MORE LETTERS Firefighters Are Than feed For Saving Family's Home To the editor: Our sincere thanks to all the many volunteer fire departments who re sponded and saved our house at 957 Ocean Boulevard West, Holdcn Beach, that was in peril the moming of Oct. 21. How can we ever give enough praise or monetary contributions to these volunteers who are always ready to serve the citizens of Bruns wick County. Our hats arc off to them for the fantastic job each of them did Thanks a million. John and Bonnie Miller Lawrenccville. Va. Good News, Bod News To the editor: 1 have good news and bad news. First of all 1 want to say that throughout all of the organizations I have joined in the Calabash area, I have never met such talented, ener getic and fun-loving retirees. The bad news: I find most people forgetting to put on their directional signals when driving ? and I don't mean three feet before turning. Not only is this a safety factor, but it is the law and courtesy of the road. If 1 only had written this a few weeks ago as 1 intended, perhaps an acci dent involving two teenagers, one of whom was my grandson, may have been avoided. Think about it, folks. The life you save may be your own or a loved one. Also, yard sale signs bug me when they are not taken down after the sale ? that goes ditto with the po litical signs. We live in a lovely community; let's keep it that way. Write Us We welcome your letters to the editor. Letters must have an original signature and must include your address and telephone number. (This in formation is for verification purposes only; we will not publish your street/mailing address or phone number.) Letters must be typed or written legibly. Address letters to: The Brunswick Beacon, P.O. Box 2558, Shallotte NC 28459. Anonymous letters will not be published Mary Bcnes Sunset Beach What Change? To the editor: Retired Union Elementary School principal Clara Carter and now member of the County Board of Education is all eager to "walk the walk" to respond to the electors who "voted for change." If It Really Happened... "If it really happened." That phrase from my friend Karen ? who's worked in the crimi nal justice system all the way from county juvenile probation to federal prison ? was the first time I consid ered the possibility that Susan Smith might be lying. It was the night of Oct. 2V and I'd just returned from the brain-jangling but hilarious experience of pho tographing the Festival By The Sea Halloween costume contest. I started telling Karen and Eric about the tiny Elvis impersonator and the baby who grabbed my hair with lollipop covered fingers when I stopped to ask the same thing everyone did for those nine days upon walking into a room with a television playing: "Did they find them yet?" "No. but when they do. they won't be alive," Karen said in that matter-of-fact way of people who've worked around meanness long enough to lose their awe of it. I said I couldn't believe a carjack ing ? much less one with a double kidnapping? could take place in Union, a town the size of Karen's and my hometown "If it really happened," she said It was a night of turbulent, frag mented dreams I'd spent a big part of it surmunded by children and par ents who loved them enough to spend hours sewing their costumes, who rushed home from work in time for last-minute fittings and make-up application, who carried them on Lynn Carlson their hips to a deafening party in a chilly fire house when it would have been so much more peaceful to put them to bed and relax with a drink and a movie on the VC'R. I dreamed of Jean Ixwise "Scout" Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, run ning through the autumn night in a ham costume, pursued by bitter, evil Ewell until Boo Radley comes to her rescue and delivers her gently back to her wise and cherishing fa ther. I dreamed of Nance Dude, who in mountain lore, in Maurice Stanley's book and in ghastly reality left her granddaughter to die in a cold mountain cave many years ago for reasons no one will ever really un derstand. I dreamed of K.im Harding, the 17-ycar-old who shot her dad in the head as he napped on the couch after subjecting her to a lifetime of sexual brutality so horrific it couldn't be fully described on tabloid television shows. I didn't dream of Alex and Michael Smith ? not specifically. Every mother is gtxxi at recogniz ing crocodile tears, and I saw them in Susan Smith on the news early the next week "Don't judge her too soon," people said to one another. "What if she's just in shock? You have no idea what she's going through." No idea, indeed. I took part in the nationwide gasp when savvy Sheriff Wells tersely de livered the news of her anest at 6:35, as millions of us wives and mothers were stirring together their familes' suppers and listening to the evening news. I didn't spend too much time wondering why. When you make your living from news, and you have friends in criminal justice, you learn quickly that there's no comfort in the reasons: Lots of people arc stu pid. Lots of people are hateful. Lots of people are ignorant. Some people would dispose of their children to keep from losing a boyfriend who found them bother some. Some people wouldn't think twice about saying a black man did it because lots of people would be lieve them. Some people wouldn't dream of treating a yard dog as poorly as they treat their own flesh and blood. I don't want Susan Smith to die ? not at the hands of a mob and not by the decision of a jury. 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