Dear Editor,

Liberals argue that the Marriage Protection Amendment, which would define marriage solely as the union of one man and one woman, would write discrimination into the U.S. Constitution. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Amendment opponents have asked, &8216;How does one couple&8217;s gay marriage threaten anyone&8217;s heterosexual marriage?&8217; This question misses the point: The goal of gay activists isn&8217;t the individual relationship of any two people; it is the revision of national policy to say that gender, especially in child-rearing, is inconsequential.

Think of the MPA as a shield between our traditional values and radical judges intent on forcing their politically correct agenda on our nation. Without that shield, it&8217;s only a matter of time until marriage loses all meaning &8212; and social science data indicate children will suffer the most when that happens.

The men and women we elected to serve us in Washington must understand these truths &8212; and vote the right way when they take up the matter in early June.

Christine Baggette

Maylene

Dear Editor,

It is good news that Alabama Power is finally putting some money into upgrades to cut their environmental pollution emissions in Shelby County, especially since the AL Federal courts ruled they did not have to do so.

The studies that determined Alabama Power&8217;s steam plant emissions kills around 200 to 250 per year in Jefferson County yearly never talk about us in Shelby County, and I say it needs to be publicized.

The rates of cancer in our area need to be studied and it needs to be done soon.

Shelby County Alabama has the No. 1 worst polluter in Alabama and the number 49 worst polluter in the entire USA.

It is their Gaston Steam Plant in Wilsonville.

This is is where AL Power is now putting in some new pollution controlling upgrades.

I want to know will it be enough to clean up for the years of expansion and tens of thousands of tons of more pollution they have added since the Clean Air Act in 1977?

Will the upgrades make emissions be at a safe level?

This pollution is known to cause cancer and all sorts of health problems.

I have just had major cancer surgery and I was lucky that my cancer was contained and removed in the operation. Still I have serious concerns about the cancer rates in Shelby County and specifically Pelham where I moved to from Texas three years ago.

In Pelham my next-door neighbor died of cancer about 2 1/2 years ago.

A year later his wife, my neighbor, was also diagnosed with cancer.

Another younger husband and wife in Pelham have survived both being diagnosed with the same type of cancer within months of one another, and they are only in their mid thirties. To change this trend is my goal.

I ask Alabama Power and other big polluters to continue to clean up their cancer causing pollution to where we all can even eat fish from anyplace in Alabama again.

Ms. Robbie R. Kidwell

Pelha