Letters
Timers help drivers at lights
Regarding the letter by Dave Hanic, “Install time clocks at traffic lights” (Feb. 22):
Absolutely, I agree with the installing of timers. Last year during spring break, I was visiting St.Petersburg, Fla., and it has timers at each traffic light. At first, I didn’t know how to react to these, and to my surprise, I realized that the timers both are efficient and changed my driving habits for the better.
A couple of years ago, Fort Wayne officers handed out a slew of traffic tickets to drivers running through yellow lights. In normal dry conditions, it’s difficult to stop when you are 10 to 15 feet from the intersection, even going only 30 mph. Poof! The light switches to yellow, and then cars proceed through. The result is a traffic ticket.
With the timers visible and you are 200 feet or 20 feet from the traffic light, it makes a huge difference if you see the 15-second or 1-second count for the yellow. That close or far away, either you simply can go through or just slow down and stop.
THOMAS E. LINDLEY Fort Wayne
Ban texting while driving
Nineteen states have a law prohibiting texting while driving. All 50 states should put this law into effect.
Drivers already have distractions such as the radio, GPS systems and MP3 players. Teen drivers especially have enough on their hands at 16 or 17, and they don’t need to text. If a person needs to text, he or she should simply pull over to the shoulder or the nearest parking lot to avoid an accident.
We all know that it takes only a second to be in an accident. Is a car really worth a text message? Or what if a person or a small child gets killed because someone wanted to text?
For the states that do have the law, there are hefty penalties up to $2,750 for trucks weighing more than 10,000 pounds. The Indiana legislature should enact this law here and enforce it.
KYLE SPROWL Fort Wayne
FWCS shouldn’t close schools
It is unbelievable to me that the Fort Wayne Community Schools board and administration would even consider closing Elmhurst High School or Pleasant Center Elementary. Understandably, the economy is bad, and no one in the Congress or the Senate, much less the Indiana state legislature or the esteemed Gov. Mitch “The Blade” Daniels has any idea on how to fix it. Does anyone think that members of the FWCS administration would be willing to take a reduction in their ridiculously high salaries so that in these hard times the parents, students and hourly employees of these two schools don’t lose their jobs, lose their schools or the proximity of the school in their neighborhood?
Where in the heck does the district intend to send the students of Elmhurst and Pleasant Center? As a taxpayer, I want to know where the children are going to go to school and if members of the district’s administration are willing to take salary cuts before closing Elmhurst or Pleasant Center School.
KAREN ESHCOFF Fort Wayne
JG picked wrong story on summit
It was with disbelief that I read The Journal Gazette’s only front-page article on the health care summit on Feb. 26, an article marked “Analysis” by Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, “Professorial Obama schools GOP on health.” This read more like an op-ed piece than reporting. It was a one-sided article that did not come close to reporting an important meeting.
In going to the Post, I found its lead article to be a very open article reporting on this unique health care summit. I also found another Milbank article in that same paper titled “Obama needs to flex his political muscle” showing Prime Minister Gordon Brown of England as a bully but stating that “Our president is not a bully; in fact, he is the victim of bullying.” Milbank went on to say that at the White House health care summit, Obama “racked up debating points as he parried Republican attacks without so much as raising his voice.”
Where was this other Milbank article? Someone must have scraped the bottom of the barrel to find the article printed in The Journal Gazette. It raises this question: Why choose such a one-sided article to be the only reporting on a noteworthy summit and give it headline attention?
DOROTHA FRY MASON North Manchester