Letters to the editor
A tree grows in Hartselle
Editor:
“I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree…
Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.
Joyce Kilmer
In Hartselle, a driver who veered his vehicle a car’s width over the yellow line struck a Bradford pear tree in the US Highway 31 Hartselle median, so now a reckless driver can make hundreds of oriental pear trees be cut down. In my opinion, the pear trees are no more “illegal” than the “sturdier” 110 utility poles in exact line with the pear trees.
Much of Highway 31 in Hartselle has a speed limit of 45 mph. There is approximately five feet between the yellow line and the line of trees and utility poles. Driving on Interstate 65 between Jefferson County and Morgan County, one sees miles of solid concrete barriers (approximately 304 feet high) as safety measures between north and southbound traffic. These barriers are between two-three feet from the yellow line. Now, get this: the speed limit is 70 mph along this portion of the highway. Is Hartselle being discriminated against or is someone getting a kickback from a tree-cutting business?
Additional points:
• If not all, almost all of Decatur’s Sixth Ave./Highway 31 has a 40 mph speed limit. From the Highway 67 intersection until the approach to the bridge spanning the Tennessee River, Highway 31 has no median except for the painted yellow line.
• There are neither utility poles nor trees separating northbound-southbound traffic, hence no complaint from ALDOT. However, within three feet from the edge of the street pavement on the passenger’s side one will see utility poles and occasional trees (Car collisions are not limited to crossing over the center line.)
• As to the “visibility argument” consider a comparison of tree branches versus 18-wheeler trucks as to blocking a driver’s view. Will trailer trucks be added to ALDOT’s list of what is illegal on our highways?
• Finally, consider a comparison of the impact force between a car crashing against a tree (or utility pole) and the same car traveling at the same speed having a head-on collision with another vehicle. This makes me wonder if the “guilty tree” just might have saved the driver’s life. The news report did not say if the wrecked vehicle side-swiped or skinned the median tree; rather, the report stated the wrecked vehicle “wraped around” the median tree.
Yes, I like Hartselle’s trees and I do not want the trees to be cut down. This does not mean that I value trees over human life. The argument centering around Hartselle’s Bradford pear trees is being presented as beauty versus safety, however, if we honestly evaluate all the facts, one can only conclude that the real issue is driver irresponsibility. Remember, the newspaper reporter stated “her car wrapped around a pear tree.” To hit the tree, the driver had to have crossed out of her lane a whole car’s width. Is ALDOT blaming trees for a driver talking on a cell phone or texting, or for spilling his drink, or for being distracted by his child, or for speeding, or for trying to avoid running over an animal or for falling asleep, or for having taken a medicine which carried the warning, “Do not operate machinery while taking this medication?”
Effie H. Lee
Hartselle
Good things happen in public schools, too
Editor:
May I enter into your column, acknowledging our public school systems. Let’s all give honor where honor is due. During the one moment of silence at Johnson Elementary School in Athens on Sept. 10, our precious little Gage Galbreath asked Jesus to come into his heart and be his savior and Lord and write his name in the Lamb’s Book of Life in Heaven.
He came home and told his mother and Maw-Maw Galbreath and later told his teacher, Mrs. Scoggins. He was baptized into the family of God Sept. 26 at his teacher’s church, Sardis Springs Baptist Church in Athens. He is in second grade at Johnson’s Elementary School.
I’d like to share this God-given poem with teachers of potential in God’s kingdom work.
Gage’s Water Baptism
There’s an open door in Heaven
Whosoever will, let him/her come
Salvation extended to all believers
Unaware and neglected by some
Gage, you received that holy calling
The gift of salvation, you claimed
Purchased by the holy blood of Jesus
No one has to be spiritually lame
At school, in a moment of silence 9-10-2010
Gage and Jesus, eternity contract made
Pre-registered in the Lamb’s Book of Life
Gage, 8-years-old, his all on the cross laid
A little child shall lead them
Confessing his Savior and Lord
If you’re not in alignment with our Creator
Now is your time to call upon the Lord.
A free gift to all who seek Him,
And take Him at His holy word!
Rejoicing in the presence of holy angels
Surely no one can say they haven’t heard
God gave His only begotten Son
To pay our sin – debt on Calvary’s cross
Our price tag, the empty cross, before us
We need not suffer spiritual loss.
Laverne V. Byrd (Maw Maw)
Statistics don’t tell the whole story
Editor:
I enjoy your newspaper, so please let me make a friendly response to the front page article of Sept. 28, “Stats show a drop in DUI arrests in some wet cities”.
Your story about the drop in DUI arrests in the year after Arab and Athens began to sell alcohol is not the whole story. The relevant statistics would come in 10 or 20 years after the effects of alcohol sales have had a chance to change the communities. The relevant crime statistics would include domestic violence, assault, and child abuse, not just DUI, though that too may show a gradual increase. The social statistics to study would also include alcoholism and alcohol related hospitalizations, as well as financial statistics like bankruptcies and foreclosures. If I were going to study the effects of this change, I would include divorce rates as well. These are problems which we have all seen connected directly to alcohol abuse, which is connected to availability of alcohol, and I predict you would see a destructive influence. Compare wet cities over the years to dry towns regarding crime and social well-being.
Your comparison of Arab and Hartselle is interesting since I lived in Arab for eight years. It is a much different community than ours. Arab was a tiny town before the government development of North Alabama caused it to grow, so many more people are from somewhere else. They have a huge high school band but their football team lost 34 games in a row (I saw every one of those 34 games since my daughter was in the band). Their auditorium is state of the art and huge but their athletic facilities are lacking. I love both of these cities but they are very different communities and have different characters.
Arab is in the corner of Marshall County, right beside Cullman, Blount and Morgan counties and doubtless believed they could benefit from tax revenues from dry counties. But I have heard that the city has had problems with its alcohol sales. The vote to go wet has caused a lot of hard feelings between people. The merchants have disagreed with how the city has administered its ordinances, which has resulted in lawsuits. There have been fights about the distribution of the revenue as well.
This brings up one of the reasons I oppose the legalization of alcohol sales in Hartselle. We are different from all other cities. We have our own character and our own calling. Every town is called to be itself, not some other town. In a religious sense we are called to be something different. I believe we are called to be the great town of Hartselle, Alabama, which as a part of its character does not have alcohol sales. It has not succumbed to the false promises of more tax revenues but has kept its charm and values.
I will vote no on the referendum because I love the character of the town of Hartselle and believe that is what we are called to be.
I hope in the debate over the wet-dry referendum we can all be civil and keep our friendships; that we as a community can have a full, lively and intelligent discussion in a spirit of community.
Rev. Robert Sparkman
Hartselle First United Methodist Church
What are your thoughts about the upcoming alcohol referendum? What about the proposed change to an elected school board?
Express your thoughts in a Letter to the Editor. Send your thoughts to P.O. Box 929, Hartselle, AL 35640 or email to
news@hartselleenquirer.com.
Signed comments can be included as Letters to the Editor; unsigned ones in our
E-Sound Off.
