All comments are edited for length and content. Due to content some comments may not be published. Please limit your calls to two minutes or less. Some weeks, due to the number of comments and space, some may not be published.

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A lady called, giving her name and her husband’s before stating, “we witnessed that little boy getting killed on Foxglove.” She referred to last week’s Red Line caller about speeding on Foxglove and replied, “whoever wrote that in the paper about the person who hit the boy (and said he) was speeding that is not true. We were behind him. He (the driver) was not speeding. The little boy walked out in front of a car. He did not see him. There is no way he could have seen that kid.”

A man asked, “what has happened to Chuck Doud and his editorials? Has he quit writing? That page is rather boring since he has stopped his article.” (As noted previously on the Opinion Page, Doud was on vacation but has since returned.)

“Nothing sounds as foolish as the lady complaining about (columnist) Leon (Emo) and his hugs,” began a woman’s call. “But,” she suggested “perhaps her religion doesn’t believe in hugging, or she is just a cold-hearted woman. To me, it’s a strange attitude. She is so adamant about another giving a hug why doesn’t she have the guts to tell us why she objects. She doesn’t know how warm, friendly and caring a hug can be. We need to give more hugs all over the world. She is a strange lady to make such an issue of one person giving a hug.”

A man suggested, “let’s water once a week. Lets cut down the areas of grass. Lets expand rocks and decorations. That would help the city and farmers and general water practices. Lets only water golf courses once a month. We can save water. Lets don’t talk about it. Lets do.”

“Mo’s Musings on Friday (June 13) and Tami Jo Nix’s column Saturday (June 14) were a disgrace,” began a man. “I didn’t even read halfway into my favorite writers’ comments and I had to go searching for the rest of their columns because a large ad took up the entire page. I buy the paper to read their columns and I am sure there are many other readers like me. Give them the decency of running a true column down the entire side of the page where it belongs.”

A regular caller suggested we turn downtown into freeways because “the only city that revitalized downtown properly was Los Angeles. They ran freeways all over the place. There you can watch people come and go and you don’t need to worry about re-painting and revitalization and it’s something that doesn’t matter anymore. And downtown Madera doesn’t matter.”

“It’s too bad trees and grass can’t pay taxes,” began a woman. “With all these shopping centers filled with concrete and asphalt going up all over the place we are losing more green. What we need are more parks.”

An Internet reader that claimed to be a former Madera resident writes, “If the City of Madera would focus on the east (for new growth) we would have a great city overall. If we had (a) better cityscape in these new areas it would’ve been so much better. The east is not bad. Should it stay divided by Highway 99? Don’t let culture divide us but unite us all.”

An online guest, self-identified as “Ashamed and embarrassed,” writes, “An update on the unfinished business downtown: This week when I was walking downtown I was happy to see that they were finished the work and repainting the buildings. Finally it got started on again. All I can say is I’m glad.”

A visitor to the Red Line site responded to a column by Thomas Elias about high-speed rail funding in California. “Rafael” writes, “Every country with a dedicated high-speed rail network has invested public money in at least the starter line, which is all CHSRA is asking for. The spurs to Sacramento and San Diego would be financed with private bonds backed by fare revenue.”

A Web site reader self-identified as “Original Pechanga” responded to the Red Line published June 10. He writes, “People should not care what Picayune wants. They are a tribe that has terminated 50 percent of their tribe. This is not an enterprise that should be patronized. It should be avoided.”

An Internet guest, “floydy,” wrote a long explanation of “why the Central Valley, including Madera, is full of ‘illegals.’” As a summary, he writes, “Basically the agricultural industry historically has always made its profits on the backs of people willing to perform a very difficult, labor-intensive and dangerous job for very cheap.”

Another reader, self-identified as “It’s true…,” comments, “Why should anyone complain because they’re doing the work that us Americans are too lazy or just don’t want to do? Just think about that when you put down illegal immigrants working in the fields.”

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Thank you for your calls. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24-hours a day by calling 674-4478, or by visiting www.maderatribuneredline.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 1:16 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.