Letters 3/16/06

March 15, 2006

Teens online: be a parent
I was just reading the lengthy, and might I say scary, article about Myspace.com (“Teens & Internet Predators,“ 3/9). I have two kids, a 16-year-old son and an eight-year-old daughter. The things they have to deal with are hard enough for me to swallow, but the whole online issue I have pretty much taken care of.
I DON’T let MY KIDS ON IT!!!! If they have homework that needs to be looked up, I do it with them. If my son wants some music for his MP3 player, I review it with him then download it for him. If there is a website he wants to check out, I watch what he is doing.
The whole notion that they have to be online to do homework is hogwash. My kids have had very little to find on the Web. When things are needed there is ample time at school for them to use school computers that are constantly monitored. No need to get spyware to see where they are going either. If they are on it I am sitting beside them.
Do them and you a favor, take the computer out of their room. Would you let 20, 18-year-old boys in your 14-year-old daughter‘s room alone? Well, chances are with that computer and cute little camera on top of it, that is what is happening.
You think, well they go on when I’m not around. I have one computer that is connected to a cable modom. It is password protected and only my wife and I know it. My kids have computers in their rooms that they are free to use anytime but neither is connected to the Web.
Bottom line, if you fear your kids are getting into the wrong things, be a parent not a friend. Limit them on the computer if they have a good reason and monitor them. It is your house, your computer, your connection, and most of all your child. You are the responsible one, step up and take a line from the past, “Just say no.” Take back control of your house and your Internet. They will be grown up and move out before you know. At that point they will make their own choices about what to do and see. Until then, protect them as a good parent should.

Joe Deater • Lake Ann

LETTERS

Don‘t judge appearances
I would first like to say I am not a “fan” of sexual offenders. I would, however, like to stick up for those who live at the Whiting Hotel and for Goodwill for providing the space.
In Susan Ruoff’s letter in the March 9 issue of the Express, she expressed her concern that “these criminals are allowed to live in our downtown,” and believes “downtown Traverse City would be a better and safer place if the Whiting Hotel were used in a different capacity.”
I sensed a sort of elitist mentality emanating from her letter. Just because someone looks “creepy” doesn’t mean they are any more or less harmful than someone else who looks respectable. Traverse City should remain a community accepting and tolerant of all walks of life.
I imagine Ms. Ruoff’s intentions were good, but her letter hit a nerve with me because my late great-uncle Sylvester used to live at the Whiting. He was in his late 70s at the time and to some might actually have looked quite creepy with his disheveled clothing, goofy hat, and loud voice greeting people as he shuffled down Front Street. In my eyes though, he was simply my cute old uncle Syl, who happened to be quite harmless.

Jessica Sharry, Empire

2,300 dead in the war
The third year of the war on Iraq will be marked this Saturday, March 18 in Traverse City. It will also be remembered in the homes of families and friends of the 2,300 dead U.S. soldiers.
Families in Iraq will sit inside their homes or what is left of their homes remembering their dead and living in fear that venturing outside may mean being shot by U.S. soldiers, roving militias or caught in the cross fire of a brewing civil war.
Where will Bush and Cheney be on March 18th? Meeting with their Israeli counterparts, planning the invasion of Iran? Meeting with cronies from Haliburton et al, strategizing the economic rape of the next Middle Eastern country? It is easy to become discouraged about the troubles in the world, but for me silence is complicity. So I plan to be at our local anti-war demonstration and continue to work locally with others striving for a just and peaceful world. Demonstration starts at 11 a.m. at Grace Episcopal Church Hall at Washington and Boardman.

Marian Kromkowski • Suttons Bay

Ski trail vandalism
There is a new breed of vandalism plaguing Northern Michigan. I was unfortunate enough to encounter this on my last ski outing. Picture this: I start out on a trail near Interlochen. The snow on the trail is muddled, but nonetheless I ski along, taking in the beauty of the woods, the sound of the wind in the trees, breathing in the brisk... er... fresh?... um, wait a minute... dog poop? I look down and sure enough, there’s a big stinking pile of dog****, and another and another. For a minute I think I’ve wandered into a dog park.
Now, I think the problem might be that people just don’t realize it’s disrespectful and improper ski etiquette to take Fido, Rufus, Spot, [insert your dog’s name here] on a ski trail. Dog prints ruin a trail, and dog feces and urine are not exactly “natural beauty.”
When you take Fido on a ski trail, you are disrespecting the skier that worked hard breaking trail before you and also the skiers who will follow. Breaking trail can be exhausting work, but at some point most dedicated skiers do it. It’s a respect kind of thing. So when you take your dog on an established ski trail, it’s like spraying graffiti on a newly painted house; you are destroying something that somebody worked hard to create.
So here are some suggestions: why don’t you break your own trail with your dog, away from any established ski trail? Or you could go down a two-track or even a snowmobile trail (which are also good for freestyle skiing).
I feel I should add that I love dogs and grew up with one. Soon I will be the proud owner of a puppy, and I have every intention of taking him skiing. But I’ll accept the responsibility of being both a skier and a dog owner, and I’ll break my own trail through virgin snow far from any ski trail. There are thousands of acres of public land where this is possible.
The moral of the story: Yes, you can be a dog owner and a X-country skier, but you will have to modify each role if you want to be both at the same time. Try some of the suggestions I’ve offered here, or just leave Fido at home.

Katherine Cenci • Lake Ann

Hates the Express
Oops! My mistake. I picked up a recent copy of Northern Express, thinking it might be an alternative newspaper.
Imagine my surprise.
First, a typical, mainstream Let’s-Scare-The-Hell-Out-Of-Them feature on the dangers of free and open web sites. Teenagers talking about sex and drugs and lying about their ages! Posting explicit photos (so shocking, in fact, that NE decided we needed to be further titillated by printing a few skin shots)!
I’m shocked, shocked at such behavior!
How you gonna keep them down on the farm, once they get a look at MySpace.com?
Further reading finds an Op-Ed piece on why we should trust the same government that gave us the Katrina disaster with no less a bombshell than nuclear energy.
The writer – I’m sure a sincere and likeable person – essentially arguing that just because we haven’t seen a mushroom cloud, nuke plants are a safer and more economic alternative energy than oil.
Never mind the deaths and poisoning of Chernobyl for generations to come. Those silly Russians just aren’t smart as we are!
Not the least bit xenophobic.
And Three Mile Island? Well, hey, that was just a fluke. Nobody really got hurt. And besides, we can trust the latest scientific advances by giant corporations to keep us safe. Why, no American company would dare cut corners or lie to us. Would they Mr. Lay or Mr. Skilling?
But cheer up. All is not lost. George Foster’s column opining President Bush is a liberal was indeed good satire. Let’s paint this Republican adminstration’s weaknesses and many failings as generalizations for labeling that silly party on the other side of the aisle.
Those misguided liberal Democrats -- the political party representing most of this country’s minorities.
Why, I’ll bet some of Mister Foster’s best friends are minorities.
At least the price of your publication is right. I got what I paid for. Nothing. Well, nothing except anything I couldn’t already read in the many mainstream publications that long ago sold out for bottom-line profit instead of truth.
Write what your advertisers are comfortable with, not necessarily what’s happening out there. It’s good business. And what’s good for business just has to be good for the rest of us poor misguided souls, who sit at home watching our jobs and our children’s future being forever shipped off to China.
Bon Voyage!

Robin Fornoff • Tustin