Readers’ Mail Cover Range of Topics
Readers’ mail. You gotta love it.
Actually I do. I appreciate that someone will take the time to comment on a story or column and share their thoughts.
Here are some of the most recent readers’ mail, uncut or edited for space. Enjoy.
Timing of city council workshops
“Edmond Council Seeks Input on Safety Center” (Oklahoman, p.14A, Oct.15, 2009) – but do they really? Why then would they schedule yet another “public workshop”/input session at 3:00 on a workday afternoon (Monday, Oct. 26)?! Don’t they have real jobs?? The common Edmond citizenry does. Those of us who voted them into office do. Do they really expect the working class to take time off and forfeit their wages, or one of their few vacation days, for that afternoon? Those independently wealthy and the influential will be there. The executives, the managers, and those who can “delegate” to their assistants will be there. But those of the Edmond majority – who, by the way, will be the ones who will have to pay for this new Safety Center – will not be able to attend, even if they wanted to! So how about Monday evening? Few school activities are held then; and it is so much easier and affordable to line up a babysitter, than to take off during the workday!
Edmond citizens have repeatedly stated that they do NOT want some sprawling government complex located adjacent to private residential neighborhoods! Hey would prefer a site downtown at one of at least two potential sites. A multi-story building could easily be designed – to even include below ground parking and an emergency shelter for those who happen to be downtown on business during a storm or other emergency. The existing building could be redesigned as offices and file storage. The City Council does not respect its constituency enough to hear our words – otherwise they would at least schedule a “public input workshop” at the convenience of the common resident – instead of their own. I guess it will then, at least, fall to us to vote their big plans down again.
Mike Scharrer
Evil Is In The Eye of the Beholder
Dear John:
I read with interest your column in Tuesday’s paper regarding the “evilness” of Halloween. Apparently, quite a few people are unfamiliar with some very religious aspects of that particular holiday. Merriam-Webster defines Halloween as follows:
Etymology: short for All Hallow Even (All Saints’ Eve)
Origin: 1550–60; (All)hallow(s) + e(v)en 2: October 31 observed especially with dressing up in disguise, trick-or-treating, and displaying jack-o’-lanterns during the evening
Wikipedia defines the word as follows: “The term Halloween, originally spelled Hallowe’en, is shortened from All Hallows’ Eve: eve is an abbreviation of even, an older word for evening. Halloween gets -een as a contraction of even to e’en], from the Old English term eallra hālgena ǣfen meaning “All Hallows’ Evening”, as it is the eve of “All Hallows’ Day”, which is now also known as All Saints’ Day. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints’ Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures ) to November 1. In the 9th century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints’ Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were at that time celebrated on the same day. Halloween is thought of as a time when the living and the dead can be together again”.
Essentially, the word means Hallowed (or “holy”) Evening (“een”). Catholicism considers October 31 as “All Souls Day”, a day on which Catholics throughout the world pray for unknown martyrs. The next day is All Saints’ Day, (11/1) another important Catholic holiday.
As for children dressing up and begging candy, there is no inherent “evilness” in letting them do so; evil is in the mind of the beholder. It seems a harmless way to celebrate harvest and the beginning of a new season, nothing devilish, and, indeed, something with long history attached to prayer and praying! Visiting “Santa Claus ” and praying with gratitude for the birth of our savior are not mutually exclusive, any more than celebrating with costumes and candy gathering diminish the religious meaning of All Soul’s and All Saints’ Days.
As an afterthought: Wikipedia also defines “Samhain ” (10/31) as a Celtic holiday as follows:
“The night of Samhain, in Irish, Oíche Shamhna and Scots Gaelic, Oidhche Shamhna, is one of the principal festivals of the Celtic calendar, and falls on the 31st of October. It represents the final harvest. In modern Ireland and Scotland, the name by which Halloween is known in the Gaelic language is still Oíche/Oidhche Shamhna. It is still the custom in some areas to set a place for the dead at the Samhain feast, and to tell tales of the ancestors on that night.
Traditionally, Samhain was time to take stock of the herds and grain supplies, and decide which animals would need to be slaughtered in order for the people and livestock to survive the winter. This custom is still observed by many who farm and raise livestock because it is when meat will keep since the freeze has come and also since summer grass is gone and free foraging is no longer possible”.
Mary Butler
Barking Dogs A Day Time Problem
John,
Your mention of the barking ordinance in Edmond touched a nerve with me this morning. I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Taylor that “barking at night, not too much of a problem…problem is daytime barking…at least $200 fine, etc.” I believe that in Edmond you have to take the person to court. The animal control and/or police officers will come out on the first two complaints, but on the third time if the “complaining neighbor” wants to “complain” again, then they would be required to sign a complaint and take the neighbor to court.
My issue is with the neighbor who owns the barking dog who has had two visits already. We have one in our area of the addition (Spring Hill) who has two dogs and one dog in particular barks every time someone walks by their house either with or without their dog(s). Once again, beginning at 7:00 this morning (Saturday, October 24th), the dog was barking when someone was out for their morning walk.
The police have said they have been called out twice on this person already. Why, after two times, do these “neighbors” (if you can call them that) NOT get it? You’ve had two visits from animal control (or police) informing you that neighbors have complained, yet you still allow it to occur. One thing that makes it more aggravating is this particular “neighbor”, replaced an old stockade fence gate with a “wrought iron-like” gate so that now, not only does the dog have a sight-line to the street, it just sits/ stands at the gate and barks so the barking is now louder due to the open-style gate. The barking goes on daily from sunup to past sundown and these “neighbors” just don’t get it! They’re even home during the day!
As far as taking neighbors to court over this issue, I don’t have a problem with it. If they don’t seem to care then why should I? I don’t consider them “neighborly” to say the least.
–dw
Letter To Councilman On Totalcare
Mr. Miller,
I am writing to you in regards of the TotalCare program.
If I had not taken the time to read everything in my Utilities bill this month, I would have been forced into a program that could be considered Insurance or Tax to some people. I find it completely dishonest and despicable that the City Council would force such a program onto people. I enjoy city services and pay my taxes to have them provided. When the City decides they need more funding, a vote is usually called so the general population can decide whether or not they need it. I have voted for and against tax bills in the past and will continue to do so in the future. The point is, the people should be able to decide if they want to or need to pay more money for city services. If anything, this should have been Opt-In.
Many people will not realize that their current insurance will cover transportation and will be paying a redundant cost. Also, many people will not realize that this service does not cover the care or medical treatment provided while being transported. This is nothing more than a medical transportation version of Afflac . If your insurance does not cover everything, TotalCare will only fill in that gap.
City Manager Larry Stevens’ thoughts on TotalCare: “By funding the ambulance service through a special fee, we free up General Fund tax dollars.”
In other words, tax dollars that were previously used to fund ambulance service will be used on something else since we made a “special fee” to pay for the service. Is that not taxation without representation? Were the people consulted or was the measure put to a public vote? No, a special fee was implemented and the public is forced to opt-out of something they had no matter in.
Now, I am a little hypocritical. If this measure was put to vote as a tax increase, I would have voted for it. Edmond is full of a lot of senior citizen centers and I would rather have a small tax increase then a large cost due to none payment of services. My point being, we, the people, should have had a say in the matter and not automatically signed up for something if we rushed to pay our utility bill and failed to read everything before getting the payment out. There should have been more notices beforehand and they should have been mailed separately from a bill. I am sending a copy of this to Mr. Williams at newsOK since his opinion article was the only one that I found out of the several news articles that only mentioned the new program and I would like for him to hear my opinion. (http://newsok.com/monthly-fee-can-help-pay-edmonds-ambulances/article/3401510)
Thank you for taking the time to read this email and for serving the people. I hope that you will remember these points in future decisions.
Sincerely,
Michael Halpin, Edmond Ward 4 Resident
OC RECEIVES 1,300 TREES
Oklahoma Christian University campus will receive a donation of 1,300 trees.
Two foundations have donated 1,300 trees to Oklahoma Christian University that will be planted on campus and connect with Edmond city trails. The Tree Bank Foundation and the Houston-based Apache Foundation are donating five different varieties of trees to the university’s campus Wednesday. OC students, faculty and staff members will help unload and plant the trees.
University President Michael O’Neal says he hopes the trees are enjoyed for many decades by students and community neighbors who use the walking trails.
Is Halloween A Celebration of Evil?
Jack O Lantern
The other day while I was compiling a list of Halloween activities in Edmond, I recalled the time I was in the middle of the debate about letting children observe this annual holiday.
There are strong opinions about the origin and celebration of Halloween and whether it left children susceptible to evil.
One side saw Halloween as an innocent time where children dressed in costumes and canvassed the neighborhoods for candy. At the same time, they saw Halloween as a time for scaring each other with ghostly tales and horror movies.
On the other side of the coin, some see the origin and commemoration of Halloween as a secular festival steeped in spiritual wickedness. Allowing children to participate in Halloween is akin to letting them “play on the devil’s turf.”
The city of Edmond offers wholesome, family-friendly events in October such as Storybook Forest and Fall Family Festival. At the same time Edmond churches and organizations put on fall parties and celebrations with some of the trimmings of Halloween but without the emphasis on the gory details.
Both sides of the issue can produce mounds of evidence to back up their belief about Halloween.
So what is your opinion? Is allowing children to participate in Halloween activities bad for the soul or is it merely good-natured fun?
