LETTERS

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WOUNDED WARRIOR MEMORIAL I am on a quest to contact one editor in each capital city from all 50 states by Memorial Day to share my brother’s last request. For so many people, this is just another holiday – a day off work. For me, it has become a painful reminder of the high cost of war at a price I was not prepared to pay.

A casualty officer and chaplain knocked on my parents’ door on Aug. 6, 2011. My “baby” brother, Christopher George Campbell, was killed in Afghanistan while proudly serving our country in the U.S. Navy. Chris did not want our family to focus on his death. He wanted us to raise awareness for Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) whose vision is to foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in our nation’s history.

For me, Chris lives on in each wounded warrior who is helped by the programs and services offered by WWP. He hoped that 100,000 people would donate to WWP to help those men and women who do come home to their families. Thus far, more than 1,500 people have donated to Wounded Warrior Project in Chris’ memory. I am reaching out to ask you to share his last request and to help him complete his final mission. Cindy Campbell Proud sister of Christopher George Campbell, US Navy Sept. 16, 1974 –Aug. 6, 2011 San Antonio, Texas

BAHA’IS IN IRAN Springfield-area members of the Baha’i Faith have been reciting extra prayers this month on behalf of their wrongly incarcerated brethren living in Iran. May 14 marked the five-year anniversary of the outrageous and severe incarceration of seven Baha’is living in Iran. Their unfair treatment has led to the introduction in Congress of two resolutions (SR 75 and HR 109) decrying Iran’s longstanding mistreatment of its largest religious minority.

These seven long-abused Baha’is, whose professions prior to incarceration included schoolteacher, businessman, psychologist, optometrist and social worker, were imprisoned for more than a year before gaining access to legal representation. The fabricated charges filed against them include spying for Israel– and have no basis in fact.

The cruel and inhumane treatment of Baha’is in Iran has been long endured. Since 1978, a total of 221 Iranian Baha’is have been executed or “disappeared” for their beliefs. Thousands more have been wrongfully imprisoned, fired from government jobs, barred from pursuing higher education, or had personal property confiscated or destroyed.

People need to know about the generationslong persecution that continues to be waged against the 300,000 Baha’is that live in Iran. To learn more about the history and persecution of Baha’is in Iran, visit iran.bahai.us.

Please lend your support to the two resolutions currently before Congress, and urge your Congressional representatives to do the same. Your prayers and well wishes on behalf of these seven peaceful people would be most welcomed, too. Mike Lang Sherman

CORREX A letter to the editor noting the 200 th anniversary of the birth of Stephen A. Douglas published in our May 9 edition mistakenly stated that Douglas attended college in Jacksonville. After we inquired, Mike Westbrook, reference librarian at Illinois College, sent this response: “According to the American National Biography, Douglas attended the Canandaigua Academy in New York for his undergraduate education. He did not attend a formal law school, but instead studied law in the office of a New York attorney. After six months of study, he moved to Jacksonville. He was admitted to the bar in 1834 after an examination by a judge, who, according to the ANB, suggested that he needed to learn more of the law. None of his education took place in Illinois.”