Letters 3/14/02

March 13, 2002

High cost of horse abuse

Reading through the Record Eagle the other day, (something I haven‘t done some time), I was amazed at the Kasben case.
Now like I say, I haven‘t been reading the paper, and only get one fuzzy channel on my 6-year old television, so I don‘t know all the details of the case or how badly the animals were treated.
I do know however, that 30 days in jail, $20,400 in fines and court costs, two years probation, losing his whole herd of horses, not being able to own or possess a horse (just how do you possess a horse any way?), and last but not least, not even being able to go near a horse, sounds a bit crazy to me.
As an animal lover myself, I hate to see them mistreated. However, sometimes there are honest explanations why people, unintentionally or unknowingly neglect things, be it people, animals, or just life situations, and I believe the time, energy, and money wasted on this case could have been much wisely invested in more positive, constructive ways.
To my best calculations, a total of $61,400 has been sunk into this dispute.
Just think of what other causes in our communities this money could have contributed to, such as health care, food, and shelter for the poor. Or hey, how about education?
Life is too short to be expending our material and personal resources on personal battles. Instead, I believe we should use a little compassion, common sense, and common welfare in our decisions to our solutions.
And just one more thing. Mr. Phillips wanted to make it clear that “this is not open season on farmers.“ Being raised on a farm, I would like to let him know how reassured I truly feel.

Tracy Lautner • TC

Give peace a chance

In 1956, Miss Quinlin marched our 4th grade class down to the cafeteria with
the rest of the elementary school to view a film on nuclear war. The
“godless“ Russians had The Bomb. At ground zero, temperatures were equal to
those on the sun. Buildings and trees vaporized. Then the fire storm.
Then silence. We were led back to our rooms where we practiced sitting
under our desks, our heads tucked between our knees, our arms crossed over
our heads, our eyes closed tight to protect our retinas from being burned
out by the blinding flash of light.
After that, I stuck around the house. I didn‘t want to leave my dog and my
baby brother. I yearned to go to my secret camp in the orchard, to climb up
into the arms of my gnarled tree to read and to eat salted green apples, but
I was afraid. Dad sat me down for “a talk.“ He got out the globe. He
calculated how many hours it would take a plane to fly from Russia to the
U.S. He told me about radar and defense planes. There would be hours of
warning. The U.S.A. had a system. If for any reason there was a problem and I
was needed at home, Mom or Dad would honk the horn of the car, one long honk
and three short beeps. I grabbed “The Complete Sherlock Holmes“ and a salt
shaker and headed for my perch in the apple tree, but my world was never
quite the same.
Today, terrorism has again changed the world and the face of war.
Terrorists are not dependant on formal armies, air forces or navy fleets.
Using America‘s own commercial airline planes as weapons and striking at
the heart of our military, democratic and economic strongholds, terrorists
assaulted our citizens and the foundations of this great nation and changed
our lives forever.
Today, we cannot sit our children down and assure them that their world is
safe. It is not. The highest military technology is available in global
markets, to nations and groups large and small, peaceful and warlike. Conventional war is obsolete.
We must have the courage to find new ways to bring terrorists to justice
and build peace. We must build international coalitions, based not on war,
but on healing and peaceful resolution of conflict. The United States of
America could establish a cabinet level Peace Department through support of
Congressional bill HR 2459, and ask other nations to join us. The money
spent on funding the destruction of war and weapons could be spent forging
friendships and alliances built on the elimination of poverty and on the
building up of justice. America, the mightiest nation of the world, could
lead the way. In spite of fundamental changes in the arena of war, our
leaders continue to depend on conventional military might. This is what our
military leaders have been trained to do. The military continues to arm
and trains new armies, as we did the Taliban. War merchants continue to
make and design and sell more weapons. New divisive alliances and
confrontations destabilize fragile peace agreements between small nations.
Children and women suffer as new conflicts devour resources and destroy
homes, farms and orchards.
For every terrorist killed in war, we create a thousand new enemies. War
and poverty are the fertile soils that transform sick, immoral terrorists
into the heroes of repressed and needy people. We must have the courage and
the faith in justice, democracy and in our nation to ask, “Is conventional
warfare the best way to suppress and root out terrorism in this violent
world?“ Surely we can find a better way than global warfare, to wage peace
for our Children and Earth.

Jo Anne Bier Beemon
Michigan‘s first elected Green Party Candidate

Our sexy region

I‘m your New Best Friend.
And I gotta‘ say you really hit on a good one this time (Random Thoughts 2/28).
Violence and perferted sex are, let‘s face it, sorta‘ passé, whether they sell newspapers to the Great Unwashed or no.
But wholesome fun sex -- that‘s a new angle that could fit hand in glove with our northern self-image: forests, water, wildlife, woodsmoke. Now we just add nymphs and satyrs.
Think of the possibilities! A northern paper dedicated to the fun side of freezing your ass off. Girls, guys, bunkmate of the month, swinging in a two-man tent, sand considerations, how to do it in a keeless canoe, etc.
Sort of Traverse the Magazine does Larry Flynt.
You are right: sex always sells, even in down cycles of who, what, where, when. And wholesome northern sex has never been done before.
Nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come and all that.
Count on me. I‘m in. I‘ll write, do research, make coffee, sweep floors -- whatever. Most important of all, I will pay damned good money to read about the wholesome, fun sex lives of our northern friends and neighbors. Get ready to be really wealthy.

Bill Glass • Cross Village