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We can have more affordable fire service

In the 11 years I have lived in Spring Hill, there have been many articles about the needs and wants of fire departments in Hernando County. Some areas have paid firefighters, and some have volunteers. In other areas of our great nation, residents have both.

Is it possible we could use volunteers in all our fire stations to afford more manpower where it's needed? Why does the Spring Hill Fire Rescue District need a $600,000 ladder truck? This is not New York, Chicago or Washington, D.C.

The people of Spring Hill have paid too much for fire protection over the years because that was the way it was set up here many years ago when there were fewer people and fire stations in the county. We do not get better protection in Spring Hill than the people who live in Brooksville, or the people who live in Hernando Beach who pay only $25 per year for volunteer coverage.

An emergency operations center is being built to serve our county, and it will withstand more than our individual fire stations can if there is a disaster. We are all paying for this building, so let's have one central dispatch center instead of paying for the same service twice. Let's use some common sense.

All fire stations have their primary area, and all fire stations provide mutual aid when needed (even out of our county, if needed). I would like to see it put on a ballot, if that is what it would take, for voters to decide whether they still want to pay so much more for the same service as other residents of our county receive. I believe in our county government, and everyone working there has learned so much over the years, as we all have.

Many taxpayers believe it is time now that we unite as one Hernando County Fire Department to care for and protect the residents of our growing county. One pay schedule, one respected profession that is a dedicated force to assist all equally in Hernando County.

It's sad that hatred still persists in us

Re: Hernando lynchings stain past indelibly, June 19 Times:

At a time when America is at war with foreign terrorists who value human life so little that they fly airplanes into buildings and routinely blow up innocents via suicide bombers, it is frightening and disheartening to read of Americans like Charlie and Olan Batten, who are so consumed with hatred for a whole race of their fellow Americans (a lot of whom are risking and losing their lives in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan), that they wish that lynching were still in vogue.

The assumption is that we are all born free of hatred and that bigotry is a learned behavior. I know my grandfather, a Southern Baptist minister from Mississippi, did his best to teach me to hate blacks the way he did. But his tirades, involving selective Scripture-quoting for support and venom-filled monologues, had the opposite effect. I saw him for what he was and vowed never to be the same.

With so much else to worry about in these trying times - terrorism, health care, the economy, the oil crisis, etc. - I feel sorry for people who have nothing better to do than to waste energy and resources to hate a race of people. I hope they are prepared for the Judgment Day, when they will meet their maker.

Do they really think He will pat them on the back and congratulate them for a life well lived, a life that Christ would be proud of?

O'Reilly's act nothing close to real news

On June 22 Greg Hamilton was elevated to national notoriety. Firebrand Bill O'Reilly, the mouthpiece for a Fox TV show, The O'Reilly Factor , decided to focus his attention on the St Petersburg Times , and its Citrus County edition in particular.

Based upon Nielsen ratings, O'Reilly's show is the highest-rated product of its particular genre. Not surprising, since Fox is owned by Rupert Murdoch, a media mogul of great ability. Murdoch created Fox News because he perceived a demand for an ultraright-wing TV channel that could go into direct, head-to-head conflict with the perceived left-wing bias of the established networks.

O'Reilly may have been a journalist in some past life, but he is now a carnival showman in the style of Barnum and Bailey. He has created a brilliant TV product, which caters to a viewing public that craves sensationalism over accurate reporting.

Murdoch has no political agenda; he wants ratings and the ensuing revenue derived from advertisers. The more popular the show, the higher the cost per minute. Such is the American free enterprise system.

Hamilton writes opinions with a singular local perspective. O'Reilly has a vast resource of program staff who "spin" any story toward its most sensational aspects. That which O'Reilly articulates on national TV is a carefully crafted story that inflames the receptive viewer without having much regard for accuracy.

O'Reilly has some similarity with Judge Roy Bean. He hands down pseudojudicial decisions without a shred of regard to the facts pertaining to a particular case. In this particular example, his targets are Brad King, state attorney, Jeff Dawsy, Citrus County sheriff, and Hamilton, who dares to suggest that both arms of law enforcement are constricted by prevailing legislation.

The Jessica Lunsford case was a tragedy. It illustrated that convicted sex offenders must be tracked at all times, and that they must file the current address at which they reside. Albeit late, the Florida Legislature has now addressed these issues.

We should not confuse The O'Reilly Factor with factual, hard-core news reporting. The former is a commercial product with a direct business motive. The latter, from the Times, tells the story from a factual standpoint.

I am not a regular Fox viewer. My preference lies with such programs as Crossfire where there is the pretense of equal representation by both major political elements. O'Reilly's show - and show is the appropriate word - cannot possibly lay claim to any similar quality.

Paper's stance does not help cause of justice

Re: Critiques of sheriff uninformed and absurd, June 21 column by Greg Hamilton:

It is the ongoing name-calling from your newspaper's editorial section that has caused me to read another newspaper.

In the article regarding the case against John Couey, instead of trying to look at all sides of the issue, you continue to bad-mouth the people who are looking for the answers.

As a mother of five children, it concerns me that people who were in the same house as little Jessica while she was being searched for and did not come forward should be held responsible for the ultimate action that Couey took.

By not making an example of these people, we as a society are diminishing the rule of law regarding obstruction of justice.

Column's slant shows bandwagon mentality

Re: Greg Hamilton's June 22 column:

It seems that rather than taking constructive criticism (re: the Jessica Lunsford case) as a tool to examine all the facts, Mr. Hamilton is more concerned with jumping on the bandwagon of the evil right-wing conspiracy theory.

He blasts Bill O'Reilly, who is upset that Couey's three housemates living in that paper-thin trailer never heard or saw a thing and bought Couey a bus ticket to Georgia and were not charged with anything. He further states that no one with any sense takes O'Reilly seriously.

I could fill this page with the good things Bill O'Reilly has done, but I'll just list one for now. He stopped the Red Cross from diverting funds for the 9/11 families and made sure it went where it belonged.

I guess I'm one of those "no sense" people who have made The Factor one of the most successful shows in the history of cable TV.

With 32 years of law enforcement experience, I'm certainly not one to take criticizing police lightly, as I know firsthand how difficult it is.

[Last modified June 28, 2005, 01:46:16]