November 2007 Archives
The York Daily Record does not serve its readers well when it hides important news such as a drop in violence in the Iraq War this fall and the abandonment of the Dolly cloning technique.
On Saturday, November 17’s paper, the editor buried news that the Iraq War is working on page A7 in a few short sentences. Since most people will just read the headlines and not take the time to read the whole article, they would not know of the drop of violence in Iraq. This is a deceptive way to make Yorkers believe that the Iraq War is hopeless.
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This letter is in response to Gwen Babcock's letter referencing the pictures of dead animals in the paper. She states that hunters need their own insert to display their kill. Also that her 5-year-old daughter is offended. I don't want to downplay her opinion, but to remind her that this is America. People are different. We live different, worship different, talk different, dress different, act different, and yes have different opinions. But that is the back bone of our great country; That we can express and live our differences openly and freely. Just as hunters have the right to hunt and show off their kills, those who don't agree with this sport have the right to "overlook" the stories and pictures. Just turn the page!
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This letter is in response to the article written on the controversy about the diversity assembly at Eastern York High School.
I would like to thank Eastern for coordinating such an assembly and hope that more are planned for the future. I am proud to live in, and have graduated from Eastern, and I'm happy to know that my district is interested in introducing its students to the concept of accepting people, regardless of their race, religion, or sexual orientation. I have to wonder what those parents who were "disturbed" will do when their children leave Eastern and their college professor, or employer, is a black woman, gay man, or Jew.
In response to the gentleman's request for the school to represent the "other side of the story." Perhaps the school could look for someone next time who used to be a Christian and is now an Athesist, or possibly they could try to recruit Michael Jackson, who used to be black.
Lynette A. Mackley
Wrightsville
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Recently South Central Pennsylvania has been plastered with new billboards touting the virtues of milk from Rutter’s. It is billed as “FREE OF ARTIFICIAL HORMONES” and “FREE OF ARTIFICIAL GROWTH HORMONES” on their milk jug labels.
I have been a large-animal veterinarian for 26 years and have been involved in the dairy industry all of my life. So, maybe I can help clarify what all this hormone talk is about. Was the “old milk” unsafe? Is the “new milk” really safer?
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I pay for seven day service for newspaper delivery, so on Thanksgiving morning when I didn't receive the biggest paper of the season, I called the newspaper company. I was told they would send one out to me. For whatever reason the carrier skipped me yet again.
I guess I'm supposed to feel grateful that they brought me one (although I pay for it). However, when it was thrown in my driveway, on a very windy morning, I had to chase half of the fliers through the yard. So whoever dropped it off, Thanks, but if you want to take the fact that you had to bring it out on someone, how about the person who was supposed to bring it in the first place.
The Newspaper Company is a little bit like Comcast, there's only one provider so you have to take whatever they dish out.
Lisa Smith
Dover
The York Daily Record should be commended for publishing, in a Thanksgiving Editorial, November 22, 2008, the full text of a Proclamation submitted to the Continental Congress on November 1, 1777 establishing a National Day of Thanksgiving in the United Stated.
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It can’t go without saying any longer that the photos included in the newspaper, at random, of hunt kills is getting to be disgusting and unnecessary. I am of the understanding that in this area of Pennsylvania hunting is a sport, albeit with automatic ammo or with a bow and arrow. However, to have pictures of dead deer and the latest, a truckload of dead bear including an albino, is just enough for me and my family.
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Pennsylvania Farm Bureau supports the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's recent action related to the misleading labeling of milk sold in the state. The issue of milk labeling was recently spotlighted in an article in the Nov. 18 edition of the York Daily Record (“The rbST war heats up”).
By convening a non-partial group of dieticians, consumers and food industry representatives to examine and recommend a proper course of action on the matter, Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff went the extra mile to ensure a fair and accurate assessment of the situation.
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Although the majority of racism has been extracted from today's society, some individuals, unfortunately, still believe in the institution of slavery. Therefore, the connotation associated with displaying a Confederate Flag involves many passionate feelings.
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According to the newspaper article Nov. 18 on the Healing York sculpture choices, some felt it was difficult to come up with a concept to relate the story of Healing York.
The choices did not appear relevant to the social problems to be addressed by the sculpture. Looking at them no one would know what it stood for. The figures all appear to be Caucasian. One figure has an angel and appears to have a religious connotation. No identification was included to explain the reason it was created.
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Most Pennsylvania politicians owe their ascendency to public office to big contributors who deny they want favors in return for their generosity who contend the money is given without strings attached. We believe this along with Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy and UFOs.
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In a study released in August of 2007 it was detailed how Pennsylvania could gain 2.2 billion dollars annually if we meet 25% of our energy needs with domestic renewable resources. It is not only the job of energy companies to meet these needs. A small island in Denmark is showing the rest of the world that being self-sufficient is possible.
Denmark is the world’s leader in producing wind turbines and wind-powered energy production. In 1997 the small island of Samso was selected to participate in a program that would make it entirely self-sufficient with regard to energy by 2008. They used wind energy, solar power, biofuels grown by local farmers, and other renewable sources of energy for heating purposes. The island met the requirements by 2003, five years early, and continues to be totally energy self-sufficient.
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Rutter's and this bst milk thing...I like to think I'm a savy shopper and if I pay more, there must be a reason, like value, etc. So I did a novel thing and researched this a little bit. We've been drinking milk this way for 10 years, it's been around that long. So what's new, I see marketing ploy to get 20 cents more per gallon. I come to find out that more milk from less cows is a good thing. It can reduce enviromental pressures, less acres to feed animals, more corn for ethanol, conserving energy. The world is going green, I'm thinking biotech in food is part of it. But you know what, I'm glad we are so blessed to have a choice everyday, in what we eat and so many other things. Millions around the world are starving and we want what we perceive to be good for us. Sleep tight!
J. Richard Roenigk
Spring Garden Township
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On a recent broadcast of his show on CNN, Glenn Beck referred to Ron Paul supporters as possible "domestic terrorists"....Despite your political persuasion, no one in the media should be allowed to describe supporters of any candidate for President in such a vile manner...I urge you to write, call, or email Beck and CNN and ask them to simply report the news and not to make it up and sensationalize it for ratings purposes...No one agrees with all of any candidates ideas 100%, but Congressmen Paul stands for ending the Iraq War, preventing a war with Iran, and bringing all the million plus servicemen serving all over the globe home to be with their families and loved ones...In short he wants to prevent your and my Children and Grandchildren from having to fight WWIII.....If people who strongly support these ideas can be described as "terrorists", please feel free to label me a "Terrorist First Class."
Jeffrey Hunt
Dover
I read the article in Friday's newspaper about the uproar over the diversity assembly at Eastern York High School and I was appalled — appalled, I say! -- by the fact that Eastern would have the audacity to teach its students about tolerance. I can think of nothing worse than forcing innocent teenagers to be “addressed by a 'gay man, an African-American woman and a Jew.'” What's next; teaching our children that it is acceptable to speak to a Muslim or a Latino? Not only that, but apparently the homosexual man said he did not choose to be homosexual. Who is he fooling? We all know how easy life is for homosexuals in an open-minded area like York.
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I am writing in response to Elaine Lehman’s “Corporal Punishment Best” letter, dated 11/12/07. My first question would be, where did you get your information? A little research would have shown you are completely wrong.
There were drugs, crime and free love in the 1960’s, all of which youths were involved in. Youth gangs date back to the early 1600’s. Research was done on youth gangs prior to the 1950’s, then dropped in the 50’s and 60’s, to be reestablished in the 70’s. Violent crime as a whole has declined since the 60’s. There have never been crimes that only adults commit, even in the 60’s, and prior to that, juveniles were committing heinous crimes. They were less reported and not documented as well. Juvenile crime arrests actually started climbing in the 60’s, well before your 1975 cutoff. Between 1994 and 2002 murders committed by juveniles dropped by 65%.
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All of us, young or old, will be taken care by a nurse at some point in our lives. Nurses are under paid, and over worked. She or He will be at our side making sure we are getting our medication, cleaning us if we make a mess, and making sure we are as comfortable as possible. Their work is dangerous, when they work with patients that have aids, or angry persons that are on pcp, crack or some similar drug. They get coughed on, vomited on, and run the risk of getting poked with dirty needles from an aids patient. They are not always understood by family members, if and when they are busy because they are short staffed, and working long and hard hours and under a lot of stress. Not many of us would, or could, do what they are called to do. Let us make sure that our medical insurance premiums are first spent on these brave hard working nurses.
Ralph Sierra
Mount Wolf
Please help me set the record straight.
As an outraged dairy producer in East Berlin, Pa., I feel Rutter’s misleading claims in their advertisements are deceptive and manipulative. My views in this letter mirror the views of many other producers in the three-county area which Rutter’s list in their ad. Our family, which includes three young sons, drinks milk from cows supplemented with Recombinant Bovine Somatotropin – the same growth hormone that Rutter’s incorrectly references as a steroid. The accusations being made in Rutter’s ads, and especially from uneducated representatives in their stores, are completely unfounded and inaccurate.
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, there are some special people who deserve our thanks – our City of York public health heroes. In conjunction with Research!America, a nonprofit advocacy alliance representing 125 million Americans, the York City Bureau of Health will be marking Monday, November 19, as Public Health Thank You Day.
All too often we are unfamiliar with our public health professionals who work every day to keep us healthy. I am referring to the City’s staff of public health nurses, outreach workers, health educators, lead technicians and health inspectors as well as the public health nurses at the York State Health Center who provide services to rest of York County. These unsung heroes work to keep restaurants clean and safe to eat in, children immunized, Tuberculosis and other communicable diseases controlled, and our families healthy through research, services and public policy actions such as seat belt and clean indoor air laws.
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I recently had my car towed for street sweeping. I forgot that it was the 4th Monday of the month. In York, that must make me a criminal.
I went to City Hall (to get my ‘release form’ at 5:00 a.m.) thinking I was going to retrieve my car at that time. ‘Miss Attitude’ said I can get my car during the garage’s hours, which are 7:00a.m. to 4:00p.m. I go to work at 5:00a.m. And what about those people who work until 5:00p.m.? I understand parking tickets, but York is having cars towed and ‘held hostage’ until the garage is open.
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What happened to residential zoning areas in Hanover? I purchased a home in an area that WAS zoned residential in the borough of Hanover. Little did I know that it only takes one person to request a change to the zoning board and over the objections of many other residents in that area who attended the zoning meeting, a variance could be and was granted to change from residential to one which allows a commercial business. So a once quaint house has been transformed into a rental property and a busy business. So busy that they had to blacktop nearly the entire backyard to make seven parking places for its customers and renter. This “house” now has large windows in the front so you can see the business operating from the street.
After calls to the President of the Zoning Board, to the Zoning Officer, to Mayor, they all decided to do NOTHING. So, the only thing I can do now is to watch my property value decrease. Do you think I can ask to have my house reassessed and get my taxes reduced?
David Arthur
Hanover
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On Monday, November 12, the Central York High School football team was featured on the Today Show for their efforts to help Tucker Haas, a 7-year-old boy fighting cancer. Having adopted Tucker as one of their own in 2005, the team has become known as “Tucker’s Team” and Tucker has been an important part of all they have accomplished. Helping Tucker has truly been more important than winning to these kids.
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If a tree falls in the woods does it make a sound? Likewise, if we as a country have the best doctors, but more and more Americans can not afford to see them, can we really claim to have the best healthcare system in the world? We need to find a solution to this dilemma soon. Seventeen percent of our employed citizens have no healthcare (USA Today “cover story” 11/13). How does that make us look next to “communist” counties like Great Britain, Germany and Canada? Who, believe it or not, have well trained and motivated healthcare providers.
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The more I hear about the “Metro-York” recommendations for improving our community, the more apparent it is that this is just another in a series of attempts to suck money and services out of York County to support York City. The municipalities surrounding the city certainly have an interest in improving the quality of life in the city. But, not at the expense of giving up our quality of life.
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I'm writing this in regards to "Want Communist Healthcare" which was written by Matthew Tyson of York and printed on 11/14/07.
Even though their schooling is expensive and they get paid very generously, I think its pretty safe to say that most doctors do not become doctors for the money. They do it to help people and save lives. Your statement about a tax-salaried doctor doing the bare minimum in order to keep his job goes is totally asinine. Is it safe to say that policemen and firefighters do the bare minimum to keep their jobs? I highly doubt it. Their salaries are paid for by taxes and they still strive to do their best. Obviously they aren't in it for the money, especially around here where the majority of firefighters are volunteers. This would mean a new tax would have to be created. Nobody likes taxes.
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In a recent commentary, Larry Frey of Red Lion asked to have the Court Docket returned to
the daily paper. He said he enjoys seeing what other people are up to.
First of all, I had no idea the court docket had not been printed in the paper
for years. The few times I even read the paper, checking the latest accessions never crossed my mind.
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Contrary to your Oct. 30 editorial ("Clean windows in Harrisburg") lawmakers in the PA House of Representatives are making demonstrable progress with reforming state government.
I embraced my constituents' calls for reform and determined that when I returned to Harrisburg in January I would lead the charge for reform. Since then, I have done more than just talk about it.
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James McClure seems to think “some York County high school students must have missed a lesson on area Civil War history.” I disagree. After reading his column [“Confederate flag wavers dishonor Union ancestors”], I think there is a good chance that those youths were exposed to the very same type of biased, simplistic, and revisionist history as McClure espouses.
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On Friday November second, there was an article on page three A that took up the top half of the page. In this article both the local editor and the AP writer showed off their skills of taking a set of poll numbers and twisting them to say just the opposite of what the data revealed.
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Although national free health care sounds like the best thing in the world, there are some significant drawbacks including the increased government spending (and increased taxes). I would compare the idea to any other socialist or communist idea. In theory, social equality ideas are perfect in a perfect world. Free health care would work if all doctors were of equal competence and skill level. Because there are differences in the skill levels of doctors, there must be some way of compensating higher skill. A problem would occur when a very skilled doctor is compensated equally as a run of the mill doctor. Because there would be no motivation to be the best, health care would not be as focused to continually improve. Instead, they just need to do what’s good enough to remain employed.
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As a mental health professional and a concerned citizen, I want to offer my support, both morally and ethically, to Albert Snyder and his family, to attorney Sean Summers, and to the women and men of the federal jury whose wisdom and integrity compelled them to rule that bullying will not be tolerated under the First Amendment.
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Having read the editorial in the Nov. 4th York Sunday News, I couldn't help but wonder what the people of York County want, in regards to making their email public record. In today's world of electronic mail, I find more and more people using email as a way to communicate their thoughts and concerns to their elected officials.
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Cal Thomas (YDR 10/29/07) points to the ominous possibility that groups of Muslims under the guise of Islamic charities such as the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development are participants in a “game plan for infiltrating, undermining and attacking America from within our
borders…” He notes that Holy Land Foundation was charged by the government in Federal Court with 197 counts of funding terrorism. The judge declared a mistrial so that there was neither an acquittal nor a conviction. Thomas then recites a long list of incriminating pieces of
evidence in the case, mainly links to other suspected organizations.
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