What is a stand of trees worth? To Empire and its tree hackers it’s just a matter of a few minutes of work using the workers’ mutilating equipment. To my neighbors and me they represent tranquility, home for birds, rabbits and squirrels. All in the name of safety, for a streetlight that is literally on the end of the line.
I’ve been informed that I must pay to have the light moved to save my trees. How many trees have we lost in our “Tree City USA”? Drive around town; look up at the rows and rows of power lines attached to unsightly poles with stumps and mutilated trees.
What if we were a progressive city, a green city with a tree ordinance? Cities like that do exist, cities that have ordinances requiring citizens to get a permit to trim a tree.
What if money was spent on digging trenches and burying the lines? There would be no more power failures during ice storms or summer windstorms. How much would we save? We would save our trees and the crew from Iowa with its tree-hacking trucks that park on 32nd Street could go back home.
Or, better yet, they could move on to some other town and mutilate those residents’ trees.
Sheila Gilstrap
Joplin
Opinion
Voices: Mutilated trees
- Opinion
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Our View: Victims should come first
Millions of dollars in donations have poured in from around the world since the May 22, 2011, tornado. Those donations represent money from lemonade stands, charity auctions, corporate gifts and celebrity checks, just to name a few. In fact, one year later donations continue to come to Joplin.
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Beth Meeker, guest columnist: Same-sex marriage battle a quest for equal rights
I would like to take a moment to reply to guest columnist Anson Burlingame’s, “The Marriage Debate” (Globe, May 13).
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Sunday Forum: 2012 graduation speakers key on tornado, mall school and president’s visit
Editor’s note: In addition to speeches by President Barack Obama and Gov. Jay Nixon, Joplin High School’s top students addressed graduates, faculty, parents and other guests packed into the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center on the Missouri Southern State University campus. Following are the text of those speeches.
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Geoff Caldwell, guest columnist: Pack mentality takes truth as a casualty
President Obama’s Joplin graduation speech Monday showed that while there’s the political “right,” there’s also a very active “rabid” political right.
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Your View: ‘Study’ can mean anything
A few evenings ago, I watched a television program on the science of marriage.
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Our View: Support for museum
How can you tell the story of Joplin without the accounts of its mining history?
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Our View: Finding middle ground
The G-8 summit held last week in Camp David ended as expected.
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Anson Burlingame, guest columnist: Class of 2012 upholds character, hope
My oldest granddaughter was part of the class of 2012 from Joplin High School, and I attended the ceremony on Monday night.
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Scott Charton, guest columnist: 'Deadline in Disaster' film a story about storytellers
Local newspapers are at their best when they help their communities confront, understand, endure and overcome shared challenges.
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Our View: Make voting easiser
This year’s ballot will not include a proposed constitutional amendment that photo identification be required at the polls in Missouri. Good.
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