Letters to the editor

Published 12:00 am Thursday, March 13, 2008

After this time has passed, will you remember?
Remember this past week.
The outpouring of help for the families of the fire victims is awesome. What about after these weeks are past and these brave men are laid to rest? As with 9-11, will you still remember? I will, always.
I sit here with tears in my eyes for my lost brothers as I write this and ask for you to remember these two men whenever you see a firetruck pass with lights and siren on, to remember them when you sit on a road blocked by emergency vehicles trying to extricate victims of accidents, to remember them when you call 911 and ask for us to come to your home in the earliest part of the morning.
Yes, we will be there.
Will you remember? We will, your firemen and firewomen will remember them and you when trouble comes to your family. We will be there, as those men of the Rapid Intervention Team and others were when the call came in that there were brothers left inside.
Through hell or high water, we will come! We will remember. We will never forget! Will the people of Rowan remember?
ó Jimmy Holcombe
Firefighter/EMT Atwell Station 40
Reference inappropriate
In the Post’s Saturday edition, a staff reporter referred to one of the fallen firefighters as a “Yankee transplant.” I find this type of word usage highly offensive.
I am from the state of New York, and I do not consider myself a “Yankee transplant” nor do I think it is appropriate for your paper to refer to a veteran of the 9/11 attacks and a former member of the Fire Department of New York as a Yankee.
I thought the Civil War ended more than 140 years ago, I did not realize that there was such an ill regard for the South’s northern neighbors. If that were my father or brother mentioned in your article, I would demand a public apology.
Maybe you should do a better job of editing and managing your staff reporters.
ó Justin Bloyd
Salisbury
Poignant words, picture
Artist Clyde Overcash captured the feelings of our city by using our Salisbury Angel to hold the fallen firefighter. Placing the tribute written years ago by Homer Lucas, surrogate father to Justin Monroe, next to Clyde’s beautiful drawing was bittersweet. I have always been comforted in sad times by the Angel who guards and protects our city. Words, too, comfort me, and I seek understanding from the written word. Overcash and Lucas have somewhat softened the sadness I feel for Salisbury and its brave firefighters, for the two of them have created a lasting and sweet memorial to Monroe and Victor Isler.
ó Julie S. Pinkston
Salisbury