May 21, 2008 11:24 am Dogs are the least of Haverhill's problems
To the editor: I have to say that I am not only appalled about all the "dog" news recently but saddened as well. My sympathy goes out to the injured parties as well as the owners, I'm sure that their good conscience saddens them as well that an animal they own has done something so horrific. But enough is enough! It doesn't matter if you have a four pound or 140 pound animal, take responsibility people! The ridiculous thing that has come out of this whole issue is that now the Haverhill Police Department has stepped up to the plate and has decided to start handing out fines. The article that was published, "Haverhill cracks down on unleashed dogs/ City also considers creating dog park," stated and I quote: "In the past two weeks, Animal Control Officer Michelle Hamel has issued a total of $2,500 in fines to those whom she caught breaking the law. Mayor James Fiorentini said Hamel has issued about 50 tickets, each carrying a $50 fine. He said the money is a break-even situation because Hamel has been working overtime to catch offenders, Fiorentini said." This is so ridiculous; why are Haverhill's finest so worried about dogs? If the officer can give out that many fines in two weeks, what was she doing before? And why do we need to pay for overtime for this? One would think that this is part of her position? Unfortunately the attacks are horrific for all those involved, but come on people; we have much bigger issues in this city! How about home invasions, drug dealers, prostitution, employees stealing from the city, homeless ... and the list goes on. What are city officials doing about those issues? MICHELE CARTER Haverhill
Stop poisoning my cigarettes
To the editor: I want my cigarettes back. The ones without the added fire safety chemicals, or (paper speed bumps as you claim they are). Since this "safety" precaution was added to my cigarettes without my knowledge or permission, I've begun having asthma attacks, so severe that I cannot breath. I have never had an asthma attack in my life. Another "new" symptom I've noticed since my cigarettes have been tampered with is, it always feels like I've got something stuck in my throat and I can't clear it out. My voice is changing and my health is deteriorating rapidly. Someone needs to do some real investigating into this because I'm not buying the speed bump paper story. There's got to be more to it than that. And even if there's not, we smokers need to grow a pair and fight for our rights. For too long we've let our lawmakers take away our liberties and freedoms because we know we should just quit and feel guilty because we can't. We've been made into lepers in our "smoke free" society. The same society that got us addicted to cigarettes in the first place. Smokers are being criminalized and poisoned and nobody cares or does anything about it. I want answers from lawmakers and cigarette companies. I want to know exactly how these so called "safe" cigarettes are being made and what testing was done on them before they were approved by the FDA. I also want lawyers to defend me and protect my right to choose what goes into what I'm smoking. I became addicted to cigarettes when I was a teenager when "society" allowed cigarette companies to make smoking cool in their ads. And now you treat me as if I'm stupid by saying things like, "why don't you just quit?" DUH! Try saying that to a heroin addict. Real smokers know it's easier to quit shooting heroin than to quit smoking cigarettes and less dangerous to those around them. At least heroin addicts can go to rehab. And now lawmakers are allowing and in fact urging cigarette companies to poison us further with bogus "fire safe cigarettes" that we are forced to buy because we are so addicted. It's one thing to take away my liberties by making it illegal to smoke in public. It's quite another thing to poison me with your "great ideas." We all know that there are not enough regulations in place or being enforced by the FDA or Homeland Security (whoever is now responsible for not testing products being brought into our ports). This was made quite evident when we found that China is poisoning our toothpaste, dog food and livestock feed with antifreeze, not to mention the lead in our children's toys. If this was allowed to happen, I'm having a hard time trusting that my cigarettes are safe, or at least as safe as they used to be before FSC. I'm not alone and these symptoms are real — just read some of the blogs on the NFPA Web site:http://nfpa.typepad.com/firesafecigarettes /2007/10/about-fire-safe.html. This is a real problem and a potential major lawsuit waiting to happen. I urge you all to take this matter seriously and do something now. DEANNE GUARDINO Salem, N.H. ><p>
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