Letters to the Editor 01/05/2011

To the Editor:

Turning the calendar and gently closing the door on another year: Reflections and gratitudes.

Your generosity and thoughtfulness was deeply appreciated. How easily those words are said without truly conveying the emotions and gratitude that your gift created.

To give of ourselves to someone we know and to whom we have a connection through personal experience is one of the truest expressions of love that we can display. To give to those we don't know, but feel we have a connection too through our own past difficult times or from a feeling of empathy for their condition, is a manifestation of the truest spirit of giving embodied by this sometimes cynical season.

As humbling and painful as our current challenges have been, we are also encouraged and inspired to achieve the grace that is displayed in your kindness.

Perhaps in your past troubles, you too were shown some measure of the remarkable outpouring of comfort and concern that has been the blessing of the hardships we have endured. These experiences have changed us, without doubt, but it is to our better natures and faith we aspire by your shining example.

Thank you! Giana, Michael, Amanda and Seth Norman, our previous cancer child

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To the Editor:

On a trip late last week to the valley, I was amazed (and a bit freaked out) by how many vehicles I saw on the road or in the chain-up areas with chains on the wrong end.

In the decades since front-wheel drive became almost a standard, it seems few front-wheel-drive owners have "gotten it" that tire chains go on the front tires of their vehicles. You know, the tires that actually make the vehicle go (and provide around 80 percent of braking power).

Equally alarming to me was that the vast majority of chained-up four-wheel-drive vehicles also had chains on the rear tires.

For two-wheel-drive vehicles, the chains go on the driving wheels; four-wheel-drive vehicles get chained on the front (or both).

For your own safety and the safety of others on the road, educate yourself about proper chain placement before heading out onto our wintry roads. And slow down.

Pete Rathbun