Opinion

I cut my newspaper publishing teeth at The Aberdeen Examiner. I took the job at the age of 28.

Thank goodness I had some fine homegrown folks there as members of the community newspaper team. One of those was a white-haired gentleman in his 60s named Clyde Wilson.

We have a bunch of animals at our house and our daughter’s house next door. Theoretically, they are “ours” and “theirs,” but actually, they all belong to all of us.

Meredith, Remy, Grace and Emily have spent the summer either at camp or at each other’s houses. We’ve finally had to force all of them to their respective homes, as school starts for most of them this Thursday.

Sundays have a different rhythm, a change that I enjoy. For some reason it seems there is more time. It is especially nice to wake up early and have a few minutes more to linger over breakfast, and perhaps write a letter or two. These days it is more likely an e-mail, but the idea’s the same. My Auntie Fran was our family’s great letter correspondent, and most of her epistles, like those of the Blessed Apostle, were Sunday affairs. Auntie Fran never used a period when she wrote. The letters were just long phrases divided by hyphens when she came up for air. But we got the news and that was what counted.

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I have the opportunity to participate in many of the debates that shape policies important to our nation’s defense and the men and women of our armed forces.

One of the most important bills the committee considers each year is the defense authorization measure, which sets the policy and spending priorities for the Department of Defense. Following committee approval, this bill was recently passed by the full Senate. This important measure authorizes funds our troops need to achieve their objectives in the field, as well as a number of provisions essential to defense installations in Mississippi.

Letters To The Editor

Spay or neuter, please!:
Dear Editor,

Sunday morning we found this cute little female brown puppy at the end of our driveway. It was afraid, very thin, starving and injured. She was hesitant, but finally her little tail wagged and she came to us. I picked her up and she rested her little head under my chin and her big brown eyes were looking at me saying “are you going to hurt me, are you my mommy, are you going to feed and take care of me?”

All day we could hear another puppy yelping in the distance. My husband went looking for it and found it in dense bush. It too was starving and full of worms.

Monday morning, more yelping. This one was in our tractor shed, starving.

I am not a tree hugger, an animal rights activist, a PETA member, an anti hunting fanatic or anything else along those lines.

I am a human being who cares about my surroundings, people, animals, anything that cannot make it on its own, basically.

I get my dogs and cats spayed/neutered because it is the right thing to do.

Why would anyone with any feelings, compassion, caring, get a dog, bring it home, let it wander, get pregnant, impregnate?

The puppies are left to their own destiny. The female gets one litter after the other, the vicious ugly circle keeps on and on.

We have a spay clinic that is very cheap and convenient.

This is for my neighbors who live on Bob White Drive, if you can’t afford to pay for the spay/neuter, I will.

I will even take them there and bring them back home after surgery.

Some say they will not neuter their dogs. They say they need to have fun too. What a lame excuse for your cheapness.

A pet has a purpose, but is part of the family. They need attention, love and caring.

Some kill the puppies after they are born, one litter after the other. Does it not bother you in any way? Do you not think about it after? What kind of human being are you? It makes me wonder if the owners of all these non-spayed/neutered animals are also the ones who turn a blind eye when they see child abuse, theft, drugs around them.

Taking the easy way out at other’s expense.

The easy way out with these three puppies is that we kill them. We will not. We cannot keep them either.

We called everywhere we can think of to give them. We offered money to the Olive Branch SPCA to accept them. We contacted the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office. We contacted local veterinary clinics. We called the Holly Springs Animal Shelter.

www.hsus.org/pets/pet_ care/why_you_should_spay_ or_neuter_your_pet.html

Suzette Noel
Byhalia

Garbage pickup:
Dear Editor,

The only negative thing in our move at the museum has been with the trash and garbage people. Our garbage is overflowing onto the sidewalk. Today is the eighth day we’ve been waiting for a pickup.

We all have jobs to do and if one doesn’t do his job, it hurts all.

Garbage pickup isn’t free and we are willing to pay. Garbage all over the walk or street isn’t sanitary, it is unsightly and it is ugly.

It hurts the look of the place, it hurts the look of the city and sends a negative image of the people who live here.

With garbage all over the streets, newcomers would say “what kind of people live like that?”

I drove through our beautiful and beloved Hill Crest Cemetery a couple of days ago. What has been one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the South, isn’t that anymore. The grass is knee-deep, the tombstones are being vandalized, thieves and ghouls have come at night and stolen the fantastic iron fences (they left the posts).

A big, ugly, dead tree is waiting to fall and crush more beautiful tombstones and fences.

We were supposed to have grant money to beautify the cemetery. We don’t need “kiosks” (signs at the gates) we need to fix what we have.

In my book, I called the cemetery “our sculpture garden.” Many of the tombstones were made here by Mr. Puryear, who lived at the corner of Randolph and Salem. He was quite an artist and his tombstones are works of art. He even signed some of them.

The dead tree has history also. It was on the Dancy lot. E.H. Crump’s family lot was behind the Dancy plot and it had one of the most beautiful tombstones in the cemetery.

When the tree got big, the Crump obelisk couldn’t be seen from the street. So, Mr. Crump had the tree severely trimmed so it wouldn’t block his view.

There was a picture in The South Reporter of what was left of the tree and it looked terrible and Lucius Dancy sued Mr. Crump.

Now, the remains of this tree are still causing dissension.

To turn a vehicle in the cemetery is impossible. My car isn’t long and will turn on a dime. I don’t know how other, longer vehicles make the turn.

We used to be so proud of our sculpture garden and now it is in chaos.

What kind of people live here, to allow this?

Lois Swaney Shipp
Holly Springs

Please take time to remember our local “heroes” who are serving in war zones around the world.

If you’d like to add a name to this list, please contact The South Reporter, Attn. Linda Jones, P.O. Box 278, Holly Springs, MS 38635; 662-252-4261; or email: south@dixie-net.com


Thursday, August 6, 2009
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