Mud brown and slime green

I’ve gone through all the color charts — paint, Crayolas, etc. — but never have I found “mud brown” and “slime green” as usable building colors.

Please, the new Albany Library deserves to be Earth friendly, not Earth ugly.

Jan Oden, Albany

Choose local: Paper sacks

I have noticed while shopping in Albany that many stores do not offer a choice of paper bags instead of plastic. Albany is fortunate enough to have a paper mill, which is a major contributor to the local economy. Many of the customers shopping at these stores are spending dollars that are directly or indirectly available due to the fact that the paper mill is in business in our community. Shoppers, please ask for paper bags when shopping, and vendors, please be prepared to provide a paper bag for your customers.

Patsy Pieschl, Albany

For realism on abortion

Elmer Gerig wrote in about my letter, “Where a Democrat stands.” I understand his opinion. Let me just clarify that my fondest wish aside from a cure for a variety of horrible diseases, or that no one would ever go hungry, is that there would never be a need for another abortion on this planet. That, however, is not realistic.

Before abortion was legal women had illegal abortions at great risk to themselves. Why would anyone do that unless she is desperate? You cannot know another’s circumstances until you have walked in her shoes, and I’m just going to take a stab in the dark and guess you have never been pregnant.

I have had three children and all were a gift; out of those three children only two survive today so believe me when I say I appreciate my children more than you could know.

Even a planned pregnancy can be scary and an unplanned one downright traumatic. No woman would ever make that decision lightly and I doubt any ever get over the emotional pain it causes, but all made that decision for very good reasons pertaining to their own lives.

It is expensive to raise a child, and a lot of these women are in unstable relationships or already out of them when they find out they are pregnant. Even though a woman may be emotionally ready to be a parent, she may not be financially. Everyone already knows the whole adoption option, and it takes a very, very strong woman to make that choice to hand off her baby she carried for nine months and gave birth to. The maternal love that comes from that experience is very powerful. I don’t think I could do it; do you think you could?

What about the men who are irresponsible, those who don’t financially or emotionally support their children? There are those who say, “I don’t want anything to do with it or you.” How about those who outright say, “Get rid of it?” It takes two to make a baby, yet according to you, the woman is the only one who is damned. Do you think God sees it that way? My guess is He doesn’t.

As far as being gay goes, people are born gay. As far as my relationship with Jesus, He knows me and you don’t. I have no doubt where my soul will end up.

Kristen Hart, Albany

Leaf pickup: Hurry it up!

A little over two weeks ago, there was an article regarding the leaf pickup program. It stated to get the leaves out by Wednesday as they would be around to pick them up. As of today they still have not been picked up in my neighborhood.

A call to Public Works revealed that they will not be here for another three weeks. So the leaves in our neighborhood will have been sitting on the street for five weeks before they will be picked up.

Why wasn’t the schedule that the Public Works department is using printed as to when leaves would be picked up? Why should I have to continue to clean the street for another three weeks because people drive through the piles of leaves for a lark?

At least with Allied, they came through our neighborhood at least twice in the same time period. The lady thought that they were doing a pretty good job. I disagree.

Gary Harkins, Albany

Was that highway robbery?

Reading about the mass issuance of traffic tickets for a little-known law, I resonated with a recent Nicholas Kristof column reporting that Tbilisi, Georgia, “...uprooted corruption almost overnight (in part by firing every traffic cop in the country).”

The sting operation ticketing people for the Move Over law, enacted relatively recently and unfamiliar to 70 percent of drivers, has nothing to do with making the road safe for anyone, and everything to do with revenue generation.

If safety was truly the main concern in bringing awareness to this admittedly important law, a warning would be appreciated and would suffice. Better yet, if this law is so critical for safety, a notification of this law could have been easily and economically sent to every registered driver when their vehicle license registration renewal notices were mailed.

Police should imagine the unnecessary hardship caused by a $242 fine and a moving violation on perhaps hundreds of drivers’ records with the correspondingly increased insurance rates for people who were probably driving more slowly and carefully anyway in the slow lane. The punishment — an unfair form of notification — far exceeds the offense.

This abuse of power makes a travesty of what police are employed to do: protect and serve. Better to form a state citizen’s police review mechanism for traffic offenses to track citizen complaints and hold officers accountable, perhaps bringing some true highway robbers to justice.

Mariah Leung, Eugene

Safe from lions and tigers

Every time I read a story or a letter crediting President Bush with preventing all terrorist attacks by Islamofascists in the U.S. for more than seven years, I am reminded of an old drunk-in-the-tavern joke.

Seems a drunk was sitting at the bar nursing his pint while repeatedly thrusting his arm in the air and pointing his index finger to the sky. Finally, the curious bartender

couldn’t contain himself, so he

approached the drunk and asked him what he was doing.

“Well,” said the drunk, “I’m keeping all the lions and tigers away.“

“There isn’t a lion or tiger within 500 miles of here,” the bartender said.

“There you go,” replied the drunk. “I told you I was keeping them away.”

Wayne A. Burck, Albany

A question of logic and fault

In his recent letters Larry Smith states that the lack of attacks is directly related to President Bush’s performance. There had not been an attack of this nature prior to 9/11. So using Mr. Smith’s “logic,” that would mean the 9/11 attack was President Bush’s fault.

Ed Trotter, Albany