Letter to the Editor

This is a comment recently posted as a comment to our blog. In the interest of keeping an open dialog with the community I though you’d all like to read it. It has in no way been edited and is how it was posted.

Posted by: Tara Filter   tfilter@live.com 

On: November 20, 2008 at 4:19 PM

From Ethan Voice Blog Post “The local crime wave continues”

I just want to know when does it become your decision on what goes on in the city of Ethan? Maybe you just need to get     a job and a life and not worry what everyone does. Then it wouldn’t be your problem. The city has ran fine for the last 125 years with out you. Why don’t you just become the city cop for free and turn everyone in. Why do we need a sheriff in town to watch the stop signs during the day? We need a cop in town more in the evenings and on the weekends than during the week when the kids are in school. If were having all this crime if you say. Maybe people should be getting $104.00 tickets when there children are not buckled in? You just can’t move into a town and try and change everything and think your    special. You are creating your own problems and enemies on your own.

Response to Ms. Filter’s Comment on The Ethan Voice Blog:

I’ll answer each one of your questions if it pleases you.

1. I just want to know when does it become your decision on what goes on in the city of Ethan?

I don’t make any decisions as to what goes on in Ethan I’m not a member of the city council. Like any concerned citizen  I can voice my opinion at a city council meeting. They are an open forum I suggest you go to one or read the minutes.

2. Maybe you just need to get a job and a life and not worry what everyone does.

First off I have a job and a life and that’s none of your business anyway, second it’s not so much what everyone does it’s when my kid and myself are at risk. I don’t like the idea of my child getting run over by speeders, people that run stop signs and your just general morons out there causing trouble.

3. The city has ran fine for the last 125 years with out you.

That may be the case but it’s not for you to decide that.

4. Why don’t you just become the city cop for free and turn everyone in.

I’m not interesting in being a city cop I have a job.

5. Why do we need a sheriff in town to watch the stop signs during the day?

Here’s why it’s because we need a presents in the town so people know there is still cops here and we don’t live in a lawless community.

6. We need a cop in town more in the evenings and on the weekends than during the week when the kids are in school.

If you would attend a city meeting you’d know that the Sheriffs office doesn’t have the manpower or the money. They can’t be here in the evenings or the weekends all the time like we’d all like them to be. They depend on the citizens to be their eyes and ears. They themselves stated if you see someone speeding or running stop signs or anything report it to them. They will come down and issue a ticket after you give them a signed statement. In an ideal world I’d like them here all the time too but for now we have to take what we can get.

7. If were having all this crime if you say. Maybe people should be getting $104.00 tickets when there children are not buckled in?

Yes we did have some crime like vandalism but, after we got some police down here a little more the crimes subsided. In the fall and winter crimes like we were having is going to slow down of course it’s cold out. The Deputy Sheriff said that crime in Ethan is always going in spurts it comes and goes it will be quiet for awhile then it won’t be. I’m all for people getting tickets when you don’t follow the law you should get a ticket. I myself wear my seat belt and put my kid in seat belts too, I don’t speed and I don’t drink. I guess I was under the impression we created laws for them to be followed and enforced.

8. You just can’t move into a town and try and change everything and think your special.

I don’t want to change anything but the way people think and act by respecting one another and our children. By taking the time to slow down and follow the law. Secondly I certainly don’t think I’m special I’m about as average as they come. In this matter I just think the laws need to be enforced and followed.

9. You are creating your own problems and enemies on your own.

That may be the case as well but it’s really none of your business what I do. Last time I checked it was a free country and free speech was alive and well.

I hope this has cleared up any confusion you had. Once again thank you for your comments and have a nice day.

Brandan Moe The Ethan Voice

What Moe Knows

By Brandan Moe

We’ve lived here almost two and a half years now. We own our little house.  We aren’t renters that seem to come and go quickly in this town.  We’ve made Ethan our home and a place to raise our son.  We take pride in our community and it’s members. We want to make our town, our home a better place. We all know that the steps it takes to make Ethan even better are not easy ones. We as a community have many struggles and hardships to   endure.  When we work together we can over come them.  I feel as a responsible citizen I have every right to voice my feelings when I see something that’s wrong.  I feel everyone is welcome to there opinion and are free to voice that opinion.  What I don’t feel is right is for someone to tell us to leave and that a town is better without us all  because they don’t agree with our opinions. Here are a few things people have said to me on the blog and I quote: “there are other GREAT small towns just waiting for someone like you.” “I think that you need to get a real job instead of your wife working so that you do Ethan a favor and shut up!!”    I don’t feel like that’s a very good attitude towards anyone who is in this community. I find such comments narrow-minded and archaic. If this is truly how people feel here I feel very sorry for them.

  I personally don’t know Ms. Filter who left comments on my blog.  Those comments are in the letter to the editor this week. I’ve never even seen her to my knowledge. I feel so flattered that Ms. Filter thinks I’m in charge and make the decisions. That’s not the case though, I only make the decisions about my own life. I’m also honored that she finds the time to be concerned about my employment and private life. For a person I’ve never met she must be a very  caring soul. To want to suggest employment for a person she’s never met and knows nothing about. To suggest for me to be a police officer no less.  I must be of higher moral standards then I thought. I agree Ethan probably has ran great for the last 125 years but who really knows that. Though what’s wrong with wanting to make a great community better. Making its streets and residents safer is one of those steps. I for one am always looking to the future and not the past. I see a thriving wonderful community in our future if we work for it. We need to make our town welcoming to newcomers and not be so closed off to progressive ideas for future development.

  I personally don’t care what time a cop comes to town. I just want them to come when we need them to. As for moving into a town and changing everything: If having safe streets, and residents, trying to get people actively      involved and opening a dialog is considered changing everything then I must be wrong to think that we can all build  a better community. I certainly don’t want to know what right is then.  I take Ethan’s wellbeing very seriously and am disappointed in our town. I’m disappointed that just because a few people think a little different then they are shunned by others.  I love Ethan and this community and take pride in it. I may not have grown up in Ethan, but I am only 45 minutes away from where I did. It doesn’t matter where you come from, what you look like, or your opinions, Ethan is home to all of us.  Also just for anyone who cares about my personal life I plan to stay here in Ethan for a long... long time.   

Brandan Moe  Owner / Executive Editor The Ethan Voice Newspaper