I was surprised by the letter seeking the return of the police blotter for its entertainment value (CHN Jan. 7). I imagine the writer didn't really mean that it is funny and if it isn't meant as entertainment, I have no objection to printing the police blotter in the paper.

When it appears, I often spend time in sad reflection. As a longtime counselor in this community, I often know the names and know how involved and how sad and difficult the stories are for those whose names appear. I wonder if the person who misses the police blotter as entertainment might consider spending some time and energy supporting members of our community. There are so many positive ways we can support our struggling neighbors.

I can assure this writer and the community at large that many of the children I have worked with who appear at some point in the police blotter are fine people who make a misstep or two. These neighbors can benefit from our support rather than our ridicule. My experience is that they are much like me or could be just like me or could be so many of us. I hope that the writer reaches inside and realizes that the police blotter is about real people and is not meant for our entertainment.

Mary Gratch

Chapel Hill

County property values inconsistent

In response to Bill Armstrong's column (CHN Jan. 4), I object to the current revaluation of my property because it reflects a shifting basis for how such values are determined.

In 2005, the revaluation came in $40,000 low, while the 2009 figure is arguably $20,000 above a realistic selling price for the property. That $60,000 shift in philosophy and/or methods constitutes a substantial portion of the 32 percent increase in assessment. I expect more consistency from our county officials and assessors in ascertaining these values.

My family moved here five years ago from Massachusetts, where we lived in a town outside of Boston. There I learned that people able to afford their mortgage obligation to the lender for many years could be forced to sell due to spiraling property taxes. Engines other than the assessment exist to increase property taxes (ours rose 16 percent over the last three years in the absence of revaluation). Ironically and sadly, the current 32 percent increase in valuation occurs when several homes in our neighborhood are in a state of foreclosure.

I agree with Bill that spending must be examined more rigorously as taxes continue to climb. But consistency in home valuation is also important. It is not the duty of the county to increase the financial burden of home ownership to the extent that the borrower can no longer afford to remain in the house. Yet this will occur when inconsistent philosophy or methods produce large changes in assessed property values over a brief time increment.

Curt E. Heine

Chapel Hill

Embrace change for planet's sake

In calling for change in our time, scientists are speaking about what could somehow be true, speaking out loudly and clearly to wealthy and powerful people who adamantly insist that the "business as usual" status quo be relentlessly promoted and ruthlessly maintained.

Industrial/big business powerbrokers and their bought-and-paid-for politicians want to keep over-consuming, overproducing and overpopulating in our planetary home as they are doing now, come what may for children, life as we know it, and the integrity of Earth and its environs. Many of our voices are needed to support these great "voices of science," these exemplars who are courageously speaking truth to those leaders who possess the power to authorize change. The provision of a good enough future for our children is an achievable goal, but only if we elders choose requisite behavior change now.

If changes in behavior are not initiated in a timely fashion, then a sustainable world for our children may not be achievable. By doing precisely what we are doing now, the limited resources of Earth could be permanently dissipated, its biodiversity massively extirpated, its environment irreversibly degraded and life as we know it recklessly endangered. The current scale and anticipated growth of per-capita over-consumption, global production capabilities, and human population numbers worldwide could be simply, clearly and patently unsustainable, even to the year 2050. Given Earth's limitations as a relatively small, evidently finite and noticeably frangible planet, the projected increases in unchecked consumption, unbridled production and unregulated propagation activities of the human species could soon lead the human family to come face to face with some sort of colossal ecological wreckage.

Now is the time to speak loudly, clearly and often about what is true for you. Forget about political correctness and convenience. Resist economic expediency and greediness. Embrace necessary change rather than waste another day perniciously defending an unsustainable, same old "business as usual" status quo.

Steven Earl Salmony

Chapel Hill