LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, Jan. 1
By:
The average person
can be a hero
To the editor:
Many things changed because of one day. In one day, our worries were changed from wondering about a bad grade to being scared that our parents might not come home alive. In one day, our country learned that it was not invincible. In one day, we learned how cruel people can be. After September the 11th, we need to change our ideas of what qualifies as a hero.
Are heroes the people who make the most baskets or sink the longest putts? Are heroes the people who pass the winning touchdown? Or are they average people who, when called to do extraordinary things, they respond? The answer in my mind is clear. Role models come in many different shapes and sizes.
People need to change their minds about who they think the heroes are. There are real heroes who are not written about in the newspaper each day, who have not had books written about them. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a hero as: "A person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life." If one looks around us, there are many heroes in our world. Where in that definition does it say that you have to be a super athlete or the most popular person around? It doesn’t.
Heroes do not have a set profile. The policeman who helps an old lady cross the street, the firefighter who stays in burning building with someone who has no hope of getting out, the mayor who can put aside a disease he is struggling with to help his community; these are all heroes. It doesn’t have to be the built-up pitcher who throws for four games in the World Series. They may not be the handsome shortstop who makes the diving catch or the pop singer whose hit songs are all over the radio. A hero can be the everyday person out there trying to make an honest living.
We meet heroes each day. Everyone can be a hero to somebody. Whether you are the hero to your little brother or a well-known person, it makes no difference. Everyone has the potential to be a hero. Hopefully, the American people can change their ideas and thoughts about what qualifies as a hero. This is not an impossible thing for the average person. It just takes a little bit of insight to think of what makes someone special, or a hero.
Nate Sell
Thomas Grover Middle School
Princeton Junction
Lauds organizers
of protest rally
To the editor:
Kudos to all who organized and participated in the successful Rally for Rudolph protest on Palmer Square on the Dec. 22.
The many speakers and concerned citizens who came out to show support for Princeton’s deer sent a clear message to the community that there are alternatives to Mayor Marchand’s cruel war on wildlife. The subject of the illegality and lethality of snipers using high-powered rifles in town was emphasized, as was the need to develop humane alternatives to killing the deer.
Despite various attempts to hinder the peaceable rally by borough police, who denied us the use of amplification, tried to prevent the dissemination of literature and attempted to suppress free speech, the spirit of the rally was very upbeat and could not be dampened.
Local attorneys Falk Engel, Bruce Afran and Carl Mayer, key organizers of the rally, were quick to enlighten the officers as to the rights afforded citizens under the First Amendment.
It escaped nobody’s notice that the treatment we received from borough police on that day was a far cry from the helpful assistance rendered by township police at the deer rally held last winter.
The music provided by Patti Smith and A Plus Attitude provided an entertaining backdrop to the gathering, which consisted of over 300 people of all ages, some with their children and pets, and many carrying signs and banners. The anti-deer-culling movement is gaining momentum in Princeton as more residents understand the barbarity of Mayor Marchand’s program of deer extermination.
Bill Laznovsky
Mandon Court
South Brunswick
There are better ways
to control deer herd
To the editor:
David Abraham is misleading the public about the Princeton deer slaughter. He claims: "The program adopted by our elected officials is careful, thoughtful and balanced. It has been endorsed as humane by the American Veterinary Medical Association." This is completely false. The veterinary organization he refers to the AVMA has never even looked at, let alone endorsed, Princeton’s program. As to whether the AVMA endorses the "net and bolt" method, it does not. All the AVMA does is list as "conditionally acceptable" the use of bolt guns to kill animals in slaughterhouses. The AVMA never gives any opinion about using netting and bolting in the field to kill deer.
The leading authority on killing livestock in the world, Professor Temple Grandin, who has written most of the materials for the AVMA on humane slaughter, is prepared to testify that the netting itself is unacceptable and inhumane. Here is how it works. A net is fired out of a cannon over deer who struggle violently, often breaking legs or antlers, and turning over on their backs to get free. Four or five men then subdue one deer at a time so that they can place a "bolt gun" to the forehead of the animal, which fires out a four-inch rod that penetrates the animal’s skull.
Even in slaughterhouses, where animals are kept still, these guns miss the animal’s brain 10 percent of the time. Instead, the rod penetrates the animal’s eyes, sinus cavity or ear, causing the animal to violently twist in agony until a second or third blow is delivered.
Even Mayor Marchand doesn’t suggest this method is humane. As reported in The Packet, when asked on Dec. 10 if any veterinary or humane organizations endorse netting and bolting, she replied that such research was "unnecessary" and "had not been done."
Let’s assume Mr. Abraham is correct that we must kill deer, whether humanely or not. There are a dozen safer ways to kill deer than using high-powered rifles that endanger the public. Bow hunting, poisoning, and darting and removal just to name a few would kill the animals and not put lives at risk. The fact that these methods have been rejected in favor of rifles that send bullets up to 2.5 miles in a community of only 16 square miles points up the illogic and danger of Mayor Marchand’s plan. For these reasons I have joined many Princetonians in a suit to stop this illegal plan. Forget the animals; lives are at risk.
As to Mr. Abraham, saying that his opponents are "overwhelmingly fanatics" and likening them to Nazis is not constructive. His uncivil language and looseness with the facts bolsters our argument that Marchand and her allies have unleashed incivility in this town, not those who favor a logical and humane deer program.
Jeff Gorman
Cuyler Road
Princeton