It’s Wednesday and the Red Phone has been listening to local
residents yet again. How’s life in SBC? The Crimson Crusader doubts
it’s completely perfect. Have a question, comment or complaint?
Dial up the Red Phone
– always listening, always online always at 635-9219.
It’s Wednesday and the Red Phone has been listening to local residents yet again. How’s life in SBC? The Crimson Crusader doubts it’s completely perfect. Have a question, comment or complaint? Dial up the Red Phone – always listening, always online always at 635-9219.
Radar love
Cars still speed down San Benito Street, a Red Phone caller reports, in spite of new radar guns the Hollister Police Department acquired earlier this year.
“What progress has the Police Department made with their radar equipment and slowing down the traffic in the downtown area of San Benito street all the way from Nash Road north? Traffic is as fast as ever, even with the construction going on, and I don’t see any tickets being written and I would like to know what’s going on.”
The cops are still in the process of installing 15 new radar units donated by the California Highway Patrol as the Free Lance reported last Saturday. However, tickets are up from last year even without the new units and the one unit that is in operation has seen great results according to Hollister Police Chief Jeff Miller.
“The radar instructor has been very successful in using it,” he said. “There are days when he’ll issue 15 to 17 (speeding) citations.”
There were 271 citations issued last year, and between January and July of this year there have been 297 given out throughout the city, Miller said.
A cryptic tribute
The memorial outside the Veterans building doesn’t make sense to a Red Phone caller.
“The memorial in front of the Veterans Building says something about being dedicated to those who fell and had certain patriotism and uncertain resolve. It’s the last thing I’m wondering about. Uncertain resolve – what do they mean by that? If you’re honoring fallen soldiers in World War I and World War II why would you say the resolve is uncertain? First of all, it seems like a little bit of an insult. And second, I think either you’re resolved or you’re not. You can’t have an uncertain resolution.”
Interesting question and unfortunately Red Phone has few answers after placing numerous calls to no avail to local Veterans’ offices. The memorial is not dedicated to the soldiers of World War I and World War II where the winners of the war were obvious. In fact, the memorial in question is dedicated to the fallen soldiers of the Vietnam War. A war which did have an uncertain resolution, depending on your opinion. When the war ended for the U.S. in 1973, our soldiers did not march home victorious. We simply stopped fighting and came back to the U.S. By 1975, the North Vietnamese “won” the war by conquering Saigon and claiming the entire country under their rule. Perhaps the message meant “resolve” as defined by Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 4: to deal with successfully : clear up. Although 58,000 U.S. soldiers died and 314,000 were wounded in Vietnam, their contribution is undeniable in holding back the Vietcong while our brave warriors fought. We certainly did not fail in our duties, nor did we win the monumentally unpopular war. A strange tribute? Maybe, but certainly not an insult.
Red Phone readers: If you know what the message was intended to mean, please call the Red Phone and don’t forget to leave your name and phone number.
