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May 14, 2008 04:57 pm
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IUS function was ill planned
Beware of attending functions at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany.
I was a guest there May 5. I attended their commencement exercises for this year’s graduates.
I have always looked upon college graduations as very special events. My niece had been attending there for the last four years at no small expense to her. She graduated in an open field, not unlike areas that are normally reserved for cattle.
I would guess the attendance there, that day, was roughly three or four thousand people. Many were the essence of health, while many of us had some handicaps.
I have emphysema, C.O.P.D., congestive heart failure and a handful of maladies that made the mile-long walk through the mountains of their vast parking lot, and then back around all the buildings to the pasture in the rear of their property extremely challenging.
This hike was made even more interesting by their offering absolutely no place along the way to stop and rest, as I desperately needed to catch my breath. There were no benches or seats of any kind along this mile-long trek. Fortunately, I was able to grab hold of a tree or a sign post every 500 feet or so that enabled me to catch my breath for a few seconds.
Even the healthy had a hard time, though. Many of the other people thought this was a very special event, too, as they were dressed very nicely. Most of the women wore high heels. While high heels may be considered fine for walking through the hills on asphalt trails; they cannot possibly be thought by anyone to be the shoe of choice for walking in a pasture; or worse yet, standing in a pasture for hours, because there is no place to sit.
There is more planning put into elementary school graduations, high school graduations and dog shows than could possibly have been put into this endeavor.
Needless to say, I was disappointed with their facilities. They could have rented a high school gymnasium, or at the very least, they could have thrown some folding chairs up in the pasture.
Standing for hours in an open field after such a trek, and then listening to the many speeches, made for an ugly evening. Thank God it wasn’t raining.
I believe, like many of the other people that I heard talking nearby, I have attended my last function of any kind at IUS.
— Richard D. Carver III, Sellersburg
Reader: Column was unprofessional
I was surprised Saturday, May 10, 2008, to find out that The Evening News had invited local middle- school students to write editorial columns in the sports section. Or maybe I was mistaken, because the only column containing an emotional, unprofessional rant worthy only of someone with years to go before journalism school was “A different take on Eight Belles,” by Amy Huffman-Branham.
In any case, the column in question was a rambling diatribe against horse racing detractors that repeatedly made accusations and failed to provide any facts or even logic to substantiate the negative statements. Apparently, Ms. Huffman-Branham’s family is involved in horse racing, and somehow she believed that fact alone to be sufficient to rail against recent criticism of the sport in a journalistic forum. Although I searched the entire column for some semblance of supporting evidence of her claims, the spirit of the article could be distilled down to, “Don’t be mean to my daddy!”
The more disturbing aspect of the column was the blatantly emotional attack on her co-worker, Matthew Cress, who wrote a column questioning horse racing on Thursday, May 8.
Did the management staff of the newspaper go on vacation and leave their kids in charge? Has concern about circulation allowed the paper to just throw out every vestige of journalistic integrity?
The column was embarrassing, and Mr. Cress should not be subjected to the public effects of an unprofessional attack in a supposedly professional forum.
— Peggy H. Duffy, Jeffersonville
What is stormwater fee paying for?
On Thursday, May 8, my neighbor and I attended the New Albany Stormwater Board meeting about a drainage problem we have.
There were several people there with differant problems and when it was our turn to speak we had photos to show the problems we have. We explained that there were two drains coming out from under the streets. The one drain sits lower than the other, so there is water that always remains in the ditch. There is a drainage ditch that splits our property and about two-thirds of the way to the back of my property, it goes under my fence and divides my property in half. At the end of my property, it levels out with two other properties and water just stands there in a pool.
This is a problem, which is a health concern, due to mosquitos.
The stormwater board, which includes a manager from Environmental Management Corp. (EMC), said this was private property and they could not do anything. I told them they had my permission to come on my land to do whatever to take care of the problem. The man from EMC said they would have to get some kind of a permit to do so, and then, if I sold my property and years down the road the problem returned, they would have to go through all the trouble again.
So according to the stormwater board they are only responsible for about a 3-foot-long section from one drain to the other drain.
I then told them I would take care of the problem. I would block off and concrete where it comes under my fence and fill the rest of the ditch in with dirt and level out my backyard. The chairman of the board then had the nerve to tell me I could not do this, because it could flood onto two adjoining properties. I then told him it was private property and not to worry about it.
My point is we pay a stormwater fee. When it rains and the runoff from our roofs, driveways and whatever else goes on our property, what good is having this fee if it does not help us as property owners?
— Alan Montgomery, New Albany
Eating habits helping bird flu
Poultry producers would like people to think that the bird flu that is infecting domestic fowl is caused by wild birds, and the way to prevent this disease is to lock up every domestic chicken and turkey in housing to protect them. However, Avian influenza has lived harmlessly in wild birds for millennia. Their dropping are spread sparsely over outdoor areas where the viruses are killed by sunlight and dehydrate to death in the breeze.
It is the industrialization of poultry production that has vastly increased the potential of these viruses to mutate into the highly deadly Bird Flu by raising tens of thousands of chickens and turkeys in football-field size housing where they are left to lie wing to wing in their own waste, darkness, dirt and and dampness. In 2005, the average number of birds per farm was nearly 300,000, where the air is choked with fecal dust, ammonia and methane gas, which irritates the birds respiratory passages, increasing their susceptibility which is already compromised by the stress of confinement and weakening their immune system. This is especially true for those hens used in the egg industry.
The farmers know this and try to compensate by feeding them massive amounts of antibiotics, but still the birds can become infected. In 2002, in Virginia, 4.7 million chickens and turkeys had to be destroyed. In 2003, in California, 3.5 million chickens were destroyed. In 2004, in Canada, 19 million birds were destroyed. In 2007, in the U.K. 159,000 turkeys were destroyed. However, between government subsidies, reimbursements and insurance policies, the farmers suffered no financial losses, and the news media won’t show these exterminations on the home front due to possibly distressing the public.
In 2007, Consumer Reports magazine reported that tests of 525 chickens purchased from U.S. supermarkets in 23 states found 83 percent were contaminated with campylobacter and salmonella bacteria. In addition, a majority of those infected showed strains resistant to antibiotics, and the USDA reports that these bacteria can cause egg contamination.
Without a major shift in peoples eating habits, factory farming will continue to expand, and their expansion will potentially lead to an outbreak of deadly Bird-flu like the 1918 Spanish flu that killed 675,000 Americans.
— William Wilson, Jeffersonville
Reader: Ode to a pit bull
We volunteer at the shelter and we have found, there is no hope for a favorite hound.
These dogs are beautiful, friendly and fit. They are the infamous breed known as pit.
We see countless puppies huddled up in a pile. Big dogs with big chains, a wagging tail and a smile.
Society has deemed them the unsuitable pet. Here at the shelter their fate is set.
A few days of shelter and food that they need. Then a quiet trip to heaven, the only way to be freed.
To help these animals, we must spread the word, we need to educate and make sure we are heard.
Help our community, speak out and pray that all pit bull owners will neuter and spay.
— Nancy Schellenberger, Georgetown
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