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Opinion
Snow Days Bring Worries for Adults
What Is Real Purpose of Animal Law?
Let's Get State Police Out on the Road Again
It's Time To Fork Over All that Unspent Pork
Kudos and Thanks for Quick Response
Edgewood Parade Turned Out Nicely
AYP Status Doesn't Tell Whole Story
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Editorial: Hibbs Has Done Job of 2 Mayors
Editorial: Law Revised for Problem Animals
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Opinion
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Thursday, October 21, 2004
Letters to the Editor
Blame Police, Not Cell Phone
I WAS ONE OF THE people mentioned in your article, "Emergency Reliability Questioned," (Telegraph, Oct. 7) and you missed the main point.
The cell phone issue was a minor one. The confusion over where the call originated lasted about 10 seconds. The fact that the emergency call, made at 2 p.m., was forwarded to an office that, according to your article, is only open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. weekdays, and therefore, was closed, is the fault of the 911 operator.
Although we gave a concise description of the entire situation, including the license number of the victim's vehicle, we were given the impression that we would have to repeat all the data after the call was transferred. As you know, no one answered the phone at the Edgewood police headquarters at all.
In spite of police insistence that they responded to the call, I would ask, when? An individual who also witnessed the bleeding man's distress followed him to the medical center in his own vehicle. A half an hour later this witness returned from the medical center and reported no police were on the scene. A customer of Stuff, who lives on Aspen Street, reported (over the phone) no police cars there at least 20 minutes after we attempted to report the incident.
To minimize the man's wounds, or the seriousness of the situation back at Aspen, is outrageous. Exactly how long did it take police to respond? Why was our call transferred to a closed police office?
Many people use cell phones to call police from the road, and remote locations. And many people don't have land lines at all nowadays. The cell phone issue is being raised to avoid responsibility.
People who live in the East Mountains should be aware that if you call for help, you may have to wait a long time, or not get any at all.
LINDA LAWRENCE
Edgewood
TV Got Landing All Wrong
KUDOS TO THE Mountain View Telegraph for reporting a light aircraft incident with accuracy; even taking the trouble to collect the facts. However, I would like to make one small correction to the story of my off-airport landing of Oct. 1 near N.M. 41 south of Moriarty.
I suspect that there was not a mistake in the reporting, but that I misspoke.
I did not intend to suggest that losing power and having to make an off-airport landing in a light plane is a common occurrence ... it is not. What I intended to convey is that when there is such a landing, it is quite often true that there are no injuries involved in the incident.
I believe my experience is indicative of that fact: In 45 years of flying, I have experienced only four deadstick landings, and was not injured at all during any of them. (Would you begrudge an auto driver four noninjury fender benders in 45 years of driving?)
I believe that accurate reporting of aircraft incidents is important because the general public has a greatly exaggerated perception of the dangers of small planes, chiefly because of outrageously incompetent reporting by so-called news reporters of the TV media. In this case, I am told that on television they said the airplane "crashed, probably because it ran out of gas." The facts: It didn't crash, and it didn't run out of gas.
But then, I suppose such nonsense is to be expected from the media that encourages the likes of Dan Rather and Michael Moore.
If the general public had a more accurate perception of light plane flying, there would be a lot more people flying small planes, and that would make it less expensive for all of us!
Again, thanks go to the Telegraph for not following the example of the TV media in its reporting.
KEN HUMPHREYS
Moriarty
Bush Ignoring Iraqi Children
DESPITE THE FACT that I was providing child care for two young granddaughters, I made the time to watch the Kerry/Bush debate on Thursday evening. It was hard to watch, which only indirectly had something to do with my granddaughters' inattention to the president and Senator Kerry. I say indirectly because their presence did exacerbate the pain I was already feeling.
On Wednesday, the day before the debate, world news reported that our bombs had killed 35 more Iraqi children and injured scores of others. They were attending a social function. They were children with siblings and parents and grandparents and friends.
During the debate, the president justified the war by a need to "protect our children and our grandchildren." But I am sickened that this great country of ours and its leadership seems to have become so self-absorbed that kids in other countries don't seem to count. Of course, I want my granddaughters safe. But I also want a president who appears in pain for the loss of innocent life, takes extra precautions before embarking on urban warfare, is willing to take a lot of time to discern his actions, is humble enough to change his mind, checks the intelligence to see if he has all the facts and one who hopefully lays awake at night over the tragic consequences of his actions— especially the killing of children.
The president touts his Christianity. As a Christian, too, I was thinking today about the parable of the Good Samaritan. The story clearly recommends that we love one another regardless of our ethnicity or worthiness. That's a tall order with a terrorist, but little children?
PATRICIA A. SIMMONS
Edgewood
Bush Can't Even Prepare for Flu
WE HAVE NOW LEARNED about the Bush Administration's inability to provide an adequate supply of flu vaccine for the American people. Elderly people are standing in lines for five hours in some areas of the country to get their shots.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 5 percent to 20 percent of the U.S. population gets the flu. More than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications. Those at highest risk for complications from the flu include the elderly, young children and pregnant women. Worse, approximately 36,000 people die from flu each year (i.e., more than 12 times the number of people that died in the attack on 9/11). See www.cdc.gov/flu/keyfacts.htm.
Despite the seriousness of pandemic flu outbreaks, this year is the second time that the Bush Administration has failed to ensure an adequate supply of flu vaccine. The arrival of flu season is an expected and recurring biological event. If the Bush Administration cannot adequately prepare us for an annual, expected and recurring biological event, how can the Bush Administration be expected to prepare us for a surprise biological attack by terrorists?
And it isn't the British that did this, unlike Bush's insinuations. Chiron, the company that failed us, is an American company that manufactures the vaccine in England. The English themselves purchase their vaccines from five different companies, while we rely on just two.
Bush says he isn't going to get a flu shot. That might not be wise, since Lord only knows how many people sneeze around him in all those meetings. And he asks that we all ration the vaccine to those most in need. But wait, Bush warned in the last debate that unless he is re-elected, his opponent will ration health care. Standing in line for five hours sounds like rationing to me, especially when you are 81 years old like my parents.
This administration doesn't pay attention to the simple day-to-day care of our own people.
JAN WRIGHT
Sandia Park
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