OCR Text |
Show .Vernal Express. Public Forum Letters to the Editor What is your opinion? The Vernal Express welcomes letters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions on contents, if not libelous, vindictive vin-dictive and in good taste. The letters need to be a reasonable length, two typewritten double spaced pages. Letters must be submitted exclusively to the Vernal Express and bear the writer's writ-er's full name, signature, phone number and address. Letters for the sole purpose of expressing express-ing thanks to individuals or groups will not be printed in the forum. Letters may be mailed to P.O. Box 1000, Vernal, Utah 84078, faxed at 789-8690 or through email at editorvernal.com. The name or names of the persons submitting letters must appear on all published letters. All letters let-ters are subject to condensation. Letters express the opinion of the writer and are not necessarily necessar-ily the opinion of the Vernal Express Editor. A10 Wednesday, October 5, 2005 Lost dog Dear Editor, Please tell the people who took my Simon to bring him back. We miss him and are tired of crying. I will mow your grass for free if you bring him back. Thank you. Beau Hardinger Bring back our dog Dear Editor: On Sept. 18 someone came into my yard and took my two and a half year old dog. He is a small, light reddish or buckskin colored, shaggy coated dog with a grayish-black beard and black tips on his ears. He sometimes has his coat shaved, but the beard gives this breed away. The people who took him violated a basic law which has torn me up. I miss him so much. No... he didn't run away, he was not taken by an eagle nor did he get hit by a car. Someone took him. I need him back. He is a huge part of our family. "Simon" "Si-mon" was truly my best friend and I loved this dog. To the someone who came into my yard for the few minutes min-utes he was alone out there, you took my breath away. Please, if you have any heart at all you will return him. He is my dog! This dog did nothing to deserve being torn, from his family for some purpose unknown to me. I know he misses us. He wasn't just a dog, he was THE dog. The reward money I am offering can buy you two dogs of his like. Please return him to the place where he belongs. I would like to thank the community com-munity for looking for him. I have received several calls, all dead ends, but I thank you for putting up posters and watching for him. I am still anticipating his return. And to you, "Simon," your momma loves you; be a good boy and I am praying for you, OK? You didn't do anything bad. Find a way home to us, OK? D. Hardinger Naples Information wanted on dead Wyoming deer found in cemetery The local cemetery is an appropriate place for the dead to rest, but not for a mule deer. Duane Kerr, Wyoming Game and Fish Dept. game warden in Green River, received a call Monday morning that a headless head-less deer carcass had been found in a draw below the cemetery cem-etery road, south of 1-80. "Sometime late Saturday or Sunday, a large buck deer that had been a 'fixture' 'fix-ture' at the Green River Cemetery this summer died of unknown causes," Kerr said. "Unfortunately, a selfish individual indi-vidual took the head and cape, possibly for a taxidermy type mount. Gone with the cape went a considerable part of the -fiver aac r Bitter Creek Dear Editor: It's not nice to mess with the minds of your more mature readers by printing "facts" that contradict their memories. You say on your front page that "... Bitter Creek Books...is about to celebrate its 10th birthday." But some of us old fogies remember it being around longer lon-ger than that. In the latter part of the 70s Marie Kaczmarek, who had been teaching at Ashley Elementary, decided it was time for a bookstore in Vernal. She started with a small shop but she put all of her heart, all of her money, and all of her vast love of books into it. Marie had acquired her fondness fond-ness for reading while growing up in Dragon, deep in the Book Cliffs, in Bitter Creek country. Thus her choice for the name of the store. The beautiful black and white pictures she hung on the walls are from her Haven's family album. Marie worked in her store nine hours a day, six days a week, and when she went home she studied professional publications pub-lications to learn more about the books her customers might want or need. It was hard work, but her store thrived; through boom and bust times. After 18 years, Marie felt it was time for her to move on. Alan and Kathy Mashburn were customers , with entrepreneurial entre-preneurial m experience. They recognized the value of a bookstore, book-store, but had their own visions of how it could be altered and expanded to better serve the community. You might say that the bookstore was reborn ten years ago under their leadership. leader-ship. Still, some of us will always be grateful to Marie for the chances she took, and the gifts she gave us, when she first opened Bitter Creek Books, 28 years ago. Ann Moon Jensen evidence needed to determine the cause of death." Kerr said a buck with some type of injury was observed in a yard on East 3rd North. The deer was photographed by a Green River resident and was apparently bleeding from the mouth, indicating some type of internal chest wound. The deer carcass was found in a draw that empties into an alley near where the buck was last seen. The carcass had been caped, the head removed and the carcass hidden in the tall greasewcod there. A cemetery employee, who investigated several scavenging magpies, located the dead deer. Itif mop mm nsv&r Narcotics Strike Force seizes drugs Uintah Basin Narcotics Strike Force took yet another bite out of the drug problem in Vernal last week. A successful search warrant was executed at the residence of Ruth Winkler, born Aug. 8, 1965. During the search cocaine, magic mushrooms, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia were recovered. Winkler was charged with two second degree felonies and two class B misdemeanors. Positive Action Continued from A1 ity Then in 2004, the teaching of the Positive Action program continued and liaisons were formed between Uintah School District and the Utah Division of Workforce Services, local mental health, the Division of Child and Family Services, and Eighth District Court Juvenile Court, which serves three counties coun-ties in the area. After receiving presentations presenta-tions on Positive Action, and reviewing the "TAF" theory, all of the above listed liaisons mandated that their clients attend at-tend local 'Positive Action for Families' classes before receiving receiv-ing other services. This is specific spe-cific to Judge Larry Steele of Eighth District Juvenile Court, who mandated that any parents who had students on probation would attend the family classes. Judge Steele has expressed how pleased he is with the success of the Positive Action curriculum. curricu-lum. Steele said that the courts are the last resort for troubled youths and that they are not the answer to behavioral problems. "The court doesn't have the power for the final solution," said Steele. "The deer did indeed suffer suf-fer some internal chest injury. Speculation brings to mind several things that could have caused the injury, some human-caused and some not. However, without the hide to examine, the cause couldn't be determined. Fortunately, many photos of this particular deer exist, so they may be used to help identify it." Anyone with information on the whereabouts of the deer head is urged to contact the Green River game warden (875-3325), (875-3325), the Green River Game and Fish office (875-3223), or the Stop Poaching hotline at 800442-4331. rr Yfcy. ism GQNMM&A IT' A SPIKE JI0$$ks nrn if m If jlLL One of the reasons Positive Action has been so successful is that it addresses the whole family. fam-ily. The program doesn't stop when students leave the classroom. class-room. Troubled or dysfunctional dysfunction-al families have the opportunity opportu-nity to continue the education program in their home and in a counseling office. "I recommend this program for all families, not just those with problems," said Steele. Paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln, Lin-coln, Kris Gerber, USD Positive Action Field Coordinator said, "The basis of the curriculum is, when we do good we feel good. When we do bad, we feel bad. Positive Action education has the potential to change the face of a community." Steel and "Gerber both said much of the credit for the success suc-cess of the research goes to the community at large. "I'm a partner with the community," Steele said. Gerber said the programs that were already in place in the community when the research began, gave Positive Posi-tive Action a solid foundation and strong partners throughout the process. Additional community involvement in-volvement has included a Positive Posi-tive Action catered celebration dinner last April for all USD employees, administrators from the DWFS, DCFS, Northeastern Counseling Center, Vernal Area Give chaos a chance by Bill O'Reilly It is hard IJ3 to fathom, but there are Americans who believe that if the USA cuts and runs from Iraq, there will Bill O'Reilly be no negative nega-tive consequences. The far left is banging the "get out now" drum, but, fortunately, the beat is not exactly catching on. While last week's peace demonstration demon-stration in Washington drew a decent crowd, it was certainly not overwhehning. And few politicians showed up. Instead, we heard the noted political scientist Jessica Lange call for U.S. troops to withdraw or she'll be mad. Cindy Sheehan was there, of course. Her latest analysis is that the attack on 911 wasn't an act of war, it was a "crime." And the USA was mean to disrupt dis-rupt the lives of the Afghan people peo-ple by removing the Taliban. Cindy wants everybody to get along, she doesn't believe there is a worldwide terror war, and even if there is, we started it. By the way, I told you in this space a few weeks ago that President Bush would be crazy to meet with Cindy Sheehan because right after the meeting she'd run out and bad-mouth him to the press. Well, Sen. John McCain did take the time to meet with Ms. Sheehan, who then promptly called McCain a "warmonger." 2A Chamber of Commerce, Vernal City Mayor's Office, Judge Larry Steele, Vernal City Police, Court Probation Officers, and many other community members involved in-volved in the Positive Action program. Over 125 prominent community members came together to-gether for this celebration. Dixie Allen, USD Grant Director, Direc-tor, said, "This is a wonderful program built on a good philosophy. phi-losophy. The teachers are very enthusiastic and we're getting good results." The year 2005 has included every student in every school receiving the Positive Action program. Family classes are still being offered to at-risk mandated families and have been expanded to include any family in the community that is interested in participating in the program. Positive Action presentations have been given to community and government agencies such as the Vernal Area Chamber of Commerce, and was also presented at the Uintah Basin Business Symposium Sympo-sium which included over 437 businesses from the Tri-county area. During this fourth and final year, total community involvement involve-ment is in the process or has been achieved with a goal of using the TAF theory as the thread that weaves between every ev-ery community organization in A new Rasmussen poll says 54 percent of Americans understand under-stand that if America cuts and runs from Iraq, that country will descend into chaos. Just 20 percent believe Iraq would be better off if we split. I'll bet Jane Fonda is one of those 20 percent, and boy, would I like to ask her this question: "You know, Ms. Fonda, after the USA pulled out of Southeast Asia in the mid-'70s, the communists slaughtered about 3 million human beings in Cambodia and South Vietnam. Did you ever mention that in your subsequent sub-sequent peace comments?" It is hopeless to try to reason with far-left or far-right zealots zeal-ots on any matter but, thankfully, thank-fully, most Americans reject extremes. Iraq might not be the best battlefield to conduct the war on terror, but here's what would happen if America pulled out quickly. Iran would step into the security breech and back the Shi'a in the fight against the Sunni insurgents. Thus, Iran would exert control in the southern half of Iraq and increase its power in the Gulf. Sensing weakness in America, Iran would harden its nuke position and accelerate developing nuclear weapons. Iran is already harboring and funding al Qaeda terrorists, so you can do the math on this scenario. The al Qaeda terrorists currently inside Iraq would transit through Iran into Afghanistan and begin to destabilize the new democratic government in that country. the Basin area. Positive Action is not intended to replace other good programs and activities, instead the intent is to 'hand-in-hand' fit these good things with the PA theory. As a person goes through the school system, to social services, to government and community businesses, to the court system, as a community commu-nity we are working to speak the same character-ed prevention language. Without this common language and practice, many citizens have the possibility of becoming confused as they are told one thing at one agency, then another somewhere else. As a community coming together togeth-er with this commonality of language and practice, the Positive Posi-tive Action program has proven to be a powerful, united front when combating the problems faced by our community and most importantly, we are facing them together. The goals of our community include increasing academic achievement, reducing drug-alcohol drug-alcohol and substance abuse, reducing truancy and absenteeism, absen-teeism, teaching people to take responsibility for their own actions, learning to resolve conflicts in a positive way, and examining the consequences of decisions and behavior before action is taken. With experienced al Qaeda fighters undermining security, the Karzi government would come under siege, and the USA would have to commit more forces to that country. Syria would step up its support of Hamas and Hezbollah, which would lead to more violence inside Israel and Lebanon. And finally, the jihadists worldwide would proclaim a great victory over the great Satan. Terrorist funding and recruitment would skyrocket, and the USA would be humiliated. humili-ated. All of that is likely to come true if the far left has its way on Iraq. Their "vision" would put us all in danger. The Bush administration must win the war in Iraq and then reexamine the most effective effec-tive way to defeat worldwide terrorism. It has become clear that the terror state of Iran, not Saddam's Iraq, was and is the USA's most vicious enemy. Jessica Lange may not get this, but most Americans do. It is vital that we defeat those who would kill us, no matter where they are. Veteran TV news anchor Bill O'Reilly is host of the Fox News show "The O'Reilly Factor" and author of the book "Who's Looking Out For You?" To find out more about Bill O'Reilly, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers writ-ers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com. This column col-umn originates on the Web site www.billoreilly.com. i, k |