A despicable attack on our president
A few days ago, our president was almost struck with a thrown shoe. At first, I thought it almost humorous, but within a split second of getting my thoughts together I became furious. This man, Mr. George W. Bush, is my president ó the president of the United States of America ó the most powerful country in the world. How dare anyone make such an openly and despicable attack on our president.
Mr. Bush is a human being, and he is not perfect in any way; but he has feelings, even if he is good at covering them up. I may not agree with a lot of decisions he has made. But whether you voted for him or not ó whether you like him or not ó he represents all of us Americans.
We just don’t get it, and we don’t respect our leaders. Can you imagine the outcry if an American journalist had done the same thing to a visiting president from another country?
To me, even with everything going on in this nation ó the economy, the stock market ó everything, we are still the free-world leaders and that shoe might as well have been thrown at me and you.
ó James E. Neely
East Spencer
The planet’s on thin ice
Fifty years ago, I spent a summer with the Eskimos on the north Alaska shore, where the sea held ice galore. Whales moving north had to rise to breathe in the occasional open leads, where the hopeful whale hunters camped on the ice.
Seals crawled up on ice to bask, and polar bears lived on them. As the ice began to break up in the spring, walrus rode bergs slowly northward, feeding on the clams in shallow water along the way.
Whales, seals and walrus gave the Eskimos the oil, meat and skins that supported their way of life, as it had for centuries.
And now? The summer ice is thinning or gone, and with it that ancient established way of life. And why? Global warming, which is more advanced in the north but is here, too ó more so every year, with consequences that we here can barely see today but will change our lives as it continues to increase tomorrow.
Can we avoid such unforeseen consequences? Yes, we can, if we make the effort now. That’s the good news. The bad news is that we are dragging our feet.
ó Dick Taber
Salisbury