More good than bad from senior center episode

To the editor:

More good than bad came from a recent occurrence at the senior center in Eldred, in which damage was inflicted but was restricted to one end of the pool table. The repair was done very quickly and, I might add, quite professionally. Also, we learned through that event that the town’s regulations were not up to full protection. This is the reason for a two-month moratorium on the use of the center to update those protections for its future use.

Stirring memories

To the editor:

At a time when we pause to give thanks for our many blessings, large and small, I thought it only proper to thank you and Zac for his poignant remembrance “The Naked Statue.”

It made me blissfully recall my own childhood days and Nana’s prized “statue.”

Our Nana had little in the way of things she held precious, save for her dog, her six children, her grandkids and a statue of a little Dutch girl looking up at a village clock. Made of porcelain or similar material and standing about two feet high, it stood proudly, a century-old gift from her own grandmother.

As a child, one doesn’t think in terms of worth, in dollars and cents. At least, I didn’t so much back then. Especially when it came to an old statue. Even so, there was an ever-present fear I might knock it over. Not that Nana would have minded, for the girl’s quite obviously glued-at-the-neck head reminded everyone, us kids especially, of an earlier “accident,” which, at least to Nana, didn’t diminish its value.

Some years later, on Nana’s death, the statue was passed on to our family, and more recently, with the passing of dad and then mom, to me. As my taste in furnishings differed pretty much from that of my folks, save for a few old photos, the statue became the core of my inheritance.

I have often thought about repairing it. You know, give the girl some much-needed cosmetic surgery. And replace the clock, which never, in my time, worked. Yet, somehow, keeping it as it was, as time “remembered,” only seems fitting.

Again, my thanks to Zac. As with our respective statues, his column was “priceless.”

John Reggero

The time of innocence is past

To the editor:

I know you are aware of the claims of fraud regarding the Tusten election. Was it fraud or merely a totally unethical move by those in power? Either way, what it did show was that what the taxpayers want means nothing when others have their own agenda. So very sad.

We are a small example of what is wrong with this country. From a country where loyalty and pride were important, we have become one where greed has become god. I guess innocence had prevailed with some of those who ran believing that if one does not run on one’s own merit, one doesn’t deserve to win. The time of innocence has passed. Beware the next election; everyone learned a lesson from this one.

Why not hydrogen?

To the editor:

We’ve all seen or heard about Senor Chavez of Venezuela’s latest rant during his visit with the ever-debonair president of Iran about forcing $200-a-barrel oil on the U.S., thereby crippling our economy.

It astounds me that our nation, with all its incredible technological savvy and skills, hasn’t yet seen the light on an alternative fuel called “hydrogen.”

Friends, please boot up your computers and Google “BMW hydrogen.”

In the early days of WWII, at the behest of Albert Einstein, President Roosevelt approved The Manhattan Project. Its purpose was to start from scratch and build an atomic bomb before Hitler and the Nazis did. As we know, a group of top scientists accomplished that incredibly difficult task in about four or five years.

I’m not a nuclear weapons advocate by any stretch. I simply want to illustrate what technological feats can be accomplished once we, as a nation, put our minds to it.

Obviously, the technology is here, right now. BMW is actually offering a hydrogen-powered vehicle. And it’s not some awkward, ungainly, sci-fi-looking, Rube Goldberg-type contraption, but a luxury BMW with all the performance and doo-dads. If all we need is the gumption and money to tackle the filling station infrastructure and other technical problems, what the heck are we waiting for—$200-a-barrel oil?

Think of it: hydrogen affords an unlimited supply of zero-polluting energy as compared to our limited, high-polluting fossil fuels that are sapping the planet, our pocketbooks and our economic security. Is this of any less urgency than The Manhattan Project was?

Why isn’t this issue first and foremost on the lips of all those presidential candidates? They should be brought to task, as should our sitting president and his administration!

A picture worth a thousand words

To the editor:

In an article in your November 11 issue, there was a sentence about the 15,000 ducks that were burned alive at the Hudson Valley Foie Gras on October 31, when the building in which they were confined went up in a raging conflagration. Three paragraphs were devoted to the words and actions of one of the owners, identified as Izzy Yanay. Mr. Yanay made assurances that the horrific destruction of 15,000 ducks had not seriously disrupted the disgraceful foie gras process, thereby insuring the ongoing suffering of the remaining ducks, which endure torturous conditions right up to the time they are slaughtered to provide Mr. Yanay, et al. with their ill-gotten product.

There is a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. The photograph chosen to accompany this report was not of the charred remains of the fired building, or of the hideous conditions under which the ducks exist (you cannot really call it live). The picture was of Mr. Yanay, a mere two days after the incinerating blaze, purveying his noxious product to a gathering of local politicians (shame on them), and to anyone else with the calloused gluttony to take it.

What is wrong with this picture?

Star D. Hesse

Double standards

To the editor:

If you don’t believe there is a double standard in this country, all we have to do is read the sentence handed down by Arizona Superior Court Judge Helene Abrahams on the ex-heavyweight champion Mike Tyson of 24 hours and three years’ probation.

I wonder what the sentence would have been had he killed one of her children or relatives while driving under the influence of not only alcohol but also cocaine?

In my opinion, there is something radically wrong with the judicial system that allows a judge to continue to sit on the bench after a decision like this.