LETTERS

Unhappy with story about Gaffney High football player

Dear Editor:

I am writing regarding the front-page “news” in the 09/21/05 issue of your paper. I read, with dismay, the article about the GHS football player who was arrested for marijuana possession.

It is my understanding that this young man had been arrested approximately 3 weeks prior to your headlining news story. I always believed that stories found on the front page are there because of their timeliness, seriousness, or relevance to the public. I do not believe this particular story qualifies as frontpage news for any of these reasons, which has me questioning why you considered it frontpage worthy.

I also understand that others were involved in this incident; however, their names were not included in the article. I would think that a story with enough merit to rate the front page of your paper would include the names of everyone involved. I strongly believe that you chose not to include their names because they were not football players. After all, if these were just teenagers who had been caught with marijuana who had no link to local sports I do not think this would have qualified as an article and I feel certain it would not have been front-page news. It would have been located in the police reports, which is exactly where it belongs.

Please understand I do not know any of the young people involved in this, not even the young man who plays football. I am not an avid football fan and I do not attend the games each week however, I am a Gaffney native. I know that our town has always received more than its fair share of criticism from others especially when it comes to our football team. I cannot understand why you chose to publish this story on the front page of your paper knowing that it would be a poor reflection on the entire team.

The young people who are playing sports, cheering or playing in the band are public examples of the students at GHS and are held to higher standard; however, this does not mean they will be perfect.

All of them work very hard each week to improve their talents and we should focus on supporting them and their achievements rather than their mistakes. This type of publicity is damaging, not only for the one you chose to write the article about but for all of the young people who represent Gaffney High School each week at sporting events. I am not condoning the behavior that led to the arrests of these young people; however, I realize that young people make mistakes just as I do and because this young man is a football player, his mistake became front-page news, which is absurd.

Neither he nor his teammates deserve this type of publicity especially from your newspaper.

Lastly, I recognize that this behavior is not representative of the majority of the young people who represent GHS each week at sporting events and it seems to me that you would use your newspaper as an avenue to highlight the accomplishments of the majority rather than the mistakes of a few.

Regards,

Dana Pennington

Gaffney, SC

Here’s some tips to help you conserve gasoline

Dear Editor:

Soaring fuel prices have motorists scrambling to find ways to save money by using less gas. Sure, you can simply stop driving as much, but for many consumers, that’s not an option. But there are two ways all of us can stretch our precious gasoline dollars.

One strategy is to change how we drive, and the other is to perform simple and inexpensive vehicle maintenance.

Taking these steps will not only save gas money, but will improve a vehicle’s safety and dependability.

— CHECK YOUR vehicle gas cap. About 17 percent of the vehicles on the roads have gas caps that are either damaged, loose or are missing altogether, causing 147 million gallons of gas to vaporize every year.

— WHEN TIRES aren’t inflated properly, it’s like driving with the parking brake on, and can cost a mile or two per gallon.

— A VEHICLE can have either four, six or eight spark plugs, which fire as many as three million times each 1,000 miles, resulting in a lot of heat, electrical and chemical erosion. A dirty spark plug causes misfiring, which wastes fuel. Spark plugs need to be replaced regularly.

— AN AIR filter that is clogged with dirt, dust and bugs chokes off the air and creates a “rich” mixture — too much gas being burned for the amount of air, which wastes gas and causes the engine to lose power.

— REPLACING A clogged air filter can improve gas mileage by as much as 10 percent, saving about 15 cents on a gallon.

— AGGRESSIVE DRIVING can lower gas mileage by as much as 22 percent on the highway and five percent on city streets, which results in seven to 49 cents per gallon.

— SITTING IDLE gets zero miles per gallon. Letting the vehicle warm up for one to two minutes is sufficient.

— GAS MILEAGE decreases rapidly at speeds above 60 mph. Each mph driven over 60 results in an additional 10 cents per gallon. To maintain a constant speed on the highway, cruise control is recommended.

The Car Council is the source of information for the “Be Car Care Aware” campaign, educating consumers about the benefits of regular vehicle maintenance and repair. For more information, visit www.carcare.org.

Rich White Executive Director

Car Care Council