Keep beer away from county fair
After attending my first Red Raider Band Booster meeting recently, I am compelled to write this letter regarding the recent events of the Fayette County Fair Board considering permitting beer sales at the fair. The concession stand for the Red Raiders Band is the one at the fair’s Outdoor Arena where all of the main nightly outdoor attractions are held. The band parents and the students work all of these events. The students, ranging from freshmen that could be as young as 13 years old to seniors, will be walking through the stands nightly selling food and drinks.
Being a former 10-year 4-H member myself, I have seen on many occasions too many people in attendance at the outdoor events that were drunk before they came to the fair, without the fair actually selling them more beer.
Our high school students are going to be in these stands selling food and drinks to possibly even drunker people. As a parent, I do not want my 14-year-old daughter mingling in this atmosphere. What responsible, concerned, dedicated parent would?
My fondest fair memories are family memories of highly competitive 4-H horse shows surrounded by my grandparents and my girlfriends. After the 4-H horse shows were over, my father would take me to the carnival at the fair to pitch nickels (yes, nickels) at glassware.
These were family times. These were some of the best times of my life. Our youth today should have the same opportunity to make wholesome family memories at the Fayette County Fair.
Their fair memories should not end up to possibly be about that one loud-mouthed, vulgar-talking drunk they saw, or the drunk puking over the fence. I realize that there are many responsible drinkers but it only takes one rowdy drunk to ruin everyones’ good time.
I sincerely appeal to the Fayette County Fair Board to consider the welfare of the 4-H children and the families that repeatedly support the fair year after year after year before permitting beer to be sold at the fair.
Robin D. Meadows
Uniontown
Acid rain kills forests
I am an enthusiastic backer of wind turbines and other types of power generation that tap the renewable forces of nature.
The argument against wind turbines pales when compared to the pluses. The trees versus turbines crowd has never seen the devastation of trees in the Adirondacks and parts of New England due to acid rain from belching, coal-fired power plants that drifts eastward from the Midwest.
Ed Rinkhoff
Smock