Letters to the editor — Monday (12-15-14)
Published 12:00 am Monday, December 15, 2014
Post too quick to toss dart
at fired police officer
I feel that I and others with a backbone and enough nerve to stand up for what is right, should let their opinion be heard.
The editorial board should be ashamed of themselves for printing hearsay. The term that you used was “reportedly”. Of all professions, you above all else, should only print the facts.
Your opinion re Officer Bill Torrence is very much akin to something else—-of which we all have one! Unless you and everyone else have all the facts, you should keep your opinion to yourself! When you have ALL the facts and the matter is concluded, then and ONLY then should you state your opinion. Your words are harmful and without merit. Have any of your board, or even any of us, never used the terms cracker, whitey, slave driver, cotton picker, gangsta, nigga, nazi or any of the numerous other so called derogatory terms? These terms and many others have been used at one or more times by all of us, myself included. I ask that the general public monitor each and everyone of your staff and document your language. When you let it slip, we will then demand that you be subject to public humiliation and loose you job and your future.
Why is it that you do not make mention of the many wonderful years that Mr Torrence served us. With only two reprimands to his record of 22 years, one must conclude that he was an exceptional officer.
Your board and others that agree with you do not just deserve a dart but a flaming arrow,
I urge everyone to contact every member of your staff, city council and police chief at their homes during their “OFF TIME”. After all, Mr Torrence was supposedly on his “off time” when this occurred.
Stand up for what is right. After all, would each of you not appreciate others doing this for you if you were in Mr Torrence’s place.
I do not know Mr Torrence and do not ever remember working with him when I was an officer there, but I do have a strong sense of pride in standing up for what is right.
— Wayne Eller
Steamboat Springs, Colo.
Response from a non-believer
In response to the letter, “Where will you spend eternity?” (Dec. 6) I would like to offer the following observations.
I cannot understand how born agains can get any satisfaction out of believing all the claptrap they accept without the slightest doubt and pay billions to hear it, over and over again. Really now, nearly every human being that has ever lived, lives, or will live, some of them their own family members, is going to burn alive forever in an ocean of fire, unless they believe what they are told, and pay some magic man to tell it to them at least once a week. Its like wanting to believe in Godzilla. At least he could only burn you once. (I’m talking about the 1956 Godzilla.) Christianity — America’s only legal extortion racket.
Years ago a young man told me I would never be happy unless I accept Jesus. But I have no intention of selling all my possessions and giving all the money to charity any more than any born-again does. If you did everything the Bible says to do, and give up all you have, and if everyone did that, how long do you think it would be before you died of cold, hunger and disease? I’ll give you a hint; in the eighth century the average life expectancy was only 24.
In my opinion, after many years of experience, a dirty little kitten, abandoned by its mother in front of the hardware store, on Trade Street in Charlotte, is worth more than ten drunks, ten drug dealers, ten sneak thieves, ten liars, ten bigmouths, ten insurance companies, ten lawyers, ten politicians, ten used car salesmen, ten insurance cheats, and fifty preachers.
— R. Howard Andrews
Spencer