: Both her brother
and her father, along with other family mem-
bers (six in total were all involved in the plan-
ning of the murder, which had been ordered ’’
' are now in jail for their crime.
Khan are infuriating and tragic. But that we
know about them, and that civilized society is
refusing to tolerate what happened, is cause
for hope.
Honor killings, to be honest, are hard to
write about — in part because they are so bru-
blood splattered on her young nieces as they
were made to watch,, authorities believe, the
perverse execution — including her escape
attempts. (Neighbors reported seeing her
dragged back into the family home by her
hair.) But what makes it even more difficult is
the sense that the honor killings we know
about may be the tip of a horrific iceberg.
You see, honor killings sometimes (possibly
most often) go completely unreported:
Murders will be disguised as suicides, and no
one outside of a particular family will know
what really happened. Some will be killed and
never found. In Jordan, just a few weeks ago,
three bodies were found in makeshift graves
outside Amman three sisters, killed 12
years ago by their brother (again, on their
father’s orders) for “immoral behavior.” The
family told anyone who asked that the girls
had left the country.
I_____2*___!________________________4 l
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Clements, Clifford E. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 85, No. 236, Ed. 1 Wednesday, July 5, 2006, newspaper, July 5, 2006; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1191703/m1/4/?q=%22%22~1: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.