Published: April 18, 2008 04:17 pm            

In Your View — 04/20/08

Have we given up on correction?

I have read the editorial comment in your newspaper edition of April 15 of how the state legislature’s position on releasing thousands of class D and C prison felony inmates to home incarceration is a “smart on crime” approach and suggesting that it makes more sense than the “tough on crime” opinions of the county attorneys and commonwealth’s attorneys of our state.

Have we given up on the Department of Corrections in their ability to “correct” these inmates? These are the college educated best minds in the state on the subject of corrections. If sending these felons home to trust that they won’t steal our identities and possessions, commit more home burglaries, deal and take more drugs, commit serious assaults, drive intoxicated for the fourth or more times and generally do all of the D and C felonies or more is actually “smarter” than holding the Department of Corrections accountable to correct them, then I suggest that we send these corrections scholars home and change the name to the “Department of Warehousing People.”

There is a savings in the budget for you.

Cliff Duvall, Commonwealth’s attorney, Greenup



2 hobbies give much pleasure

When I was 20 years old, the Tri-State Amateur Radio Association taught me the knowledge to pass the test for an amateur radio license.

In the early 1970s, I had the extremely good luck to be taught physical and cultural anthropology by Dr. Clara Cook.

I have been an amateur radio operator for 43 years and an amateur anthropologist for 35 years. I have talked with other ham radio operators around the world. The discussion of anthropology on the ham bands has occurred many times. Both hobbies have given me a great deal of pleasure.

Go to arrl.org for ham radio information. Do a search for anthropology news or science news to learn new things.

Scotty Thompson, Rush



None know date of Lord’s return

With the approaching millennium and all the problems then going on in the world, Tim D. Ratliff wrote a letter to the editor in 1999 that asked: “When will Jesus return?”

This is a question that has been pondered since the inception of the New Testament church. In reality, no one knows the day or hour of our Lord’s return.

We have heard all sorts of rumors about the Social Security Administration planning to stamp invisible numbers on the backs of people’s hands and about how the blocks for the next Jewish temple have already been cut and numbered.

In recent years, cults have been on the increase. We were all shocked by the images of the Branch Davidian compound being burned in Waco, Texas, with the deaths of 80 followers including 25 children.

Not long after that, 38 Heaven’s Gate cult members took their lives in anticipation of meeting a mother ship full of aliens.

How could people be so blind to the truth?

Now we see children and young mothers being removed from a compound in Texas.

Bible prophecy was not given to alarm us but to keep us alert. As God’s people let us continue to wait patiently to our Lord’s return and be careful not to believe every alarming prophecy we hear or to follow end time groups.

As the day of redemption draws near, may the Lord find us all spiritually awake and eager.

Marilyn Stokes, Greenup



Cemeteries plan butterfly release

Rose Hill Burial Park & Golden Oaks Memorial Gardens will have its first annual butterfly release, Sunday, May 11.

The butterfly release will be at 1 p.m. at Rose Hill and at 3 p.m. at Golden Oaks. A minister will say a few words, and then we will have a reading of the names.

If you would like to add the name of a departed mother honoring Mother’s Day, please call the appropriate office and the administrator will be happy to add your loved one’s name to the list. They don’t have to be buried at one of our cemeteries to be added to the list and read.

Afterwards, everyone will be given a cocoon and together, we will open the cocoon to release a butterfly in memory of our dearly departed loved ones.

For more information, just call one of our offices.

Damon Melcho, Rose Hill Burial Park, Golden Oak Memorial Gardens



Some thoughts on eating green

This Earth Day, April 22, many people will be thinking about “green living.” The best way to live green is to “eat green.” Here’s some food for thought:

-- Nearly half of all the water used in the U.S. is squandered on animal agriculture. You can save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you can by not showering for an entire year.

-- A United Nations report revealed that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars, trucks, trains, ships, and planes in the world combined. The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook states that “refusing meat” is “the single most effective thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint.”

-- Approximately 2.9 million acres of Amazon rain forest were destroyed in the 2004-2005 crop season to grow food for farmed animals; in the U.S., more than 260 million acres of forest have been cleared for the same reason. Around 1.4 billion people could be fed with the grain and soybeans fed to U.S. cattle alone.

--According to the Environmental Protection Agency, factory farms pollute our waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. Animals raised for food produce approximately 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population — 87,000 pounds per second.

Please do your part to save our planet: Go vegan. Visit www.GoVeg.com for a free vegetarian starter kit.

Heather Moore, Senior writer, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Norfolk, Va.

        

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