Police officers not applying seat belt law to themselves
Published June 13, 2003
Editor: Re: Click it or ticket campaign:
The crackdown on seat belts is a plus. I must admit going only four blocks to the store, I was lax in buckling up. But it also has made me look at others to see if they are wearing them.
In my observations, I was shocked when a police car pulled abruptly in front of me with no signal and pulled into the other lane. As I was pulling up beside him, I saw he was not wearing a seat belt. I started observing all sheriff's patrol cars and the drivers' use of seat belts. Let's put it this way: If all patrol officers not using seat belts were fined, the county would be considerably richer.
It seems to me that if the officers are to protect us, should they, too, not be safe? Shouldn't authority figures respond and obey all rules of the road, as they expect the public to do?
-- M.J. Cavanaugh, Spring Hill
Large bookstores not interested in coming - dollars aren't there
Editor: I had to respond to recent letters where a number of people wished that a large bookstore like Barnes & Noble would open in our community.
One could only hope, but I doubt it will happen. We're a small market and stores like Barnes & Noble and Borders, as well as Books-A-Million, rely on large population centers for business. B. Dalton and Waldenbooks prefer malls. These bookstores also sell magazines, music and movie videos, as well as operate coffee shops. These are businesses, not the library in Alexandria, as one letter writer referred to them.
All that matters to these bookstores in the end is the almighty dollar.
-- Peter Stathis, Spring Hill
Reduction in funding won't stop students' antismoking campaign
Editor: Philip Morris has underestimated us way too long. The company puts us in categories that we may not be a part of.
The company may help save people's lives, but it uses potential customers' blood money with which to do it. Cigarettes kill 1,200 people a day. In just three days it will kill more people than on Sept. 11, 2001. Not only does the company target elementary through high school students, it now targets college kids, too.
We (Students Working Against Tobacco) may have just received a budget cut, but that doesn't mean you will win. We won't give up that easy. SWAT is stronger now more than ever.
Since Aug. 25, 1997, we have been fighting you and we're not about to give up now. Just because we aren't educated enough that it is bad to smoke doesn't mean the students in SWAT will smoke. That also doesn't mean we won't continue to fight you.
Watch out, Big Tobacco, because SWAT members in all of Florida's 67 counties are out there spreading the truth to let people know what you're doing, what you have done, and what you are going to do. We won't stop until everyone knows about you.
-- Courtney Johnson, SWAT student, Spring Hill
[Last modified June 13, 2003, 01:33:18]
