Todays Letters: New Year's resolutions

Try to be a better person in 2008

By now most of you have already made your New Year's resolutions, most which include losing a few pounds, taking better care of yourself, quitting a bad habit or something like that.

In the last week we have had several of our Christmas decorations purposely destroyed and stolen. It made me think: What if people chose something different for a New Year's resolution?

How about you parents out there making a resolution to teach your children compassion, humility, respect for life, respect for their elders, or something positive? You people without children: Why not make a resolution to mentor a child in need, become Big Brother/Big Sister? I turned 40 this year, and what I see in the youth of today really saddens me.

But it is not all about the youth of today. Many adults could use a good mentor, too. You turn on the news each night and read the paper each morning and learn about killings, rapes, murders, increasing numbers of pedophiles, people beating the homeless, torturing animals, greed, and the overall meanness that surrounds us each day.

I stood in a long line at the post office on the last day of shipping this Christmas season and was amazed to see 30 or so people with lots and lots of packages becoming belligerent because of the wait. Why is it the postal workers' fault that these people waited until the last hours to mail their many packages? Why weren't they happy to be fortunate enough to be able to mail a gift to someone? There were no doubt many people who had no packages to open up this year.

For my resolutions this year, I want to teach by example, be a positive role model, help someone in need, and make one person each day smile! I hope to be a positive member of my community in hopes that others will do the same. Spreading cheer and love could not possibly be as hard as spreading hate and anger. I challenge you to do the same.

Virginia Stevans, New Port Richey

Kid deaths from abuse, neglect soar in Florida Dec. 29, story

We need to do a better job protecting our children

In this story, Michael Haney of the state Department of Health is quoted as saying, "Everybody gets upset with the numbers going up. I am not so sure it is a bad thing ..."

I am sure he is not that insensitive, but that quote made him sound that way. Maybe it should have been written to say that so much concern about this tragedy is a good thing. I wonder if others were as outraged as I was when I first read this statement.

I am a grandmother and, as a school counselor, I am an advocate for children in my workplace. Given these senseless deaths, the increasing amount of child abuse and the foster care fiasco, it is obvious that many children in Florida are not being protected or even being treated in a humane manner in some cases.

A student in my school who is in foster care recently told me that when she and her siblings were removed from their home, they had to spend the night sleeping in an office.

I am certainly not blaming the caseworkers. I know they are doing the best they can with the caseloads and resources that they have.

When are we going to wake up and realize that we are eventually going to get what we are not paying for? Angry children make angry adults. Just read the headlines!

Beverly McKinney, New Port Richey

New Year's fireworks are no party for horses Dec. 29, story

A better law is needed

Without comprehensive laws, these fireworks will continue to be a problem. There are many horses in rural areas, but there are dozens in our cities, too. Pinellas Park, a "horse-friendly" community, has terrible problems every year with illegal fireworks, and the police are powerless to do anything.

When fireworks tents were prohibited in Pinellas, more simply sprang up in Hillsborough. To those interested in having fireworks on New Year's, driving to Hillsborough is not a deterrent. Our state's laws on the sale of these explosives is sorely lacking. There are no comprehensive laws without the "agricultural use" loophole, so anyone over 18 can buy anything they want as long as they sign a form.

On July Fourth and New Year's Eve, we horse people spend almost the entire night trying to soothe and protect our four-legged companions from harm as these explosives go off around us.

Please, next time you think about lighting up your fireworks, remember us in Pinellas Park, too! Don't make scaring my horse your way of fulfilling the "agricultural use" rule outlined in that waiver you so carelessly signed.

Erika Fant, St. Petersburg

New Year's fireworks are no party for horses Dec. 29, story

Raise your voices

I don't know if people just aren't aware of how frightening and dangerous fireworks are around horses or just don't care. I go through this every New Year's and Fourth of July and all the extra days before and after. You become a prisoner of your barn and cannot participate in any holiday festivities because you can't take a chance that someone near you will set off fireworks and your horse will maim or kill himself. At least if they are used only on the holiday and between certain times you can be prepared.

I have been writing my commissioners and representatives and the sheriff for years about this to no avail. Now I have been writing the Fireworks Task Force, my representatives, and Gov. Charlie Crist almost weekly. Anyone who feels the same way about fireworks, please do so also. We need enough voices to make a difference.

Gladys Newton, Hudson

Origins left unexplained Dec. 29, letter

Look beyond magic

While the letter writer asserts that intelligent design is a "scientific" inference, I feel the need to remind him that the very nature of science is an attempt to explain the physical and natural world using physical and natural laws. Once one attempts to invoke supernatural explanations such as the magical work of an intelligent designer we have moved beyond the realm of science. Magic cannot be tested or allow for predictions in the natural world as scientific theories can and do.

Intelligent design is the antithesis of science. It basically says, "Hey this is too complicated to understand. Let's just give up research, stop trying to understand our world and give it all over to magical explanations." I for one am thankful we've never allowed magical thinking to impede scientific inquiry. Once one "opens one's mind" to natural explanations one discovers that there are volumes of books, articles and experiments explaining and demonstrating how complex systems can in fact develop from simple origins, and how new genes and proteins are indeed added to "the deck."

Furthermore, if the magical thinkers were to truly study the science (and not the tired antievolution rhetoric), they would likewise realize that biological explanations of our world are no more a threat to their belief systems than are the physical and chemical theories they already accept so readily.

David Hyink, Seminole

Killing defenseless wildlife is needless cruelty Dec. 30, letter

Killing will continue

The argument against hunting might be closed in the mind of the letter writer, but I reject his contention that he has some sort of superior moral insight.

Simply put, his hatred is for hunters, not hunting. What about the countless animals caught up in a cruel death on farms due to threshing machines and the like? What about animals run over by cars? What about farmers who shoot nuisance animals like coyotes and armadillos? Not to mention animals killed to produce steaks and pork chops.

Distinctions without a difference, I say. We should try to eliminate unnecessary cruelty to be sure, but killing animals is something that will go on, even if animals are left to kill among themselves.

Leonard Martino, Tampa

[Last modified December 31, 2007, 21:14:13]