Tommy Purser

I received two unsigned letters to the editor this week. Actually, one was a letter to the editor and the other was a comment on our web site about one of the stories that appeared there.

Of course, I rejected them both. We don’t normally run unsigned letters.

We are more than happy to provide a platform for people to state their opinions but, for heaven’s sake, if people aren’t willing to stand behind their opinions, their opinions really aren’t worth much.

I state my opinions here all the time, with my name and my photograph accompanying them for all to see. If you write something and you aren’t willing to stand behind what you write, you need to consider what you’re opinion is to people who read it.

Not much.

One of the opinions was an underhanded slap at our hospital. I wanted to reply to them that the problems with our hospital have nothing to do with the doctors, nurses and service. The problems have to do with people like the person who commented who have nothing better to do than try to tear down this community’s safety net.

I, for one, want the hospital to stay open. I need the hospital. My family and friends need the hospital. Our community needs the hospital. And I will do whatever I can to help it survive in these trying times for healthcare across the nation.

But, on to other subjects:

“Lawn more repare.”

That’s how the sign on the roadside read years ago in the tiny town of Summertown in Emanuel County. Every time I’d drive by it I was amused. I often wondered if the writer was illiterate or if he/she wrote it like that just to attract attention …. and customers.

The sign isn’t there anymore but it amused me for years some time back.

Today, there is another sign that amuses me everytime I pass it. And it’s in Jeff Davis County.

Next time you enter Jeff Davis County after crossing the Uvalda Bridge, check out the road sign to the right identifying the dirt road leading off the highway.

The sign reads “Old Trussel Road.” (Or maybe it’s “Old Trussell Road.”) It’s the road that leads to the old railroad trestle (not trussel) and whoever made the sign obviously didn’t know how to spell “trestle.”

But, whatever, I smile every time I pass it and hope that visitors to our fine community don’t realize that Old Trussel Road leads to an old railroad trestle.

And another little sign, actually a bottle label, brings a smile to my face every morning. It’s a label on a bottle of Listerine that sits on the counter in our bathroom. It announces that Listerine “Kills Germs That Cause Bath Breath On Contact.”

I think that’s wrong. I think it should read “Kills Germs On Contact That Cause Bad Breath” or, better still, “Kills On Contact Germs That Cause Bad Breath.”

Oh, well.