The alligator spectacle: Hilton Head’s bad example | Letters
I saw on television a piece on a 10- to 12-foot alligator captured behind Legendary Golf by Critter Management. The alligator was reported to weigh more than 1,000 pounds and lived/survived on this earth for a very long time. They said it was between 80 to 100 years old.
The disturbing video shows the alligator totally restrained, legs tied and mouth wrapped tightly shut. As it lay there, before it was euthanized, both children and adults were allowed to pose for pictures, sitting on its back, holding its head up, grabbing its legs and snapping their Hilton Head Island souvenirs.
It is illegal in South Carolina to harass wildlife. What lesson was taught to young people surrounding an animal waiting to be exterminated? This was disgraceful and lacked any respect for the beautiful nature Hilton Head has provided to visitors for many years.
What are we becoming? As seen in the paper and in person, all the trash and discarded alcohol cans over the weekend, we are attracting crowds that are not typical Hilton Head visitors. Is this what the mayor and council see/encourage for this island? I hope not.
Shall we be known instead of the number #1 island, the island full of beer/alcohol drinking, nature-abusing visitors? Again, I hope not!
The mayor and Town Council will hopefully take a stand against this and make their opinion known to the public. I await their reply.
Doreen DeSa
Hilton Head Island
Again, America must a look at itself
How many times must we witness the killing of a black soul before we acknowledge how little the collective “we” have come to achieve that “all men are created equal”?
My husband, recently deceased, was a S.C. constable and training officer. So many times he would shake his head in disgust as he watched state and local officers disregard rules of arrest, with proper procedures being ignored.
In the case of George Floyd, there were four officers on the scene. Three who stood by watching, like the bystanders who begged the officer, whose knee held Mr. Floyd’s head and neck pinned to the ground, to allow him air.
During this time, a non-combative Mr. Floyd told the officer he could not breathe many times. The three who stood by said nothing. They did nothing. Yet they had the power times three to have intervened. Yet they did not.
We must acknowledge that white privilege has made us color blind. That to achieve “all men are created equal,” which is part of the American creed, we, each and every one, must confront ourselves.
Susan Hansz
Bluffton
Newspaper should offer wide variety
A recent letter requested less New York Times and Washington Post content in the Packet and Gazette. Like this contributor, my husband and I have also subscribed to The Island packet for more than a decade since we relocated here.
Like her also, we cherish an actual printed paper with our morning coffee, and understand, sadly, the publisher’s necessity of fewer pages and elimination of Saturday delivery. (We, further, miss Liz Farrell’s clever, informative and insightful columns.)
Unlike that opinion contributor, however, we encourage the publisher to continue to include Times and Post content regularly. Should the publishers wish to include content from other newspapers that may be more to the opinion contributor’s liking, I can’t imagine that any open-minded reader would object.
“The highest form of wisdom is kindness.”
Rosemary Hrinko
Bluffton
How to submit a letter
Send letters to the editor by email to letters@islandpacket.com or letters@beaufortgazette.com.
Or you may submit a letter online.
Letters to the editor must be 250 words or fewer and include your first and last names, street address and daytime telephone number so we can verify the letter before publication.
You are limited to one letter per 30 days.
Letters may be edited for length, style, grammar, taste and libel. All letters submitted become the property of The Island Packet and The Beaufort Gazette.