The News Courier encourages letters to the editor. Submissions should be no more than 400 words and include name, address and telephone number for verification. Submissions that do not meet requirements are subject to editing. Writers are limited to one published letter every 30 days. Send letters to P.O. Box 670, Athens AL 35613 or email to adam@athensnews-courier.com. The deadlines are noon on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Dyed liberty

Dear Editor:

Judge Woodroof, I appreciate your comments to the citizens informing them of their most fundamental liberties. The right to vote, you state, is our greatest civic responsibility. I agree, but you see, sir, we were denied our liberty by a political Republican committee that doesn’t share our view of the spirit of the Constitution, with a disregard of all those who gave the last drop of devotion for that right. Fathers, husbands, sons, wives and daughters did not give their lives for a political party, but for the Constitution, from which we gain our liberty to vote. In my 50-plus years in politics, I never witnessed so many being denied their constitutional rights by a political party. Thomas Jefferson said we must bind such men from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. He also said that all tyranny needs to a gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. George Washington said influence is no government. I hope the citizens will vote against such in the fall elections. Again, thank you for informing the citizens of their rights.

Sincerely,

Derril Robertson

Vietnam veteran

Athens

Time to talk climate change

Dear Editor:

When we talk about global warming and climate change, we often talk in what seem to be minute numbers. What has the impact been of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit temperature increase? What happens if the temperature rises another 5 or 10 degrees? Let’s look at the other end of that.

Almost all of us have had the experience of boiling a pot of water. It takes a while to raise its temperature from about 70 degrees to the 212 degrees we are trying to achieve. Long enough, in fact, that we have the adage “a watched pot never boils.” What if we put enough pots on enough burners to raise the temperature of all the Earth’s oceans?

If you use gallon pots, you will need more than 300 quadrillion of them. That is a thousand times a thousand times a thousand times a thousand times a thousand times 300. The amount of energy you would need to raise the temperature of that much water at the rate it is occurring now is impressive. It is calculated to be approximately the energy gained from detonating one Hiroshima atomic bomb every second, all day long, every day.

Once you have raised the water temperature, you have effectively stored all of that energy. It does not simply disappear, it does things. It changes ocean currents, melts ice, evaporates water, changes air currents, and alters climate around the world. That, in turn, raises water levels, impacts farmlands, affects the spread of disease, and extinguishes valuable plant and animal life.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Hines

Chairman, Limestone County Democrats

Athens