We must do something about irresponsible scooter drivers
As I walked down the sidewalk by my North Person Street condo on Wednesday at 8:45 pm, I heard loud laughing and yelling behind me and someone repeatedly calling what sounded like “beep-beep.” I turned to find four scooters bearing down on me on the sidewalk – coming fast.
Simultaneously, four to five more scooters were ranged across several lanes of North Person Street traveling into the one-way traffic. The scooters were driven by young men and women about 18. The scooters were driving without lights even though it was almost fully dark. I barely had time to scramble up a little slope to get out of the way.
Three years ago, my mother received a fatal brain injury when she was knocked to the concrete by an electric cart traveling no faster than these scooters. It would be easy for the same damage to be inflicted on a Raleigh pedestrian by irresponsible scooter drivers like these.
Catherine Colvard
Raleigh
Climate change is here
In the aftermath of Hurricanes Florence, Harvey and Matthew, I hope the myth that climate change is a hoax has finally been laid to rest. These storms along, with others that are causing worldwide devastation are unprecedented.
The EPA is rolling back the Obama administration’s regulations on coal and oil, and methane and carbon dioxide emissions. The N.C. General Assembly has loosened regulations on coastal development and has refused to adequately oversee hog waste containment in eastern North Carolina.
If the United States had led the way 25 years ago in the development of clean energy, would the effects of global warming been ameliorated? As it is, billions of dollars have been spent and thousands of lives have been lost due to the politicization of climate change by the coal and gas lobbies and their allies like Fox News.
Rhonda Crutchfield
Raleigh
Lagoons disgusting
For the umpteenth time, flooded and breached hog lagoons have sent their filthy, revolting, toxic contents into our streams and rivers. I don’t want to hear that a hurricane could not possibly be foreseen. Hurricanes and other storms will hit us again as they have before.
Someone in our legislature has got to stand up for the people and the environment over lobbyists and politics. I am fed up with the excuses and delays. The disgusting lagoons and the political protection of the lagoons are nauseating.
George Johnson
Clayton
Climate change reporting
Hat’s off to Jason West, UNC-Chapel Hill professor of environmental sciences and engineering, for his lucid critique of how media has been reporting on climate change (“Climate change is making storms worse. The media needs to report that.” Sept. 14).
While many would say that the existential threat of climate change is of such magnitude that is easily eclipses all the other “news worthy” events and stories combined, the news media has consistently treated it as yet one more “issue” in the daily news cycle. As West points out, this is particularly noteworthy when it comes to coverage of severe weather events.
Given the increasingly inescapable conclusion that we are now living in an era where human-caused climate change is directly responsible for the growing intensity and destructive power of hurricanes and wildfires, responsible journalism demands a much more thorough examination and discussion of this linkage and what can be done about it.
Keith Feather
Hillsborough
Sexual abuse is real
In the contentious atmosphere surrounding the current Supreme Court nominee, certain facts about sexual abuse and assault warrant notice. Among adult women, fewer than 35 percent report sexual abuse or assault. This number is likely higher for adolescent girls and children.
Sexual abuse victims feel enormous shame and guilt that they caused the attack to them. In the 1980s researchers at Kaiser Permanente investigated why their obesity study dropout rate exceeded 50 percent. They were stunned when they interviewed participants to find that the majority had experienced childhood sexual abuse.
This led to cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The result was the adverse childhood experiences studies, whose findings produced a host of childhood experiences that lead to obesity and other health related conditions, cognitive, emotional and social impairments, and early death. Sexual abuse and assault are real and under reported. Victim blaming is common among perpetrators and those with a lack of understanding and knowledge of sexual abuse.
Ginger Calloway
Psychologist
Raleigh