4 I The Lovell Chronicle I September 16, 2010 www.LovellChronicle.com
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Selective outrage?
Do we have selective outrage in America?
It would seem so.
Last week's brouhaha about the idiot in Florida who
wanted to burn 50 copies of the Quran - the Muslim holy
book - on Sept. 11 is a prime example. From national reli-
gious leaders to President Obama and General David Pe-
traeus, the top United States general in Afghanistan, many
condemned the act with press conferences and news releas-
es.
And well they should. The burning of the sacred Muslim
text would have been a despicable act. The pastor of the
Dove World Outreach Center, a tiny church in Florida, should
know better. Burning books is for Nazis and goes against ev-
en/thing America stands for.
But would it be allowed as a right of free speech? Mayor
Michael Bloomberg of New York City, where nearly 3,000
people perished in the 9/11 attacks nine years ago -victims
Jones purportedly wanted to "honor" on Saturday - brave-
ly said that, while the act would be distasteful, "the First
Amendment protects everybody," adding, "And you can't say
that we're going to apply the First Amendment to only those
cases where we are in agreement."
But others paraded to the microphone condemning the
planned act, reacting to flames fanned by our modern age
of 24-hour cable news, the Internet and ratings-based tele-
vision journalism outlets that are always looking for a juicy
story.
The pastor eventually backed off, reacting to a supposed
promise that a planned Islamic Center near Ground Zero in
New York City would be moved to a different location.
There are several problems with this entire chain of
events. First, media outlets fanned the flames of this issue
to the point where a publicity-seeking pastor of an insignifi-
cant church with a handful of members - about 50 -- was
able to turn his 15 minutes of fame into a week of fame, en-
dangering American servicemen serving in Islamic countries
and harming relationships between Christians and Muslims
and between America and the Islamic world.
But the news media let this get way out of hand. A tiny
church in Florida was able to blow this issue out of pro-
portion and somehow become the poster child of "prove a
point" media's obsession with the current hot topic - the
supposed deterioration of relationships between Muslims
and non-Muslims in America - a trumped up issue if there
ever was one.
We all should have ignored the fine reverend and his
lighter.
., But here's where the "slective outrage"comes in.
Would all of the myriad indignant leaders have come down
as hard and paraded to the microphone if some minor
crackpot wanted to burn a stack of Bibles or a pile of Jew-
ish Torahs or a couple of dozen Books of Mormon? Prob-
"ably not. Such an act, like those who protest by burning the
American flag, would probably be defended on constitution-
al grounds. As freedom of speech.
Remember the uproar about years ago when a "work of
art" that was a photograph of a crucifix resting in a glass of
the photographer's own urine was put on exhibit in a show
partially funded by the National Endowment of the Arts?
There was plenty of outrage expressed about that art show,
but many others defended the work as a matter of freedom
of expression and freedom of speech.
If we're going to be outraged about issues, let's be con-
sistent about it. Christians, Jews, Muslims and people of all
faiths deserve the same level of protections by our courts,
our media and our elected officials.
In an increasingly slanted world, let's fight to level the
playing field.
--David Peck
Letters to the editor
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Editor and Publisher: David Peck
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THOSE I00GGS
WON'T BE RECALLED,
WILL THEY?
Letters to the editor
Thank you for the weed work
Dear Editor, ing the weeds around the 14A cor- thank you again for taking care of
We want to thank Gerald ner. We're sure that the property it.
Brinkerhoff for pulling and hoe- belongs to the Town of Lovell, but The Millers, Bill and Linda
Bike rodeo serves 157 kids
Letter to the Editor:
The Lovell Police Department
would like to thank everyone who
contributed to the Bike Rodeo this
year. Thanks to North Big Horn
Hospital, Lovell Rec. Dept., Wal-
Mart and the Big Horn Co. Sher-
iffs Office for donating the seven
bikes that were given away; Big
Horn Engraving for the t-shirts
and stickers; Big Horn Coun-
ty Health Coalition for helping
with advertisement and goodies;
C.A.R.E.S and the Byron Rec.
Dept. for goodies for the goodie
bags; W.Y.D.O.T. for providing
bike helmets, and North Big Horn
County Search and Rescue, Byron
Police Dept., School Districts One
and Two and the Lovell Elemen-
tary School for their time and re-
sources. A special thanks to all of
the Volunteers who gave up their
Saturday to help us.
Without all of you we could
not have pulled it off and because
of you we were able reach out to
157 kids from our area. It is nice
to live in such a wonderful com-
munity.
Officer Randy Davis
Lovell P.D.
School Resource Officer
Even tourists must obey traffic laws
Dear Mr. Indiana,
While reading our local pa-
per this week your letter struck
a little nerve. Having been born
in Wyoming and currently living
in Byron, I feel I need to correct
a couple of Bull**** statements
made in your letter to the editor.
First, just because you are a
tourist does not give you the right
to break the law. The speed lim-
it is set in place for certain rea-
sons and for the protection of our
community. Your saying that the
signs were not visible piqued my
interest and I decided to go check
for myself just to make sure. Any-
one who was paying proper atten-
tion could obviously see the signs
and the warning Signs to decrease
your speed ahead.
Second, just because there
are four lanes does not mean that
the speed limit should be, what,
65? I don't think so. Byron is a
small town and our four lanes
go right through the heart of our
town in front of the school and lo-
cal church. So obviously there are
children and local families and
business people that are out and
about who should not have to wor-
ry about people barreling down
our four-lane highway.
Thirdly, the "unmarked four-
door Dodge pickup" with the lights
on the top and il,ice onthe side i,
hardly unmarked alnd bright blue;;
might I add. So in closing I would
like to say I'm thoroughly pi****
off that you believe you have the
right to break the law, to drive
and I quote "excessively speed-
ing", risk the chance of hurting or,
heaven forbid, killing someone on
your fast paced vacation. So by all
means feel free to never visit our
town again.
Happy in Byron
Marie Acton
Amused by irritated speeder
Editor,
I read with amusement about
the tourist from Indiana and his
encounter with the so-called
speed trap in Byron. To my think-
ing this tourist should not even
be driving, as I believe he must
have at least two maladies.
First, he must have a vision
problem as the speed limits are
clearly posted and even a speed
reduction warning sign prior to
the speed limit signs on each end
of the town.
Second, if he did see the signs
he must not be able to read and
did not know what the signs
meant.
Also, he complained about a
speed limit of 30 mph on a four-
lane highway. Apparently he
must believe that small commu-
nities cannot have a four-lane
road through the center of town
with a posted speed limit.
I am sure the Byron police
officer was well inside the town
limits parked in the shade of his
favorite tree and the police pick-
up that I have always seen does
have a light bar and police de-
partment markings on the door.
It is obvious to me that this
tourist has little respect for the
laws of small communities or
thinks he is above the law just
because he is from out of state.
I would be willing to bet that
if anyone from this area was
caught speeding through that
person's town in Indiana, the
fine would just be paid and there
would be no mouthing off or dis-
respect, as did this irate tourist.
The speed limits in smaller
communities are there to protect
the town residents from harm
and possibly their lives from
speeding tourists or any speed-
ing driver.
Frankly, I am glad this tour-
ist has vowed never to return to
this area because the life that
may be saved from the actions
of that speeding driver may be
yours, or even mine.
Jim Szlemko
Happy to be living in Lovell
It's now been a year since my wife,
Jan, and I relocated from the city of Cave
Junction in Southwest Oregon to the Town
of Lovell, and we have found that living in
Lovell is lovely. Literally.
Our cats like it here, too. More about
them a bit later.
Although Lovell has twice the popu-
lation of Cave Junction, the town has a
more noticeable small-town feel, and we
like that. There also are significantly few-
er calls for responses by ambulance, fire
district or law enforcement. We like that,
too.
It seems that rural Wyoming folk are
more inclined to avoid emergency prob-
lems. They (now us included) prefer to
take care of themselves; there seems to be less of a
take-care-of-me attitude here.
Many people have asked us how we chose Lovell.
The answer is that for two years Jan used the Inter-
net to research small towns with specific criteria.
We were looking for open country in a red state with
low population. Johnson Home & Land provided a
lot of help.
Besides those criteria, we enjoy the patriotism,
the friendly openness, willingness to help and the
church-centered situation here. Plus the communi-
ty events. They count for much.
Another question people ask is why do we have
Bob
Rodriguez
five cats. Actually, we moved here with
four. By the way, traveling by car with
four cats, and finding cooperative mo-
tels, is a challenge. But that's a cat of a
different stripe, so to speak.
Anyway, around four months ago we
"inherited" our fifth feline, a muted Cal-
ico that we named Tasha Tiny-Dancer,
from a teen-age couple who found her
in the middle of Main Street. She joined
our formerly all-male crew: Bubba Big
Foot, a six-toed Siamese; Jellibunny, a
grumpy Tuxedo; Flint Eastwood, a total-
ly black and shy Bombay; and Scrappy,
a large Tiger Stripe. They all came to us
by chance.
And they get along. Mostly. Although
having a quintet of carnivorous mammals around
the house provides endless hours of entertainment.
Depending on your definition of entertainment. Not
sure if watching them playfully trying to disembow-
el each other falls in that category.
Lately, they've been bringing us the prey of the
day: grasshoppers. As everyone knows around here,
the grasshopper herds are substantial, although
there don't seem to be as many as when we first vis-
ited in mid-2009. The cats thoroughly enjoy hunting
the hoppers. Sometimes they eat them, which pro-
vides an interesting crunchy sound.
We are all happy to live in Lovell.
