Letters to the Editor
chelicera
Published Letters: 8
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Your love has blinded you to something
[Read the article: Pit bulls are innocent]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]In densely populated areas, it doesn't make sense to keep companion animals that can kill people should they decide to do so. Dogs in general are unlikely to decide to do this unless a combination of nature and nurture (or anti-nurture) disposes them to it, but the fact is that my 30-lb terrier mix (RIP), although she could've bitten me fiercely if she'd wanted, would've had a hard time actually killing me or any of my neighbors. She was too small, and it wasn't in her nature. We have laws controlling handguns because we understand that they are lethal, even though a handgun can't do anything without a person's pulling the trigger. An animal can act of its own volition to harm humans, even against the wishes of its owner. Pit bulls and some other breeds have been bred to kill, and although they may also have sweet demeanors if they are treated nicely, keeping one is like having a gun that could pull its own trigger if it felt like it and you've got only partial control over whether or not it's loaded.
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MCD --- terrified morons
[Read the article: Pit bulls are innocent]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]To equate the desire to control a breed of dog to institutionalized racism is disingenuous and needlessly inflamatory. Think before you type.
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Pit bulls break into home, maul woman -- Aug 21, 2007
[Read the article: Pit bulls are innocent]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8R5QR1G1&show_article=1
It wasn't standard poodles who broke into this woman's home unprovoked, mauled her in her bed, killed a small dog who entered the home when it heard the cacophony and attacked firemen called to the scene. It wasn't Dobermans, it wasn't German shepherds. Whatever it is about the type of dog pit bulls are -- whether it's their potential for violence that makes some crazy people think it would be cool to exacerbate this part of their personality or a genetic predisposition or both or something else -- the fact remains that Molosser-type dogs (pit bulls, Presa Canarios and others bred to fight and ignore pain) are the ones who attack people with tragic results most of the time. This fact can't be argued by a sane person. (Presa Canarios are the ones who killed Diane Whipple in her apartment building in San Francisco while their owner looked on.) It's the combination of dog and owner that's deadly. Dog owners have a responsibility to ensure that their pets don't harm other people and people's property -- including other pets. If it takes controlling the population of these dogs in densely populated areas is required to ensure the safety of everyone, only the irrational would argue against it.
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@Laurel962: older parents too selfish
[Read the article: The baby I turned away]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Hold up, Laurel962. I've met your type before, the kind that think women who wait to have children are selfish and don't make good mothers. I'm 40, have had no children and never married. Why? Because my childhood was horrible, I was damaged, and it has taken me this long to become a whole, nurturing person. It's taken me this long to forgive the people who hurt me, accept myself and really consider the future as a good place.
Several of my friends had children without fathers between 17 and 21. Those kids are just as screwed up as any I might have had at that age, and I feel sorry for them when I see how tormented they are. Both my siblings brought 3 children into stable marriages. The stress of three normal children broke up one marriage and almost broke up the other (thankfully, that marriage is stronger than ever now). Because I didn't have children of my own, I was able to be a good auntie, an actual force in the children's lives. I'm glad to say my efforts actually helped in the marriage that stayed together.
Through all this, I've learned what it means to be a parent, and I've finally learned that I could do it. Yes, I've had good jobs, I've traveled, I've put myself through grad school. That's not because I'm selfish, it's because I am alive and I had to do something with myself for 40 years, for crying out loud! Were I to be blessed with a pregnancy now, the parent I would be is not even the same species of parent as the horribly selfish and damaging one I would've been 20 years ago. A child of mine would actually have the chance of a happy childhood now. That's not selfishness, that's maturity.
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Gas tax holiday bad for everybody
[Read the article: Obama is wrong about the gas tax]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The gas tax is supposed to be funding the Highway Trust Fund. As mpg goes up -- saving consumers lots and lots of money in gas taxes per mile driven since the tax was initiated -- the amount of money socked away per wear-and-tear of each mile driven on our roadways goes down. The gas tax hasn't been raised in more than a decade and its buying power in labor and construction costs is only a fraction of what it was intended to be. Killing the gas tax during the time of year when it will generate the most income for fixing our crumbling infrastructure and when that crumbling infrastructure undergoes the most wear-and-tear is a shortsighted, dare I say stupid, idea. We all lose big time if the gas tax goes away. It should be raised so that we can actually fix our roads to the standard that was intended when it was begun.
My Honda Insight gets an avg 50mpg, so I pay very little gas tax per mile driven. It's also very light, so my car produces very little wear and tear on the road while driving. The owner of a Hummer creates much more wear and tear on the roads while driving that vehicle, and that vehicle sucks down much more gas per mile driven than mine does, so in that sense it works out fairly.