Give grandmother a ‘b’ for ‘band!’ As...

Give grandmother

a ‘b’ for ‘band!’

As a concerned grandmother, whose grandson is a member of the

Newport Harbor High School marching band, it seems to me that the

well-deserving football team gets all the accolades while the band

plays its heart out with no acknowledgment.

It’s time to give them some credit. The football team and the band

need each other.

MARGARET MCKENZIE

Newport Beach

Slocum’s name better without Rodman link

Regarding the Pilot’s Saturday story, “Rodman’s club takes on new

look, owner’s name,” I think changing the name of the restaurant Josh

Slocum’s to Rodman’s is a great idea.

I’ve been troubled for years that a name famous in the sailing

community (Josh Slocum was the first person to sail around the world

alone) and Dennis Rodman were in any way linked.

Dennis Rodman would be lucky if he could even sail around the bay.

And if he did, he’d probably get into some kind of trouble.

MIKE BUETTELL

Balboa Island

Prayer should be private, not at school

The Daily Pilot shows a huddle of football players with one young

man standing up, looking as though he is crying. A father writes in

to say that the young man was actually leading his team in prayer

(“Huddling for prayer,” Letter to the Editor, Dec. 15). In another

Pilot “Letter to the Editor” (“Public game an improper place for

private prayer,” Dec. 17), the writer notes that since the game in

question was played by a public school team, group prayer seems

inappropriate.

Along comes resident Pilot moralist Steve Smith defending the

right to pray (“No reason to be up in arms about players’ prayer,”

Dec. 18). Steve notes that even our troops in Iraq pray. Give us a

break, Steve! No one questions the right of Americans to pray in our

houses of worship, homes, cars, battlefields or anywhere else.

However, group prayer at high school is about separation of church

and state, not freedom to pray.

Steve -- it’s time to get off your soapbox and spend more time

reading and understanding the Constitution. It’s a brilliant document

that’s been around for more than 200 years. The framers of the

Constitution decided, and the Supreme Court has consistently held,

that tax-supported institutions like public schools shouldn’t favor

one religion over another.

We live in the greatest country in the world, and one of the

things that attracted the original settlers and still separates us

from so many other countries is our tolerance for each other’s views

and religions. We need to cherish that liberty and protect it.

DON ABRAMS

Balboa Island