NAACP Weighs In On Recent Fights
Editor:
The NAACP conducted an independent investigation into the incidents that occurred at Stephen Decatur High School on Jan. 21, 2015 and the following day at the Berlin McDonald’s. After examining the videos, our investigation revealed that several students who attend SDHS were involved in a physical altercation at the school and at McDonald’s.
The NAACP conducted interviews with several individuals who were present during these altercations. During the course of both investigations, we discovered that some students who were involved in these incidents have already put their personal differences aside and are friends again.
The NAACP does not condone physical altercations among our students at SDHS or any schools.
The NAACP challenges parents to sit down with their children and explain to them that violence will not and cannot solve anything.
Every school in Worcester County is equipped with Resource Officers, who have been placed in our schools to keep our students safe. Hopefully there will be no additional incidents. If there are concerns, however, I would encourage parents and students to contact the Resource Officers who are trained to investigate situations prior to them becoming a serious incident.
The NAACP wants people to know that these are isolated incidents and is in no way related to the vehicles that were spray painted in Berlin.
Our kids are our future. It is up to us to make sure that our kids achieve their goals in life. Students need to express their energy in the classrooms and not towards each other.
Ivory Smith
(The writer is the president of the Worcester County NAACP.)
New Rules Proposed
Editor:
Okay, Super Bowl Sunday is here and preparations are underway. You know, chips and dips and all else that should be avoided except at this time. By the time this is printed, the game will be over and a winner crowned and we patiently await next year.
I love football. This year has been tough on the sport, by association mostly but in my mind there could be improvement on the rules of the game. My wish list for next year’s Super Bowl should include the following rules changes. Let’s play the game as the present rules require and determine who should be in the Super Bowl next year, but the changes should be incorporated in the “big game”.
Here we go:
Kick off should be from your own 25 yard line. I love run backs and if you are a real football fan, you do too.
Extra points should be started from the 10 yard line not the two-yard line. These points are more important in each game, and should not be “automatic chip shots”.
Field goals should be limited. As a fan, I hate seeing more and more games decided by some skinny little guy out there with a big foot. Each team should get the choice of kicking a field goal from anywhere they choose, but the choice of the field goal attempt should be allowed only two times in each quarter. The skinny kid still gets his chance at being a hero, but limited to only twice a quarter. (Originally I decided on only one a quarter, but I am open to discussion.)
The 2 minute rule at half time and the end of the fourth quarter should be reduced to 90 seconds each. Two minute rules still apply where applicable.
Punts. If you think watching field goals determine more and more of the outcome of games, look at the punt. Why limit a great defense to the offensive, tall, skinny kid coming off the bench looking like the water boy kick a 50-yard punt that nullifies what just took the defense five or 10 minutes to accomplish?
Give each team one punt per quarter at their choice. The rest of the time they have four downs to get their 10 yards, first down. How does that grab you??
Think about all the new strategy that this would cause. The Super Bowl wouldn’t be a rehash of the last 16 weeks (plus playoff games) and coaches would really be earning their keep. The fourth down would finally get some deserved respect without the punter or field goal bailing the team out.
Frank Vetare
Berlin
Vaccinations A Must
Editor:
In late 1979, our daughter, Heidi, then 17, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease, a blood cancer. Her outlook was good, and she was treated with chemotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC for several months. She was hopeful that she’d be able to begin college in September 1980.
But that summer, she was exposed to the chicken pox virus, varicella zoster, for which there was no vaccine at that time. Because of her cancer treatments, her immune system was compromised and she died in November of 1980, not of the cancer, but of the chicken pox.
Several years later, after much scientific research, a vaccine was developed to prevent chicken pox. Children with compromised and healthy immune systems are now protected from death from this common childhood disease.
It is incomprehensible to me how the results of hard and proven science are today looked upon by some as myth, or optional choices. It would be the end of civilization as we know it if the childhood scourges of my young life were unloosed today among our children — polio, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, chickenpox and more — because scientific research had been placed on the sacrificial altar of opinion, feelings and ignorance.
Barbara Doyle Schmid
Ocean Pines
Benefit Appreciation
Editor:
I would like to express my deepest thanks and appreciation to everyone who organized the fundraiser and also to those who came out and supported my family and I this past Saturday evening at the Trader Lee’s Bar.
Thank you to those who donated items for the silent auction and thank you to those of you who bid on the items and to those who gave cash or check donations towards Scott‘s funeral services.
A lot of people brought food to share for a delicious buffet. Musicians from several bands united and played wonderful music all night and dedicated “Groovin,” originally by the Young Rascals, to Scott. There were even two gentlemen who performed solos. The first was a heart-felt hymn called, “He Lives,” which was sung and played on acoustic guitar right after the eulogy I read, and then a bag-pipe player played a beautiful rendition of “Amazing Grace.”
So many people let me sob on their shoulder and offered such nice affirmations of my late brother Scott (Walter) Corey’s kind heart. I was comforted and well taken care of and so was mine and Scott’s cousin, Chuck Corey. There was so much love in that venue that I was overwhelmed in the best way ever.
Thank you for signing the guest book that I thought the bar had put out for me, however it was taken from Chuck’s hands at the end of the night because “It belongs to Dawn” he was told. I never got to read the comments that were written to me and I am so sorry because I was looking forward to reading them. If you would like to send them to me via email, my email address is [email protected], and I will cherish your thoughts about Scotty.
Thank you again to Bob Jester for offering his bar, Trader Lee’s, and to Rod, his manager, for helping to organize the event. Thank you to all of the others running the auction and bar tending, etc. Thank you again to Wayne Hartman for watching over me like a brother all night, (and the whole weekend that I was in Ocean City) and to Valerie Gartland Krauss for treating me like a sister.
I love you all. You are wonderful people and I am so happy that my brother knew you and loved you. He would have been proud of the way the evening went and he would have been proud of each one of you.
Sincerely, and with love,
Roberta Corey