Word of Mouth

Posted: Monday, February 12, 2001


"The Foreigner" was fantastic. It produced tears of laughter. Very well done.

What a treat it was to hear the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. After several encores, everyone seemed to go home happy.

Last year my brother received one year for touching a woman while he was drunk. The judge called this sexual battery. He lost his permanent fund and had to do his time as well as community service. When Dwight Perkins did this while he was sober it was called harassment and he got no jail time.

I am one of who-knows-how-many women who did not report inappropriate touching. Dwight Perkins should have been sentenced by a female judge and not allowed to walk away with a slap on the wrist.

(Other callers expressed similar comments.)

Can the Empire do an investigative series on how much harassment, sexual and otherwise, there is in state government? How many people had to leave because no help was available?

I find Word of Mouth valuable. It's a mostly uncensored view of the hot-button issues in the community. As someone wisely pointed out, if it is troublesome, it would be wise not to read it.

It sends a chill down my spine when I open the Empire and see advertisements claiming the downfall of civilization because of Word of Mouth. Don't censor my right to read it. That's scary.

Could we move on to some other subject than Word of Mouth?

Who cares if they eat farmed fish when good wild fish is out of season? I've been fishing here for more than 50 years and I believe that the more people get and stay in the habit of eating fish the better it is for me. Who cares if it is farmed, fresh or frozen?

The controversy over the presidential pardoning of Mr. Rich makes we wonder why no one has compared it to the original George Bush's pardoning of all the people in Iran-Contra.

I continue to be amazed with the traffic flow and parking lot of the valley Post Office. Whatever engineer designed that must not have passed his "exit exam."

A heliport near the glacier visitor center is a terrible idea. I live back there. If the feds tell me I can't take my three-wheelers out there, I'll be darned if someone should be able to take a bunch of helicopters out there and make a bunch of money and a lot of noise.

About the Green's Creek article, we are not diggers, we are miners. Diggers is what we wear.

Regarding Phyllice Bradner's letter, my daughter only had finals in one class last semester. She told me her other teachers did not want to take the time to grade finals or put one together. So, this is not a replacement for the high school exit exam. Some teachers only do group work. My daughter says everyone in the group gets the same grade whether they do the work or not. Those students probably would not pass the exit exam. We do need to have one.

If teaching is such a great and easy job with great pay, why do we have a teacher shortage? This is more than a nine-month job. Did you ever come by a school on a Sunday? Seven and a half years of teaching experience and 50 additional college credit hours during those "summers off" and I sure wish I made that $50,000 the earlier caller was talking about.

(Other callers expressed similar comments.)


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