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Roads not the threat, it's drivers
To the Editor:
I would like to commend Sylva Police Chief Jeff Jamison for his concern and for caring enough to attempt to find a "contributing cause" for recent accidents on Business 23 in front of Mark Watson Park. Recurring accidents in the same location often do point to poor road conditions. However, I think his supposition that this particular road is not the problem is entirely correct. It is a straight stretch with clear visibility.
Could it be time to look at drivers who use (misuse) the road? Back when I got my first driver's license we were taught to believe a car performed only as well as the driver in control of it – control being the key word.
Today, reading accident reports, I see it is the vehicle that "lost control," that "crossed the center line," that "was speeding," or that "hit" the pedestrian, light pole or another car.
I have a surrealistic vision of a Stephen King-type village where driverles vehicles take over and kill people. In that kind of lawless anarchy we would indeed live under a reign of terror and probably should not venture beyond our doors.
In reality, we do have laws, and vehicles still have drivers. And sometimes drivers choose not to obey those laws. Worse yet, they continually get away with it.
Because of speed and the one-car-ahead mentality that so many drivers adhere to, crossing Main or Mill streets on foot is a death-defying act. It is also why "trouble island" on West Main is troublesome. It gets in the way of drivers on Mill Street who think the left-turn lane is only for them to race ahead of westbound traffic and cut in. Sometimes it doesn't work and they land on "trouble island." If only they could land in jail (without the benefit of a "Get out of jail free" card), it might do them some good and keep the roads safer for the rest of us.
It is the driver who chooses to speed, tailgate or fool with the radio or cell phone that causes the accident. It is not the road. It is not the vehicle. And until law enforcement and the judicial system accept that and stop enabling bad drivers with excuses and leniency, we will continue to have irresponsible drivers causing needless but fatal accidents.
I, for one, would rather see my tax dollars paying for a traffic officer in downtown Sylva than paying traffic engineers from the N.C. Department of Transportation to try to find non-existent road problems. Not to mention they could be run down by one of those driverless vehicles that run over and into things and people.
Lenore Snell
Dillsboro
Female traits deserve society's recognition
To the Editor:
What I have read in the paper over the last couple years regarding controversies about women, preaching and paganism has left me very sad. Yet, last summer at the library, I couldn't help but notice that "The Da Vinci Code" was the No. 1 book being requested. This book may be fiction, but it does remind us all that women were once equals with men, if not more important, in spreading the gospel in the first centuries after Christ. And that it was only when the Roman emperor decided to try to unite a crumbling empire by joining his power with that of the early Christian church that men took over and marginalized the role of women.
I have to strongly suspect that the early Christian churches, wherein women played a major if not majority role, were much closer to the true teachings of Christ than the new male-dominated church that outlawed women from positions of authority. The new church spent centuries outlawing and killing off people who didn't agree with it, and acquiring a great deal of power and wealth.
Curiously, too, it was often the pagan religions which still believed in worshiping the feminine aspects of God, along with the masculine aspects, that the official church was most eager to be rid of.
I find it very sad that there is still so much fear about recognizing women as equals, spiritually and otherwise, within our society. I think there is no crime of humanity greater than that of having allowed men to dominate religion and politics.
I have read the story of Eve being created from a rib as a companion for Adam and others. But I would suggest people read the nonfiction book "The X in Sex" before accepting such ideas. It is very curious that, from a biological/genetic point of view, we men hardly appear to be the source that women were taken from. This story is a bit complex, but the X chromosome, the female sex chromosome, is an important chromosome that determines a great deal about both men and women. On the other hand, the Y chromosome, or male sex chromosome, is a small, trashy bit of genetic info that mostly just increases testosterone production and thereby modifies the default blueprint for a human (which is female) to increase strength and modify sex organs. If it happens a genetic XY male is "insensitive" to testosterone, "he" will still grow to become a standard, default human – a woman.
Unfortunately for us males, in exchange for the horsepower upgrade, we lose out on a backup X chromosome and end up more susceptible to many sex-linked conditions like hemophilia, color blindness and autism. Genetically, we are the weaker sex. We are just standard humans modified for strength and aggression, designed to fight over and protect our females. (Strength and aggression are) unfortunately, largely obsolete characteristics for today's society. Nowadays the only beasts our females need much protection from are overly-aggressive male humans.
I fear our society's largely unconscious marginalization of women and feminine qualities is causing a great deal of pain and unfairness in other issues, too. The gay marriage issue seems to make it very hard for many to be understanding of people who are different. Again, ancient religious teachings are often held up as justification for denying basic legal rights in today's society.
Is it not strange, however, that while gay men are the targets of cruel jokes and hate crimes, gay women are more likely to be a favorite subject of male fantasies? Is it not strange that calling a boy a "sissy" is such a terrible insult, while calling a girl a "tomboy" is more often seen as praise? How is it that a male who demonstrates feminine characteristics is so hated, while a woman who exhibits masculine qualities may actually be more respected?
I am afraid that two millennia of male-dominated society has done worse than bring us endless wars and social inequity. We have so devalued the feminine aspects of human nature as to have crippled our species' psyche severely. It is these qualities that we have somehow come to fear as weakness that we are in most desperate need of.
Robert Franz
Whittier
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