The Coastal Point encourages the exchange of ideas. Letters to the editor must be signed by the author with phone number included for purposes of verification. Please send your letters to P.O. Box 1324, Ocean View, DE 19970.

Darin J. McCann

I write because I can’t speak.

That’s not entirely true. If you speak to the people I’m close to, they’ll no doubt tell you I often talk far more than a human being has a right to, and about subjects that are best left in the taboo aisle of your local department store. It’s just in those social settings where I’m around a bunch of people I don’t know, or when I’m called upon to speak in public ... well, the stammering, perspiring and obtuse version of myself often makes a guest appearance.

That, or I just freeze.

It’s not entirely a brain lock I experience. On the contrary, there are usually thousands of little thoughts floating through my exhausted gray matter, and quite a few one-liners bouncing against my throat hoping to be released to an unknowing audience, but they are usually staved off by the sheer wall of panic blocking my vocal cords.

Remember in school when notes were regularly passed student-by-student around the classroom? Oh, I was Henny Youngman in those times. However, as soon as the teacher called on me for an answer I turned into George Bush Sr. at a Japanese state dinner.

You get the picture.

This has continued into my adult years. It’s easy for me to rail against injustices or praise the glories of Jameson from behind the safety net of my keyboard, but put me in front of a group of Lion’s Club members and I get more nervous than a coed who just found out her summer internship will be in Bill Clinton’s office.

Well, imagine the fear coursing through my veins last week as I prepared to face my ultimate test. We’ve all heard of “defining moments” in one’s life, those slices in time when a challenge is presented to each individual and it is up to that person to tackle his or her demon and rise to the test — or sink like a sitcom on NBC. My unique challenge was more frightening than a simple parachuted leap from a plane or standing up to that bully demanding my milk money.

I had to face children. A lot of them.

A friend convinced me to be a volunteer for Junior Achievement. The program is a partnership between businesses and schools, designed to bring some of “the real world” into the classroom, so students can gain some insight about business and learn how business techniques get put to us in practicality. My mission was to work with a fifth-grade class at Frankford Elementary School for a full week, about 45 minutes a day.

Gulp.

Let me preface what comes next by saying that, though I was admittedly nervous of what permanent damage I could inflict on the impressionable minds of fifth-grade students if I screwed this up, I also felt going into this that I had come a long way in terms of my fear of speaking to a group.

My father, who I often look to as a Yoda-like figure during times of stress in my life, has told me time and time again that if you go into a situation like this prepared, there’s nothing to fear. This echoes a mantra I heard a million times in the Marine Corps that proper planning prevents poor performance.

So, I prepared. And prepared and prepared and prepared. Monday morning came, and I was ready to face my fears, attack the situation with relish and become a positive force in the lives of these young people forever.

That was exactly 15 minutes before reality crept into the picture.

See, everything was fine when I first walked into the classroom. The teacher, Mr. Strong, greeted me with a kind smile and introduced me to the class. The students, as eager as any group I could have ever requested, warmly welcomed me into their classroom and I opened up the teacher’s book to guide myself through the lesson with the highlighted sections I had prepared.

Then, my head spun and my voice clutched.

Well, for about five minutes. See, for every item of information I would pop out with from the lesson plan, five questions would funnel in from the students — some having to do with what we were talking about, and some coming right out of left field. It was like the students would, oh, I don’t know ... digress.

I would appoint someone manager of a fictional company in an exercise, and the conversation would turn to who this individual could or could not fire. This would then devolve into firings throughout the classroom, even by students not involved in the exercise. The students learned by thinking outside the box, along with learning what the box contained. It was spectacular.

By wandering off track, I could see what the students felt was important, and the kids could apply what they were learning from the lesson plan into situations they could understand.

For five mornings the students and I went back and forth between digressions and the lesson plan. And for five mornings I felt like they actually learned something each time. I know I did. No, nothing about public speaking, I assure you I still stink on ice with that deal.

I learned that digressing is good. Maybe I’ll do it more often. Oh, and I learned that teaching is hard. I’ll probably do that less.

Look inside before outside

Due to the financial shortfall recently by the Delaware Department of Transportaiton (DelDOT), talk has turned to the state possibly taking real estate transfer tax funds from Sussex County to ease the burden. That, in turn, could lead to the state eventually taking those funds from the municipalities.

Not good.

The development of this community has spurred a general negativity concerning the changing face of our make-up, however, the one undisputable positive coming from the growth has been the influx of those transfer tax fees into town and county coffers. This, of course, results in more services available for the residents and visitors and a lack of a need for the towns and county to drastically increase property taxes.

We know DelDOT is in a tough situation. We are by no means belittling the incredible amount of projects they need to get done throughout the state and the fact that their budget, like everybody else’s, is limited. We also appreciate the fact that they are responsible for improving the majority of the roads in the area, and can understand their desire to secure some of the funding from our county and towns.

That being said, this is not something that should ever happen.

The state already gets funding from this community, and some of that money goes to DelDOT. This comes from state taxes on employees and other means of revenue. Also, if DelDOT does have an operating budget, it is DelDOT’s responsibility to plan projects with respect to that budget.

We’re sorry for the shortfall, but look somewhere else.

Fluoride in Bethany water comes with risks
Editor:

I have to confess to rarely reading any of the local papers. There are just too many of them.

As I was leaving Fenwick Hardware I glanced at the headlines of several of these local papers and was arrested by the announcement that Bethany Beach’s water was to be fluoridated.

I shall not share with you my reaction to that news other than amazement that Bethany officials could possibly be that stupid. Or worse. I was relieved to discover the council was not guilty.

I am really impressed by your article. It was a thoughtful and well composed examination of the arguments. I suggest, if you are permitted to go any further than you already have that there is a great deal more to this than you suspect.

A good place to start is by considering the sanity of the idea that putting fluoride in municipal water systems is a good way to dispense medicine. Bear in mind that you absorb this deadly toxin through your skin when you shower.

I became interested in the subject of fluoridation some 20 years ago when I lived in central New York. One of the Syracuse bedroom communities had proposed fluoridating its water and provoked a firestorm of opposition.

The community was not regarded as being a haven for Neanderthals and I became curious as to why this proposition, which I regarded as benign at the time, would cause such division.

Without the extraordinary resource of the Internet I was able to consider the subject only in bits and pieces. It was only after I went online about 10 years ago that I began to get the picture of what this mass medication experiment was really about. I was horrified by what I learned.

There have been hundreds of studies since the turn of the last century that have examined the effects of fluoride on animals and humans. The evidence is so overwhelmingly negative and the story of its addition to the nation’s water system is as ghastly a premeditated crime against humanity as had ever been perpetrated — at least until the widespread use of depleted uranium weapons began in Bosnia.

The myth that this deadly poison is somehow good for us has been so ingrained in our society over the past 50 years and evidence to the contrary so carefully suppressed that few of the many proponents of this practice are any longer aware of the truth.

To get a good overview of this subject I shall provide you with a link to the full text of Valdamar Valerians “A Chronology of Fluoridation — Politics vs. Science” (http://curezone.com/dental/fluoride.asp). I bought this through Valerian’s Leading Edge International Research Group and then discovered the full text was available online. You won’t have to read very much of this to get the picture. You will not like this.

Several articles by Mary Sparrowdancer provide an excellent overview and deal with the broader implications of this practice (www.rense.com/general45/bll.htm and www.whale.to/b/sparrowdancer1.html). Her examination of “America’s Most Optimally Fluoridated State,” Kentucky, whose residents, inexplicably, have the worst teeth and that isn’t all, is a shocker.

From the other side of the pond and one of the only other countries in the world ruthless enough to fluoridate their water and perhaps the UK’s most respected authority on thyroid disease: http://rense.com/general57/FLUR.HTM.

I guess I should warn you that it is not an accident that this doesn’t get more exposure in the mainstream media. As usual, there is a huge amount of money involved in the perpetuation of this atrocity.

The ADA’s survival depends upon fluoride to boost business. The aluminum and fertilizer industries would have a catastrophic hazardous waste problem, and think of all the machinery and jobs in dispensing this poison.

Then there’s our splendid health care system that manages to accidentally kill an estimated six jumbo jets full of people every single day. You could easily lose your job. You may already be getting hate mail from dentists for suggesting there may be a downside to fluoride.

Jeff Irving
Fenwick Island

Community support made the difference
Editor:

On Oct. 9, the Beebe Medical Center Auxiliary sponsored a successful fundraising dinner and auction event, Night in Lewes, at La Rosa Negra restaurant. Not only did people enjoy themselves, but also $10,000 was raised toward the Beebe Medical Center Vision 2005 Capital Campaign to help fund the Emergency Department expansion.

This annual event could not have been possible without the support and generosity of our sponsors, donors, auxiliary members, and of course those who attended the event. On behalf of the auxiliary, there are many people I would like to thank.

I would like to thank our sponsors: Joseph Hudson and his family, County Bank, Wachovia Bank, Atlantic Liquors, Jack Lingo, Realtor, Price Acura-Dover, Country Life Homes, Delaware National Bank, Lane Builders, La Rosa Negra Restaurant, Webb Builders, R. Rush Ellis, Realtor, Boulevard Motors, Lewes Realty, Pulte Homes, Citizens Bank, Truitt Insurance and Lewes Dairy.

I would also like to thank the many merchants, restaurants and individuals who donated items for our silent and live auctions. Those donators are: Abizak’s Furniture, Beacon Motel, Best’s Ace Hardware, Bluewater Grill, Books Are Fun, Buttery Restaurant, Casa Di Leo, Cotton Company, Country Lane Bed & Breakfast, Deanna’s, Dominoes Pizza-Lewes, Skip Faust, Realtor, Fin’s Fish House, Furniture Gallery, Gilligan’s Waterfront, Glyphix Advertising, Habersham Peddler Interiors, Hampton Inn, Irish Eyes-Lewes, Jerry’s Seafood, Jewelry Exchange, Just For You, Ladies Workout Express, Lemon Tree Restaurant, Lighthouse Restaurant-Lewes, Made Ya Look Salon, David Manley Antiques, Midway Movies, Madlyn Mills, Millsboro Bazaar, Mugs & Stitches, Nassau Valley Vineyards, Nicola Pizza, Notting Hill Coffee Roastery, Oakcreek Furnishing & Design, Hilda Parker, Peebles Department Store, Piccolino, Puzzles, R&L Liquor, Roadsters, Rocky Mt. Chocolate Factory, Sea Shell Shop, Second Street Grille, Mr. and Mrs. Steinbruck, Stepping Stones, Breck Stringer-artist, Russell Stover Candies, Taylor Wells Design, Trader’s Antiques, Two Friends, Mr. and Mrs. Ungerbuehler, Mark and Barbara Vugrinec, Victoria’s Restaurant and Wildflowers.

I would like to thank Beebe Communication Coordinator Kirk Blackburn for volunteering as our auctioneer. I also would like to thank a few people who worked behind the scenes: La Rosa Negra owner Bob Cirelli for his hospitality and assistance; Patt Cheyney, our assistant chairwoman of our Ways and Means Committee, for her tireless support and for the wonderful job she did on the beach theme decorations; and, Patt’s husband, Bill Cheyney, and my husband, Jerry Sandy, for picking up and delivering all the items for the auctions.

Pat Sandy
Chairwoman, Ways and Means
Beebe Medical Center Auxiliary

Basket Bingo a big hit thanks to local help
Editor:

On Oct. 25, The Wellness Community-Delaware held our first Basket Bingo and Silent Auction at the Cape Henlopen Elks Lodge #2540.

It was a wonderful success that could not have been possible with out the support of both the wonderful people at the Elks Lodge and the many merchants, corporations and individuals through out our community.

We would like to acknowledge and thank our basket sponsors: Choice Construction Co. Inc., George Hannaway, Mayor and Mrs. Sam Cooper, Cynthia Dwyer, B. J. Funderburk, Allen Jarmon from Crowley & Associates, Kaye Webb, Patti Hannaway, Cal Weible and Bruce Wright from Century 21 Wilgus Associates and a friend of TWC.

Part of our success on Tuesday night was our raffle and silent auction tables and we thank the following for their generousity: Murray Archibald, Al Casapulla’s Italian Deli, Avenue Day Spa, Bad Hair Day, Bear Trap Dunes, Beauty at the Beach Salon, Bethany Florist, Boardwalk Plaza, Carlton’s, Christmas Spirit, Creative Concepts, Creative Impressions, Dirty Harry’s, Hocker’s Super Wash, Jockey Factory Store, Kool Bean Café, Krugerrand, La Dolce Vita, Lady Fenwick, Gail Lear, Made You Look!, Millers Creek Furniture, Oceanside Casual Furniture, Pottery Place, Quail Restaurant, Rehoboth Boarding School, Robert Thomas Salon, Scraps From the Attic , Sea Level, Sea Shell City, Seaside Country Store, Dorothy Seyfried, South Moon Under, Sweets ’N’ Treats, Shore Peddler, Tickled Pink, Tideline Gallery, Touch of Italy, Terry Warrington, Merrill Lynch Financial Services, Surf Side Motel and Trudy Gola.

Also, we appreciate those in attendance at the Basket Bingo and Silent Auction. Your tremendous support has enabled The Wellness Community-Delaware to provide emotional support and educational programs for people with cancer and their loved ones.

All the services at The Wellness Community are offered free of charge.

Kaye Webb and Lori Watson
Sussex County Coordinators

Brains without common sense prevalent
Editor:

These days there are letters to the editor which ridicule the idea that Darwin’s theory of evolution was not the total answer to the existence of things on earth. The idea that intelligent design was involved was rejected, for to do so might admit the existence of god. To modern-day liberals, that would never do.

The controversy actually is a resentment that perhaps the idea of creationism is just an excuse to insist on the existence of god. Actually, creationism can be taken two ways; god created us or some other source of intelligence did, that we did not occur by chance.

The point is that creationism makes the case that the extremely complicated nature of things in our creation did not occur by accident, without intelligent design, without intent or purpose.

Isn’t it curious, in fact, that they all occurred based on scientific supposition and without any provable scientific evidence that they occurred unassisted? To depend on the argument that only science caused all things in our universe, without any conclusive evidence to back it, leaves total dependence on evolution without a viable basis.

Common sense says that you cannot have an evolution of anything without it having been somehow created in a beginning. Darwin presumed that life on earth began from a form of extremely elemental aquatic life that somehow developed into very complex beings through many transitional forms in a totally undirected and fortuitous way. Somehow, that does not sound very scientific.

He maintained that nothing and no one, no intelligence at all, entered into the direction of that evolution from nonexistent life to complex life. That idea defies logic; to human knowledge, defective as it is, nothing complex occurs without intelligent direction.

This is further substantiated by the fact that human life is only one of the things involved. We are asked to assume that all animal life occurred in the same way, as did all insect and avian life, the sun, moon and stars, every complex system on earth, on it, in it, above it and beneath it. All of them are evolving, but how did they get there?

Perhaps we could try to assume that one of them made it by accident, but all of them? And while we are still groveling to find out some of the basic answers to them in our very limited human scientology and limited human intelligence, shouldn’t it occur to us that perhaps our assumption we are totally informed intellectually may be defective?

If we are always perfect in our scientology why, then, does it itself evolve over the years? Could it be that it is consistently corrected as it evolves? And what causes it to evolve if not applied intelligence?

I once taught a sixth-grade Sunday-school class a simple example of why evolution is not the total answer. I asked them that if I tossed up into the air bricks, mortar, lumber, nails, shingles, plaster and windows, how many times would I have to do that before it came down and became a nice house?

Those kids convinced me that would never happen. They said that somebody would have to put them together to make a house. Then, after it was together, it could change by weather, additions, design changes, storm attacks and aging, and whatever happened to it. Those things would then take it through changes from the time it was put together to its final end.

They used common sense to realize that something had to be created before it can evolve. Perhaps our bright and brainy intelligentsia should consider that the intelligence they deny having any connection to existence of life and other complex systems in our scope of creation is somehow missing from their arguments.

Their insistence on the theory of total dependence on evolution as infallible current science is not infallible. It is still evolving guided by, guess what, their level of intelligence.

Their purpose is just to refute that evolution as taught in schools should be balanced by also presenting the idea of creationism, a consideration that a higher being, intelligence, also had a hand in it. The two ideas do not conflict, except that secularists do not want to admit any connection that may involve god in creationism by their bigoted antipathy.

Yet how can they deny intelligence in creating the very basis for evolution? Evolution by its very definition is a series of transitions from a defined beginning, not haphazard and all just plain lucky.

I suggest these brainy anti-god Darwinists attend sixth-grade Sunday-school and learn a little.

Charles N. Valenti
Rehoboth

CIB thankful for help with pig roast
Editor:

On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays and its staff, I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to the many individuals, groups, sponsors, and participants who helped make our Pig Roast and Chicken Barbecue benefit event at the James Farm Ecological Preserve a tremendous success.

Although the weather was wet and dreary, the day was filled with fun and fellowship that truly demonstrated the interest and support of the local community for protection and preservation of our Inland Bays.

This event would not have been possible without the generous contributions from the following event sponsors, which included: The BBQ Doctor/ Granville “Shorty” Hall and his wife Blanche, A.C. Schultes of Delaware Inc.; Meridian Architects & Engineers, Pat Campbell-White/The Beach Team of RE/MAX Realty Group; Hocker’s G & E Grocery; Perdue Farms Inc.; Milton Service Center; Dutch Ayr Farms; and Pepsi Cola of Delmarva.

In addition, we would like to thank Patrick Smooth for providing the afternoon’s entertainment. We also would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to all the volunteers who assisted with the day’s activities, especially Diane Turner for making the delicious seafood gumbo and helping to coordinate the food service.

And finally, a warm thank you to the many friends and families who joined us at the James Farm Ecological Preserve for this event. We appreciate your encouragement and support and look forward to having another outstanding event next year.

Rick Eakle, Chairmain
Board of Directors
Center for the Inland Bays