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August 19, 2008 05:39 pm
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Blackiston speeding is out of control
I am writing as a concerned citizen who lives on and travels on Blackiston Mill Road at least 10 times a day with my three kids, ages 10, six and two. I am very concerned with a few things that are going on with this road.
The first thing being the signs at the body shops. Yes, they were nice when they were first put up, but now I have noticed an increased amount of wrecks since the two shops started competing. One including my self, that occurred on June 29, 2008, that totaled my van and hurt my husband, myself and three kids as we were rear-ended by a 17-year-old girl. The posted speed limit is 30 and I know, as hard as I was hit, she was doing way over 30.
The younger kids treat this as a drag strip, and you see no patrol from police officers. Just last night I was passed by a teenager who was out of my sight in a matter of seconds. All of this speeding seems to happen near the New Albany and Clarksville line where they are less likely to get caught.
As a concerned citizen, I would like to see something done about these signs and some more patrol from the officers to help control the speeders before another accident happens, and one of our loved ones is killed. All I am asking is for everyone to come together as a community to help get things resolved in this matter.
I was also hit head on when I was 17 about 10 years ago, on Blackiston Mill Road as well, and nothing is being done about the speeding. Please let’s get something done.
School is here and every morning I see kids standing all down this road waiting on their bus. I would hate for a speeder to lose control and hit one of these kids.
Please, once again, let’s get this under control.
— Rebecca Reisert, Clarksville
Reader has suggestion for Hill
The Evening News on May 10, 2008, in an article titled "Greenpeace targets Hill with billboards blasting his environmental votes" reported that "Ninth District Rep. Baron Hill, D-Seymour, was surprised to see billboards popping up around Southern Indiana, which challenge his record on the environment."
The article said Hill found Greenpeace's stance "puzzling" because he thought the organization was satisfied with the fuel economy target bill last year. The article said Hill thought he was on the "cusp of securing endorsements" from the "League of Conservation and the Sierra Club."
Checking on Hill's constituency in Bloomington, a college community and most college communities lean left, I found an interview from 2005 by then President of the Bloomington City Council, Andy Ruff, with Amy Goodman at democracynow.org. Ruff said that since the federal government was "denying global warming" they were taking "some steps through the sustainability initiative to develop more sustainable policies and ways of living and ways of doing business here in our own community."
Hill in order to get reelected needs to please his environmentalist constituency in Bloomington and Big Environmentalism by limiting oil production to save the planet from evil oil while convincing the folks mad about high gas prices that he wants to drill to increase production and lower prices.
Congressman Hill has a very serious gas problem which is probably why he seemed to come down on both sides of the issue in a recent article titled, "Something’s Got To Give."
— Jim M. Young, Jeffersonville
Reader: Fight the smoking ban
My husband, Bob, and I own B & B Bar and Grill.
When I woke up this morning, I was still a United States citizen and I was born in America, where the land of the free and the home of the brave live.
Those are the words in our American national anthem.
Are we going to eat our own words by taking away the freedom to make our own choices on how to run our own business and to choose where to go to have lunch and to choose what type of environment we want to be in?
Are all Americans too ignorant to decide what is right or wrong?
We all know that smoking can be hazardous to your health, but so can beef, pork, sugar, coffee, milk, sex, etc. How would you like it if you were told that you were banned from your morning cup of coffee and you were also banned from sex and that all beef was being banned from the restaurants?
This would probably bring a rise in a lot of people and again some would set back and let it be.
Well, I may be fighting a losing battle, but I am going to fight for my rights to my freedom of choice. Our American soldiers are fighting to keep our freedom and so should we. We were all able to vote in our City Council and Mayor and make a choice of who would sit in those seats, but they are telling us that we are ignorant to decide whether or not to go in a business that allows smoking, because it is a hazard to your health.
Hey, if I see a sign that says, “Beware of Dog,” I am going to choose whether or not I am going to enter that premise. This is my choice. No one can make it for me.
The smoking bans backbone right now is employees’ safety and health. Well, since when in America are you forced to take any job. When the employee takes the job, they are aware that there is smoking in the business and again the employee chooses to work around smoke. This was their choice. Smoking is not something that just popped up and we have known for years that it could be a hazard to your health, so when they take these jobs, they are aware.
And if you are aware of the hazard with any job, then you are the one to decide whether or not to take that job.
Let me put it in black and white, I am allergic to bee stings. If I get stung, I go to the hospital. So, if I apply for a job and they tell me that I could get stung by a bee, because it is a bee farm and they allow bees there. I know it could be a hazard to my health. It is my choice whether or not I take that job.
My whole point is, if they pass this smoking ban, they are taking away our freedom to make our own choices.
Our community will suffer from this, because the consumer will choose to go to another city or county to be able to continue to have the choice to smoke. My business will suffer a great loss as will a lot of others.
We don’t need this smoking ban. We need a chance to let our consumers make their own choices. We will put up signs that say, “We Do Allow Smoking Here.”
The majority of the people that are trying to get this ban passed will probably never step a foot in my place of business. They need to tend their own businesses and let our custmers make the choice.
We are trying to build up New Albany, but if this ban passes, we will be building up Clarksville and all of the county business, because we are taking our customers’ rights to smoke away and they will still be alble to have their freedom there.
Please for those who read this that are for the smoking ban, let us make our living. This ban could force a lot of businesses to close. Think about what you are doing to us. Don’t force this ban if you patronize our business. Clean off your own step, and leave ours alone. Let our customers make this choice.
And for those of you that are against the ban, step up, stand up for your rights and your freedom of choice.
I believe I speak for all of the businesses that are going to be affected by this ban, and I hope that they will step up and let our council and mayor know how unfair this ban really is and what hardship it will be on us.
— Brenda Gresham, New Albany
Roudenbush: Ban is not health issue
The first thing you need to know about the anti-smoking ordinance currently before the New Albany City Council is that it is not a health issue. I repeat, it’s not a health issue.
There is no need to argue about the risk posed by secondhand smoke — at any level. Even as you read this, every citizen may freely enter any building in this city that the law of the land may compel them to enter, be it government office, court of law, school, library, museum or hospital, entirely free from worries about secondhand smoke. They are already, by private initiative, smoke-free.
Anywhere else in this city, entry is a matter of choice. Each citizen has the right to choose to enter or not to enter the establishment. If parents are with their children, they might be wise to choose a smoke-free restaurant. If a person seeking employment wishes a smoke-free workplace, they are welcome to pick and choose. If an older citizen is irritated by secondhand smoke, they, too, can choose where to do business.
More and more people are making this choice. More and more businesses are catering to that interest. A recent survey of New Albany restaurants showed that nearly three-quarters of restaurants are entirely smoke-free.
So it is clear that personal choice and private initiative have already found a way to provide for those people who want a smoke-free environment and at the same time to respect the personal liberty of those who choose otherwise.
Why then, you might ask, is the New Albany City Council trying to pass a measure that is so obviously unnecessary? The ugly truth is that five members of the New Albany City Council think that you, the citizens of New Albany, are not smart enough to make those decisions for yourself.
That’s right, the real reason that this anti-smoking ordinance is before the council is that the New Albany City Council thinks you’re stupid.
In modern political discussions the term “liberal elite” is used to describe politicians whose acts show that on a whole variety of leftwing issues from seat belts to fluorescent light bulbs, they do not think that the average man is smart enough to make the right decisions. Anti-smoking legislation has long been a target of liberal elites like council members Jeff Gahan, Bob Caesar, John Gonder, and Pat McLaughlin. (Dan Coffey also voted for the ordinance but does not fit in this category, really.)
Politically, this piece of legislation pits these “goody-two shoes” members of the city council against the Democrats who make up the heart and soul of the Democrat Party in New Albany.
These hard hat, blue collar Democrats respect the desire of others to enjoy smoke-free environments at work, but they get pretty angry when either their livelihoods or liberties are threatened. Many have fought and bled to defend those liberties, and they are proud of that service and of themselves.
If these Democrats want to go to a bar and have a smoke or play bingo and smoke, that’s what they want to do. They appreciate the employees who serve them in these establishments because their bartender or waitress is one of those hardworking Democrats, too.
But most important for our discussion is that these citizens remember to vote and those they care for vote in sympathy with them. Regina Overton and James Garner can tell you that.
— Jeff Roudenbush, New Albany
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