Letters to the editor: 10/04/01

Local ginseng hunters do not abuse the plant

To the Editor:

I read with great interest and concern Mike Ivey's condemnation of our community and all of my friends in his letter to the editor about ginseng hunters Sept. 13. I happen to be one of those thieves he wrote about.

Older citizens taught me the art of ginseng hunting - how to mash the fruit from the berry and how deep to plant it to insure the propagation of the species. We all have our own little bush or spot where we snuck a seed or two where no one else can find it.

There is nothing more satisfying than walking the ridges and hollows of these beautiful mountains on a fall day and digging an occasional ginseng root. I personally feel like the ginseng season and hunting and fishing season are some of the few God-given freedoms we have left in this great country of ours.

Mr. Ivey scared one of my neighbors badly by telling her ginseng diggers were leaving great holes and dead animals all over her property, so he could have the right to post it. This is all hogwash.

Mr. Ivey bought a small tract of land on Tilley Creek, and it seems to me he has appointed himself administrator of it and the government land that surrounds it. Now he wants to control what belongs to his neighbors, as well.

He has called the officials quite often on friends and neighbors and strangers who were pursuing legal activities with legal permits. That's the real reason the deputy would not go into the woods.

We are not stupid in these mountains as some would like to think. We have preserved our God-given rights and privileges, our plants and wildlife better than any other place I know of in America.

The abusers of our lands, wildlife and natural resources are not the local people that Mr. Ivey accuses. They are people like Mr. Ivey, whose greed compels them to want to control the rights, privileges and land of their neighbors.

Is this not stealing in the worst, underhanded way possible?

Verlin Bryson

Cullowhee

Attack on sheep reminiscent of attack on U.S.

To the Editor:

There was a terrorist attack in Little Canada last week. In the middle of the night, dogs annihilated our small flock of sheep.

I realize that in the great scheme of things it is foolish to compare the lives of 11 sheep with more than 6,000 human beings, but this attack brought home to me the situation the country is facing in ways that the news reports from New York and Washington can not.

We searched several acres of pasture for dead sheep and found them scattered over a wide area. Some had been cornered in edges of the pasture. Others had been taken down to the creek. One of the older and weaker ones was just in the middle of the pasture and her exposed ribs spoke of the efficiency of buzzards in finding food. Some of the sheep had their ears and faces torn off, legs mangled and bellies chewed. Others seemed little damaged except for foam around their mouths that spoke of exhaustion and despair.

We have kept sheep for nearly 20 years, and this is the first time we have experienced an attack like this. I learned to spin many years ago on my great-great-grandmother's spinning wheel, and we have nurtured our small flock to produce fleeces in textures and colors that are selected for hand spinning. The excess lambs went into our freezer, nourishing us and producing a small income to help feed the sheep through the winter when the pasture was unproductive. Each spring we enjoyed the miracle of new lambs and watched them gambol and play as only lambs can, and later grow into sturdy, healthy sheep. We had become complacent.

My immediate reaction was rage against dogs. Any strange dog that appeared in our pasture that day would have been in danger of its life. I also began to wonder which of my neighbors harbored beasts capable of this unprovoked slaughter. I had fantasies of revenge and retaliation.

But as the day progressed and we dealt with the realities of the stench of death and a mass grave, I began to realize the hopelessness of violent revenge. I don't know what dogs attacked our sheep. I don't know whether they are feral dogs or just somebody's beloved pets who got mixed up with the wrong company. I also began to feel how destructive unfocused suspicion is and imagine the results of random killing of dogs and accusations of our neighbors.

I value the good will of my neighbors. Some are friends and others that I mainly see and wave to when we pass have extended their hand to help in time of trouble. To accuse people of harboring killers would be foolish and possibly dangerous. There is no way to identify the culprits; there is only the reality of the nature and instinct of dogs in packs.

That is when the hopelessness of the situation began to settle in. How does one retaliate? How is it possible to imagine beginning again to keep sheep without subjecting them to this danger? We could make some changes, improve fences, keep the sheep enclosed at night, replace our once reliable dog, now aging and deaf, with another that might be more effective. None of these seem adequate to the task. Any act of revenge is potentially more destructive that the original, horrible attack. Nothing we can do alone seems adequate to the task. Only if other people help by accepting responsibility for their pets - by keeping them at home, by not allowing them to reproduce irresponsibly, and by making sure they are not abandoned to run wild, will sheep be safe.

The only thing that is certain is the fact that our world has changed forever. That is when I began to see the parallels between the small and relatively insignificant tragedy in Little Canada and the situation that the U.S. faces in the world today. I hope that we all have the grace and wisdom to look for answers that do more good than harm.

Joyce Moore

Tuckasegee

Motorcyclists have a right to the road, too

To the Editor:

I was traveling south on N.C. 107 recently, approaching the red light, just past Cullowhee Valley School. There was one other car in front of me. The right lane had the green arrow to make a right turn. The traffic staying on 107 South had a red light. I had begun to apply my brakes when I noticed the vehicle in front of me was not stopping.

At the same time I noticed a motorcycle making a left turn onto 107 from Speedwell Road. The car in front of me was still not stopping. The gentleman on the motorcycle was trying to stop because he had the right of way. The driver of the car finally slammed on his or her brakes. It was a very close call.

I have just bought my first motorcycle and am looking forward to riding. All of my friends have cautioned me to be careful, as most people driving cars or trucks do not make a conscious effort to watch out for motorcycles. I would like to urge all drivers to remember that people on motorcycles are an integral part of our society just as drivers of cars are.

Thank you,

Debbie Cole

Glenville

WestCare administrator appreciates legislators

To the Editor:

Passage of the 2002-03 budget by the N.C. General Assembly last week and its signing Wednesday by Gov. Easley are positive steps for all who depend upon hospitals for their medical care.

Faced with making difficult choices about allocating insufficient revenues, legislators helped ensure health care for everyone by fully funding an inflationary increase for providers of health care to the state's poorest residents.

Legislators demonstrated great awareness of the linkage between the provision of care for those it supports, Medicaid patients and state employees, and the availability of care for all North Carolinians. Without the inflationary increase for Medicaid providers, hospitals in our state would be facing increased risk of reducing services to everyone. Already, many hospitals in our state face an uncertain future. The patients who depend upon those hospitals share this uncertainty. Funding the inflationary increases helps eliminate a threat to some hospital services.

Hospitals in our state are facing rising costs. Hikes in prices for blood, drugs, technology and labor are driving hospital costs up at a rate almost three times faster than revenue. By granting the inflationary increase, the General Assembly took a significant step in helping hospitals cope.

The General Assembly's willingness to fund Medicaid is also a building block for the future. Our legislative leaders recognize the current shortage of health care workers, particularly nurses, in our state. Their fully funding the inflationary increase helps hospitals maintain staffing and avoids increasing the burden on the frontline providers of care. Both are necessary for hospitals to attract bright, caring young people into health service.

WestCare Health System would like to thank the members of the General Assembly: N.C. Senators Robert Carpenter and Dan Robinson and N.C. House Reps. Marge Carpenter, Phil Haire and Roger West for their support of all North Carolinians.

Sincerely,

Mark Leonard, FACHE

President/CEO

WestCare Health System

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