Letters
Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012
Vote Yes on Hillsboro public library issue
Another mysterious creature has surfaced, this time in Goldman.
Whatever this one was, it wasn’t afraid to get close to goats
To the editor: Regarding your Oct. 11 story about the “chupacabra,” I also saw a “spooky creature.” My son first saw the animal on his game camera photos and then about a week later my neighbor knocked on my door and asked me what was in my field. I went with him to my pasture where he pointed out the same type of animal as the Widemans killed. I watched it play for about five minutes. It didn’t act sick. It was acting like a cat, jumping into the over grown grass and pouncing on something, possibly mice. My goats were in the far corner of the pasture and started across the field to me. When they passed the animal the animal walked up to them within 10 feet and they both sniffed each other and the goats continued to the gate where I was while the animal went back to playing. It saw me and wasn’t concerned. The animal acted much tamer than a wild coyote or fox. I have both around my place and as soon as they see me, they take off. The animal left the pasture through a 4-inch opening in the livestock fencing. I doubt a coyote could have gone through it.
Donna Sattley Goldman
Wolves, coyotes and dogs do cross To the editor: Please tell reporter Peggy Scott and landowner John Wideman that the creature looks like a short-eared dog or South American fox (http://www.canids. org/species/Short-eared_dog.pdf) I have seen this animal featured many times in South America, never here. But with the influx of armadillo and other southern persuasion animals that have migrated here recently, I am not totally surprised to see this example of immigration. I am surprised that the conservation officers were so lax as to not even want to see the animal before they suggested annihilation. It would seem the best course to research and send samples to discern the true identity before giving up the evidence to the flames.
Claudia Oppenheimer De Soto
To the editor: I was compelled to respond to Terry Doria’s Oct. 11 letter regarding the Hillsboro public library ballot issue. What Ms. Doria doesn’t understand is that the struggling families she worries about in her letter are the ones that will benefit most from a public library. Although electronic readers, high speed Internet, and cell phones are useful and put information, music and culture at your fingertips, technology like this is expensive and not everyone can afford it. Many don’t have access to it. What Ms. Doria spends on her electronic devices (e-reader, computer, smartphone) is many times more than a public library will cost. A family in a $50,000 home will only pay $1.58 per month. That is a small price to pay for all the amenities a public library will provide. A modern library is not just about “hard-copy books.” A modern library has computers with high speed Internet, e-readers, tax, business, and career information, programs for older adults, story tellers, preschool reading programs and access to movies and music. A modern library will provide meeting rooms for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, public classes and workshops. Having a public library in a community increases property values and shows prospective business owners they will find an educated and skilled workforce. As the seat of government, we in Hillsboro have a responsibility to set the tone for Jefferson County as a whole. Let us show Jefferson County that in Hillsboro, a library is not considered a “frivolous, gratuitous non-essential.” Let us show that we value knowledge, culture and learning, and that we believe it should be accessible to everyone. Please, vote Yes for the Hillsboro Branch of the Jefferson County Library on Nov. 6.
Renée Gerlach Hillsboro
A vote for Stallman To the editor: I have been a resident of Jefferson County for more than 60 years. For 11 of those years, I served as a deputy sheriff under the late Walter “Buck” Buerger, who held office for 28 years. Was that way too long for one person to hold the county’s highest law enforcement office? Sheriff Glenn Boyer has now held the office for 20 years. That is a total of nearly 50 years with only two men holding that office. If you live in a municipality, you are probably not aware of the lack of law enforcement coverage in the county. You’ll get an officer in just a few minutes from your department. However, if you live in the unincorporated area, it is a different story. Ask the people who have been victims of thefts and burglaries. They will verify that subdivision patrol is sadly lacking. Heroin, meth, marijuana, the il-
Jefferson County Leader
legal sale and use of prescription drugs are contributing factors in other crimes. Sheriff Boyer has stated that the department is down 35 officers. Yet on any given day, there are more than a dozen officers in the office who could be deployed to answer calls but are not. What about the manned Hillsboro zone office? It is just a few miles from the Sheriff’s Office in Hillsboro and that officer could be on the street patrolling. Dan Stallman has a plan to increase the patrol manpower almost immediately. It is a simple matter of prioritizing and making the best use of the manpower already available. Dan has served as a D.A.R.E. instructor, teaching children the dangers of drug use. In his duties as a deputy, he has seen the effects of drugs on all age groups and he will be proactive in combating the dangerous drug problem that plagues this county. When Dan retired from the department, the sheriff discontinued the D.A.R.E. program. Several schools contacted Dan to hire him privately in order to continue the programs. Dan will maintain a real open-door policy for the public, accessible to any county resident. Dan Stallman is a man of integrity. He is well respected by his friends, fellow officers and the students and school officials where he has taught the D.A.R.E. program. It is time for a change in the politics, policies and procedures of the last 20 years and a move to positive policing with the public interest at heart. That is why my vote will be for Dan Stallman this time.
David Taylor Cedar Hill
Obamacare will drive off doctors To the editor: As I was perusing the Oct. 4 editorial page, another letter from Bunnie Gronborg captured my attention and begged a response. She apparently has no conception of the extra billions of dollars Obamacare would add to the already $16 trillion dollar, and counting, national debt. Who does she think will have to eventually pay for all this? She would probably say “the government,” but where does she think the government gets its money? From the taxpayers, of course, or from borrowing from China and Japan for the next two or three generations, or both. Here is another undesirable mandate imbedded in IPAB (Obama’s “Independent” Payment Advisory Board). Beginning in 2014, there would be 15 unelected technocrats whose recommendations to reduce Medicare costs would have to be enacted by Aug. 15 each year. If Congress does not act on them, letting them stand, they automatically become law without any Congressional approval, or presidential signature. It can and will control (read limit) payments to doctors and hospitals in order to “save costs.” If these “experts” begin doing that, and they will, there may be many doctors shutting down their practice and hospitals closing their doors. If you think lines are bad now in doc-
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tor’s offices, wait until then. It could be weeks or months. The next logical step then would be the rationing of health care. IPAB may then begin determining who would receive health care and who would not. There is also the unconstitutional encroachment on our freedom of religion with the payments mandated on religious institutions. Ms. Gronborg seems more confused by Obamacare than by the Romney\Ryan Plan.
Burton Hintermeister De Soto
This mutt is no Mitt To the editor: I hate Mitt Romney. He’s got more hair, is better looking and in great shape. He is better educated, more accomplished and way richer. Romney owns mansions with rooms that would swallow my modest bungalow. He wouldn’t need an elevator to get my car in his garage. One of his dogs could bring it in with the paper. Romney is smarter than me, better mannered, more articulate and exceptional with math. Awed business executives report he can walk in the door cold, ask for the accounting books and relate in minutes a company’s strengths and weaknesses. Romney connects to middle-class values as a model husband, father, businessman and church member. He has been married to his beautiful, intelligent wife longer, has more well-behaved sons and lots more grandkids. He is more moral, pious and benevolent to the tune of millions each year to my two-cents worth. Romney’s past is exemplary, his character so shining and his decency undeniable that the filthy, nasty political gangsters spending millions to smear him look like rabid idiots. Romney not only looks and acts presidential, but has more publicly tested and accumulated credentials than any candidate in the stable of fools and clowns we’ve elected these past many years. I hate Mitt Romney, but he’s growing on me.
Edward B. Graham De Soto
Spend a trillion here, a trillion there and soon it all adds up To the editor: I am sure Thelma Britt has gained a new friend in Bill Clinton with her Oct. 4 letter. She states that President George W. Bush gave us debt of nearly $11 trillion. With the $5 trillion-plus debt President Barack Obama has given us, that brings the total to $16 trillion-plus. The current debt is $16 trillion-plus. That means the national debt when George W. Bush took office in 2001 was zero! Really?
Peter M. Janky De Soto