Why do we renew Stanislaus dog licenses by sending money to New York? | Opinion
Keep pet funds local
Re “Animal control goes door-to-door looking for unlicensed dogs” (Front Page, April 4): The article states that the fees go toward medical care, shelter, food and other necessities for homeless pets. What percentage of the fees are paid to the business collecting them in Syracuse, New York? To renew a dog license in Stanislaus County, you have to remit the fee to a business clear across the country and I’m sure they don’t perform this service for free. If we could collect the fees here, we could keep more money to provide these services for the animals.
Verne Carraway, Modesto
Don’t worry about Dems
Re “Not mad, but livid” (Letters, April 9): Sorry you think an ex-president is above the law. Whether crooked or good, he is the same as us. D.A. Bragg is bound by oath to put crooks on trial. You think it’s OK to take top secret documents from the White House and refuse to give them back? To try to blackmail the Ukraine president for a favor, or to say Nazi instigators who started chaos were “fine people”? This is a good person?
America is sinking, you say. How? You mention guns. Democrats only want to ban military weapons from ordinary citizens. The Second Amendment was written way back when and was never meant for people to be ripped into pieces. It’s a war weapon. Those on the wild frontier needed guns for protection from wild animals and Native Americans fed up with us. Today, why does an ordinary citizen need a gun that shreds people?
Republicans and the NRA care about power, vengeance and money. The party trying to help ordinary citizens is the Democratic Party. If those with gun obsessions control reason, all schools will become prisons for traumatized children and guns will be king.
Diane M. Kroeze, Modesto
Green card for green uniform
I keep hearing about the war in Ukraine and the southern border. I see a lot of hand-wringing — no ideas, no solutions, just finger-pointing and blaming.
My idea: Inform every able-bodied male and female illegally entering this country that they will be required to serve two years in the military. If they are willing to risk their lives to enter this country, they should be prepared to serve it in some capacity. We are already taking care of them financially; the least they could do would be to cook, clean barracks, pack ration kits, any number of non-combat jobs.
Up until the early 1970s, service was subject to the draft. With voluntary service we are having trouble with the age group being fit enough to serve. The lawbreakers I see crossing the border appear to be young and apparently able bodied. I’m sure many of them could do something useful to help pay their way in our way-too-generous country.
Wanda F. Smith, Ripon
Kindness is power
Recently, I was helping my dad’s 86-year-old widow pack up her house. She had five heavy boxes of books she wanted to take to the post office to mail to her daughter’s place where she would be living. I have a bad back and she had only a flimsy cart. As soon as I had the thought, “This is an impossible task,” a very tall man just off his construction job walked toward us. He had a very open, kind face and a special smile. He did not ask if he could help us, he said he wanted to help us. He insisted on bringing each of those five boxes to the wait counter and then to the postmaster’s counter.
In those 15 minutes, I saw through him how kindness is not in us; it is a power that comes through us human beings if we allow it to. It is a force that not only brings immediate relief, it opens a window to show us who we really are.
Karen Mitchell, Riverbank
Hey, that’s my idea
Re “It’s high time to end Modesto’s intractable homelessness problem” (Page 1C, March 12): The proposal for safety camps in Modesto was an idea I created and pitched to city officials. I have even mentioned this in letters to the editor, some published. I am extremely thankful it is finally a realistic option, because so many homeless need it. So as long as it launches and is given guidelines for the program to benefit both residents as well as homeless, I am 100 percent for it. I am just a little disappointed someone can steal something you spend months thinking and creating in your own mind without consequence.
Eucelia D. Fritch, Modesto
