And your basis for this is . . .?

F. Yoder of Paris wrote a letter to the editor about child abuse. He said that, from what he has read, northeast Texas has more child abuse than other regions. He does not specify what he has read, so we don't know if it's a credible source or not. I did a little internet search, and I couldn't find any hard statistics for child abuse in northeast Texas or anywhere else for that matter. My suspicion is that Lamar County is no better or worse than the national average. So my first question to F. Yoder is, "What's your source?"

Then he says that he wants to know when community leaders and churches are going to step up to the plate to make the public more aware of these crimes. Obviously, someone is making the public aware of them -- he knew. My second and third questions to F. Yoder are, "Is there some reason YOU can't step up to the plate? Have you encouraged YOUR pastor and YOUR church to take a stand and do something?"

There have been several times when people have told me I "ought" to do this or that. My response is usually, "Well, since you obviously have such an interest in the subject, I can't think of a better person than you to do it." They usually don't say another word about it, and I suspect that F. Yoder wouldn't, either. It's easy to run your mouth. It's a lot harder to actually do something. I suggest that if F. Yoder really wants to make a difference, he might volunteer at CASA for Kids or write some articles for the newspaper with some constructive suggestions or foster some of these kids.

"Fight child abuse." The Paris News; April 13, 2010; p. 4.