Letters to the editor – Tuesday (6-23-09)
Published 12:00 am Monday, June 22, 2009
Let police be the ones who chase down criminals
I just read the June 20 story about the appeals court upholding the conviction of the kid who stole some gas and was involved in a high-speed chase that killed a woman. This brought back the same feelings I had a year ago when the story was fresh. The young man should definitely be punished, but the gas station owner should be sharing equally with him. He had no right to chase him. We do not live in an age of vigilantism. All he had to do was call 911 and let law enforcement officers do their jobs.
I imagine the kid might have reacted differently if the police were behind him instead of some enraged store owner! He did not know if he was about to be shot or what.
OK, one year has passed. Tell me, Mr. Store Owner, have you missed that $$$ for the tank of gas? Or has your life gone on as before?
Now, families of the deceased woman and the wayward young man, do you continue to miss them or has your life gone on as before? I think I know the answers to both questions.
I don’t know any of the people involved but I do know that people should think of all the consequences before acting in such a brash manner. Let the police do their jobs and you tend to your business. Then, if the outcome is the same, you are not at equal fault.
ó Cathy Wiry
China Grove
Warming a longterm trend
Do all mainstream scientists agree that humans are the cause of global warming?
“Human activities are not influencing the global climate in a perceptible way. Climate will continue to change, as it always has in the past, warming and cooling on different time scales and for different reasons, regardless of human action.”
“Climate has been changing cyclically for at least a million years and has shown huge variations over geological time.”
“We can only trust that reason will prevail in the face of an onslaught of propaganda like Al Gore’s movie and despite the incessant misinformation generated by the media.” ó Dr. S. Fred Singer, Ph.D. in physics from Princeton, founding director of the U.S. National Weather Satellite Service
“It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” ó U.S. government atmospheric scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
“The global warming scare is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making.” ó NASA astronaut/geologist/moonwalker Jack Schmitt
On Dec. 11, 2008, the U.S. Senate issued a report entitled,” More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Manmade Global Warming Claims”
A recent program of the series “Exploring North Carolina,” on PBS television, discussed the Outer Banks of our state. Geologists have discovered that 7,000 years ago sea level in our state was 40 feet lower than today and 4,000 years ago it was 15 feet lower than today. This data combined with geological and fossil evidence from all over the world provide a tremendous volume of data showing we are continuing on a long-term trend of warming up from the last ice age.
ó Joe D. Teeter
Gold Hill
Did taxpayers take a dive?
Who paid the bill for birthday jump?
I would like to know if the poor taxpayers footed the bill for former President George H.W. Bush’s parachute jump on his 85th birthday. What a nice diversion from our problems.
It was mentioned that these were military personnel involved, to say nothing of the Secret Service detail on hand for the occasion.
Can someone determine who authorizes all this hullabaloo? Who would have the nerve to divulge all these expenses ó and would the Post publish them?
ó W.L. Poole
Salisbury