Letters to the editor: Emptying trash, recycling costs small, but community benefits big
Hagerstown grocery store should return bins for plastic-bag recycling
To the editor:
I am terribly upset that Martin's on Wesel Boulevard has stopped accepting plastic bags to recycle. When I asked where the recycling bins were, I was told that Martin's no longer does recycling of plastic bags. When asked why, I was told that people were putting trash in the bins and that it was too timely to separate.
People might have started putting trash in the recycling bins after the store took the outside and inside trash containers away. The cost of emptying trash containers and the plastic bag containers is a minimal cost to the company and a real loss to the community.
Weather:How will mild winter affect peaches and other fruit trees? We asked the orchardists
I am sure that a large profitable company like Martin's can afford some good will to the citizens of Washington County and especially the future generations in improving the environment.
If not, we will be looking for another choice to shop where they want to be good citizens and act in the best interest of helping to save our beautiful county.
Paul Pittman Hagerstown
On 'ordinary people' and 'woefully ignorant crazies'
To the editor:
Although I have lived near Sharpsburg in Washington County, Md., nearly 47 years, I don’t recall ever having the pleasure of meeting with, or speaking to, or writing about Sharpsburg’s current mayor, Mr. Russell E. Weaver.
Therefore I was surprised that Mr. Weaver mentioned my name in his March 5 letter to the editor.
Mr. Weaver wrote that I “… label ordinary people like (him) woefully ignorant crazies.” Hoping to set the record straight, I write that I do not know if Mr. Weaver is one of the “ordinary people” or if he is one of the “woefully ignorant crazies.”
Furthermore, I have never considered “ordinary people … woefully ignorant crazies,” and I have never used the terms “ordinary people” and “woefully ignorant crazies” before this letter.
I have no idea why Mr. Weaver claimed that I do.
Daniel MoellerRohrersville
Accusations of elitism are 'the lazy man's way' of ducking a losing argument
To the editor:
(In regards to "Sharpsburg mayor calls out 'elitists's' disdain for ordinary people" in the March 5 letters to the editor.) Accusing a person who disagrees with you on anything of being an elitist is, in my opinion, the lazy man’s way of ducking a conversation you know you can’t win.
You are calling a person a name that you’ve never met, never ate at their dinner table, couldn’t pick out on the street, and are too lazy to research.
So who or what is an elitist? According to the dictionary it is “a person who is or regards himself or herself as a member of a socially elite group." He's too rich, too polished — he's an elitist in a party that has become home to disaffected white, working-class voters.
I grew up in a family where what you actually could do mattered. “If you think you can do better — get off your rear end and let’s see you do it. Get your facts straight and know what you're talking about before you make a complete fool of yourself.”
Grandma also said, “if the shoe don’t fit, don’t wear it. Stick like a bulldog to the truth and let the sticks fly where they may.”
Neither my family nor my husband's family have ever been or ever were elitists, nor are we rich. My husband is father, was a bus driver and his mother worked in a paint store. My father was a factory worker and my mother worked by sewing in a hammock factory. Both sets of parents encouraged their children to work hard and get a good education.
We deal with facts and reality, plus our credentials are not made up lies.
June Moeller Rohrersville
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This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Charges of elitism, being against 'ordinary people' are unfounded
