LETTERS: No trust in Northdate's 'update'; Detailing Biblical myths

As for this new proposal to "update" Northgate, it boils down to one thing, trust. When Holick's Boots, an historic storefront closed and the buyer promised the Historic Preservation Committee that he would maintain the integrity of the storefront no matter what the retail space became. He promised that the displays in the front would pay homage to the history of Northgatecand Holik's Boots. Did that ever happen? No! A hookah shop opened in that space. The iconic sign for Holik's was bought by someone in New York. New York?! "Git a rope!"

When City of College Station Historic Building #1 was bought by developers and a high rise was scheduled in its place, they promised the Historic Preservation Committee that a display inside the new structure would pay homage to the first dedicated city hall building and police station that was currently operating as Cafè Eccel. Did that ever happen? Heck, no!

Once again, a plan is in the works to completely revamp the face, integrity and history of Northgate with vague promises that the charm of the historic area will remain. Should we trust the developers to carry out their promises? Absolutely not!

What's next? Will the money hungry powers that be on the A&M campus set their sights on the System Administration Building? The Academic Building? They already razed the president's home to build Aggie Park "because the students needed a place to study outside." Why was west campus built? Did those who supported Aggie Park look into why there was a huge unused green space in front of the president's home? I doubt it. The original campus land was bought for a song because it was considered undesirable swamp land full of marshy areas breeding mosquitos and malaria. I believe more than a dozen swamps were drained in order to build the original campus structures. That green space in front of the president's home was one of them.

When Ford Albritton wanted to build a monument to himself, the Albritton Bell Tower, on campus an "insignificant" piece of A&M history, the World War One Memorial was moved to a seldom seen spot almost as an aside to the Aggies who lost their lives in the war. When my sister Karen and I visited that WWI memorial with our grandfather (D. V. DePasquale, Class of 1924) and our father (Calvin C. Boykin, Jr., a WWII veteran and Class of 1946) in 1956, it was very emotional. I had never seen my grandfather cry. He silently took out his handkerchief and wiped away his tears. How sad.

The Jewish people have overachieved in almost every field of science and art in spite of enduring years of prejudice, exclusion and violence. However, a literal reading of the Bible has led to widely-held misconceptions about their early history.

Many of the stories in the Hebrew Bible are obviously myths. For example, stories of the creation, a worldwide flood, the sun standing still and a person becoming a pillar of salt. These and many other Bible stories defy known laws of nature so cannot be true.

Other Bible stories are not obviously mythical but are not supported by historical records. For example, God's seven plagues on Egypt and other events associated with Moses and the Israelite Exodus. No Egyptian or other non-biblical document from that time records any of these unusual events.

Documents from the time of Moses, written on clay or stone, have been found throughout the Middle East. None of these mention Moses or any of the other main characters from the Hebrew Bible. No mention of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Joshua, Solomon, David or any other Hebrew hero or Prophet.

There are, however, non-biblical references to several dozen characters who are named in the Bible. Included are Egyptian pharaohs, kings of Assyria and Babylon and kings of Israel such as Ahab, Pekah, Omn, Jehu and Jotham. There is nothing about any of the major players in any of the familiar Bible stories.

The familiar Bible stories have been inspirational, morally instructive and comforting to generations of people and they remain so for us today. However, they are myths. They do not describe historical events.