Open Forum

Last night I went to the Brainerd Civic Center to watch my daughter skate. She was rehearsing the program she will skate in the Vacationland Figure Skating Club's ice show, March 16-17. Her music was beautiful. She skated with grace and beauty. This will be my daughter's last ice show. She is graduating from high school this spring. As I watched, I was remembering back to when she started to skate, at age 2. She was happy to make it across the rink. I remembered early morning hours of ice in Brainerd and drives to St Cloud for ice time. I remembered all the falls and all the bruises. I remembered the smiles when she landed her first jump, when she placed in competition and when she passed a test session. I remembered the conversations we had while having breakfast at Burger King after morning practice or lunch at McDonald's after a later practice or during the drives to and from the rink. I remembered all the friends she made at the rink. I thought of all the coaches she has had. I thought of all the volunteer parents it takes to make Vacationland Figure Skating Club a success. Thank you all. Most of all I remembered all the ice shows Serena has skated in. She has loved every one of them. I'm sure this show will be no exception. She has enjoyed the opportunity of meeting and skating with Olympic skaters. I invite everyone to come see this year's show. You will enjoy all of our local skaters. You'll be thrilled by our special guest skaters, Anita Hartshort and Frank Sweiding. Most of all, you will be helping all the skaters make memories.

Judy Shatka

Brainerd

Regrets statement

While protesting abortion a few years ago, a man came up to me crying. His wife had an abortion, against his will.

The aborted baby was half his baby too.

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people (Proverbs 14:34).

Something which I wrote about, in a previous Open Forum letter, was about a young woman who came up to me while I was protesting abortion and said, "I shouldn't be out on the street corner making people sad about abortions." She said that she had an abortion. I said that she shouldn't have had sex then.

She then told me that she was raped.

I should have said that I was sorry to hear that.

Abortion, because of rape, is a sin though. Half the baby came from her.

I do hope she hears about this Open Forum letter and forgives me for making her sad.

I also hope she knows or comes to know that the Lord is kind and forgiving. Not that we tempt the Lord, but that if we are truly repentant, He'll forgive us.

Patrick Borden

Brainerd