More than 400 years since the father of modern science began publishing his work, what do you imagine Galileo is doing tonight? My hope is the great man is not spinning in his grave.

How, now, can Galileo possibly find peace when unbridled overproduction, overconsumption and overpopulation activities of the human species now threaten to ravage the planetary home God has blessed us to inhabit? Many too many leaders and a predominant coterie of the “brightest and best” experts are choosing to remain silent. Please consider how the elective mutism could be contributing mightily to the ruination of Earth as fit place for human habitation.

Where are the leaders and experts willing to openly support solid research and validated empirical data? Look at the dismaying disarray in which we find ourselves now and how far we have to travel in a short time to move the human community away from precipitating some unimaginable sort of global ecological wreckage.

What would the world we inhabit look like if scientists like Galileo had chosen to adopt a code of silence? In such circumstances, Galileo as well as scientists today would speak only about scientific evidence which was deemed by the super-rich and most powerful people of the day to be politically convenient, religiously tolerable, economically expedient, socially correct and culturally prescribed. By so doing, Galileo and modern-day scientists would effectively breach their responsibilities to tell the truth as they see it. If science does not overcome silence, then everything the human community believes we are preserving and protecting could be ruined.

Perhaps there is something in the truthful reports of research from intellectually honest and moral courageous scientists regarding the colossal environmental and geological impact of the rapidly growing human population on the Earth that will give Galileo Galilei moments of peace.

Steve Salmony

Chapel Hill

Lost perspective?

Earlier this year I planted olive trees in the Palestinian West Bank with 50 people representing 12 countries. There I met Palestinian people quite different from what I had been led to believe from media accounts.

They are peaceful friendly people. They love their families. They love their land, of which very little remains. They love their agrarian culture of farming and herding and they welcome any stranger that comes in peace. I have never seen a culture that I felt so at home with, so quickly.

While I was there I came to appreciate that the U.S. is losing its moral imperative.

Why? Perhaps through ignorance, through indifference, through misinformation or through suppressed information. We have not only turned our back on these people, we have supplied military aid which has caused them unbelievable mortality, pain, suppression, humiliation and loss of homes, land and livelihood.

Americans are now segregating themselves in enclaves where they interact only with their own kind and with those of like perspective. Is this the kind of interaction or lack of it that we want in our own communities? I do not think so. Let us deal openly with the issues where there is disagreement. Let us discuss those issues which can separate us.

I am not a member of the Church of Reconciliation but I believe this community church is trying to provide that stimulus with these bus ads.

I hope that the Chapel Hill government with the aid of the transit system bus ads and other facilities at their disposal will assist in the effort to bring us together.

Ralph McCoy

Durham

With my own eyes

The “bus ad controversy” has me more and more dismayed. The ad, which has been called offensive, evil and divisive, shows two smiling grandfathers holding their grandchildren, calling on readers to join them in building peace with justice and equality for Palestinians and Israelis.

That’s a thought-provoking statement, but hardly evil or offensive. A thinking person would ask why anyone would claim that military aid to Israel is an obstacle to building peace with justice and equality. If they looked into it, they would find that the U.S. gives Israel more than $3.1 billion in military aid each year, with no strings attached. That aid supports ongoing land confiscation, home demolitions, illegal Israeli settlement construction, destruction of olive trees and confiscation of water in Palestinian Territory. I spent nine days in the West Bank last February, and saw it with my own eyes.

Council member Penny Rich said she doesn’t publicly take a stand on Israel, but then she proceeded to do just that, saying “we as a town have to understand the strong bond Jewish people have with Israel. We need to extend our respect by not accepting political ads that will offend our Jewish citizens.” How about not offending our Palestinian citizens?? I know many, and they are offended every day by the U.S. role in supporting Israel’s illegal and repressive occupation of Palestinian Territory.

Advocating for peace is not political, it’s humanitarian. And opposing illegal actions by the Israeli government is not anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic. There is lively debate about this issue within Israel – why shouldn’t we be able to talk about it here? This bus ad is an attempt to stimulate just that.

James A. Rice

Raleigh

Vote for Obama

Four years ago, America faced its greatest economic crisis in generations. Employment was plummeting, and a second Great Depression appeared possible.

Since taking office, President Obama has worked tirelessly to stabilize the economy and rebuild America’s middle-class. This hasn’t always been easy, but we are moving in the right direction. We now have steady job growth, and recovery is underway.

Now Mitt Romney proposes a return to the Bush-era policies of cutting taxes for millionaires and giving freer reign to Wall Street that led us into this mess. This didn’t work before, and it won’t work now.

I urge your readers to vote for Barack Obama.

Andrew Mills

Chapel Hill

Republicans’ mess

President Bill Clinton was concise, clear, and eloquent in his assessment of the Republican Party’s campaign logic. As good as the president’s explanation was in the debates, it was incomplete and inaccurate by omission.

When he said, “We (the Republicans) left you a total mess, you have not cleaned it up fast enough, and you should be fired and give us a chance”, he should have included a reference to the Republican obstructionists in Congress. In addition to the “you have not cleaned (the mess) up fast enough, he should have added, we (the Republicans) have not helped to clean up the mess in addition we hid the mop and locked the broom closet.

I am extremely proud and hopeful that the majority of the electorate is apparently not buying what the Republicans are peddling as solutions to our national problems.

D. Ray McArthur

Hillsborough

Moral outrage?

On Aug. 8 Paul Hardin opined about a four-year assault on the presidency. He offended all principled, patriotic and disciplined Americans.

His vindictiveness toward Sen. McConnell, the “extreme right,” the unsophisticated voters, etc was despicable. He remands the press for lies while incorrectly labeling Republicans as obstructions by not engaging in dialogue with the president and Democrats in the Senate.

This is false. The president’s budget was rejected by Congress and Reid has not submitted a budget as required by law in more than three years. The presidents has failed in his duty to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” his Benghazi lies, and not meeting Netanyahu. Is “The View” more important? His missing countless security meetings are irresponsible.

There is more, but the above should suffice to correct the chancellor and the mainline press in their misguided support the president.

Moral outrage? It’s alive; it just isn’t with the liberal progressives move to bureaucratic despotism. Win or lose Nov. 6. I will continue to fight for restoring our constitutional republic and freedom!

Robert Gruninger

Chapel Hill