This week, our communities host patriotic events celebrating Veterans Day. We thank them for that. Please keep our troops overseas in your prayers. Please encourage friends to attend events honoring service for our freedoms. Freedom isn’t free.

Anthony O’Brien, Sr., Lieut. Cmdr., US Navy Seals (Ret.)

The doctors and staff at Pembroke Animal Hospital wanted to express our sincere thanks and appreciation for those that attended our Rabies Clinic held on Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011.  It was a huge success.  Thanks to your donations, we raised $700.00 for the Avon Breast Cancer Foundation in just two hours! We hope to see you in the spring and are planning another clinic in the fall of 2012.  We encourage you to visit our website pembrokeanimalhosp.com for future events and information. Thanks again.

Dr. Lisa M. Teixeira, Owner of Pembroke Animal Hospital

The Friends of the Pembroke Skatepark (FoPS) would like to sincerely thank all who helped out with our second annual Skatepark Jam last week. We truly could not have had this extremely successful event without individuals and groups like you.

I have a thought on the article “Fire Beef Aired” that was printed recently and I wanted my comments also aired instead of only a former selectman’s.

My thoughts are not to be taken as anti-fire department. We called 9-1-1 to handle an emergency and got quick and professional service. However, I felt embarrassed for the shed owner who watched it go up in flames. Instead of sympathy, he was left looking like an ingrate who should never question the services of Pembroke. It seemed like the Board should have said they were sorry for the loss and would look into the matter.

The slow response seemed to be in question. The fact that a truck arrived with one fire fighter and no communication with the home owner seems ridiculous. A shed fire should be responded to without the need for back up. No one needs to run into a smoke-filled house. I would like to know what the Marshfield emergency was that took our firemen away. Maybe we should tell surrounding towns we can’t support them if we are short manpower.

The other complaint I have about the selectmen is in regard to the fire victim and the rest of the taxpayers who are being blamed for not supplying enough money for Chief Neenan’s budget. That is not our problem. We elect selectmen to make the right choices when they are dividing funds. If they think the fire department budget is wrong, let them add to it from other departments. Pembroke is not unlike any other town in having to deal with less money than it would like to have.

If leadership would stop making excuses and finding fault with taxpayers there would be more time to find solutions. If this can’t be worked out, we, the home owners, will have to keep the outside water on all winter to be ready to use our own hoses in case of fire.

John Callahan

Hello families of Pembroke. I wanted to let you know about a fundraiser my sons and I have put together. My boys Keith and Kory, 5- and 8-years-old, love to ride their bikes, skateboards and scooters. Because we don’t live on a cul-de-sac or have sidewalks on our street, we are required to load up the bikes and go to Marshfield’s or Hanson’s skate parks.

The town of Pembroke supports and has approved a skate park to be built next to the library but the funds have to be raised by us, the residents of Pembroke. To find out more about the park, visit pembrokeskatepark.com.

Much has been done privately and by the Friends of the Pembroke Skate Park, but to give our kids a top quality, safe place to ride, more is needed and I have been thinking of ways to help. At my son’s ages, it’s difficult for them to raise money alone, so I thought I would use what I know and hold a Salon cut-a-thon from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23, at the Personal Best Salon and Day Spa in Pembroke, 270 Washington St.

I have been a stylist at Personal Best Salon and Day Spa for 17 years. Me and four additional, talented stylists will be donating 100 percent of the proceeds of the salon’s cut-a-thon directly to the skate park construction fund. My boys and husband, Kent, will be helping out by collecting the money, sweeping up and selling tickets for some great items we will be raffling off that day. They are very excited to help out and get a little closer to building the park.

Haircuts will be $20 per person. Families of three or more will receive discounted haircuts of $15. To maximize our time, we will only be offering wet cuts. We are also offering a special price of $8 for our real-hair extensions that come in a great variety of fun colors.

How about getting a great new look for fall or a trim on your “back-to-school” haircut? Bring the kids, husbands, wives and yourself to our cut-a-thon. Tell all your friends. Surrounding towns will benefit from our park, too!

The salon can be reached at 781-826-3363. Just mention the skate park fundraiser. Space is limited so please call to reserve your appointment today. Look great and feel good about helping out a very good cause at the same time. We hope to see you there and thank you for your support.

Heather, Kent, Kory and Keith Lawson

Thanks to Howard Scott for expressing his just outrage at the free health benefits some Pembroke "volunteer patriots" are receiving at taxpayer expense. This is a request of the journalists at this newspaper to do an investigative report: Who is receiving the free health benefit? How much is it costing? Who authorized it? What exactly does the law allow? Wasn't there a change made in the pension reform law to prevent this undeserved benefit ? Why only some officials get it and not all of the equally hard working volunteers ? What makes them more deserving than the other many dedicated government volunteers? What can voters do to rescind this unjust benefit? Thank you for informing the residents of this corrupt practice.

Doc Iacobucci
Pembroke

The Hanson Water Department will begin hydrant flushing on or about April 11. 

I’m writing this note to let you know I will not run for another term. I feel that 15 years is a long time and I’m not sure that I can commit to another three years; I now have two adorable granddaughters and I can’t get enough of them.

We recently learned that mutual fund giant Fidelity Investment will be closing its campus at Marlborough and moving over one thousand jobs, good jobs with decent pay and benefits, to their facilities in Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Most of the employees will travel with the jobs, relocating or commuting to our neighboring states. Immediately after the announcement we heard the cries of anguish from the politicians and the pundits about corporate “greed” and stabbing the commonwealth in the back after receiving corporate tax breaks, so on and so on. By the way, we believe Fidelity upheld its part of the bargain by creating the jobs it promised to create in exchange for the tax breaks, but we digress.

This letter is written in response to Emery Maddocks’ article, “Getting Real: Something’s got to give.” What is happening in Madison, Wisconsin is certainly very intriguing. I agree with newly elected Governor Scott Walker that something should be done about the state of Wisconsin’s 3.6 billion dollar deficit. What I do not agree with is the method by which he plans on cutting the deficit. Removing state employees’ collective bargaining rights is definitely not the way to go.

Since last Friday morning we have watched and listened to the radio and television news reports coming out of Japan describing the incredible natural disasters of a 9.0 Richter Scale earthquake, apparently the fourth largest in recorded history, followed by a tsunami sweeping miles inland with a wall of water up to 30 feet or more in height multiplying the damage and loss of life to an as yet unknown dimension. As if these two events were not enough, the collateral damage has caused the apparent destruct of three nuclear power generation plants and danger to a fourth. There is the very real possibility of a core meltdown and the release of dangerous radiation into the atmosphere.

The Whitman-Hanson Education Foundation will be holding its first annual Adult Spelling Bee in the Whitman-Hanson Regional High School’s Performing Arts Center on March 31 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. Join the fun and compete against teams from Venus (in Whitman), Representative Diehl, Conley School, Hanson Express, WHRSD administration and others! No need to get stressed out about being alone at the microphone spelling a word on your own — this is a Family Feud-style game with teams of 3-8 people!

The Whitman High/Whitman-Hanson Regional High School offers community residents an opportunity to nominate people for the Whitman-Hanson Graduate Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame was established in 1984 to honor graduates of Whitman High School and Whitman-Hanson Regional High School who have achieved success in their fields. The more than thirty graduates inducted represent a wide variety of occupations and interests including medicine, the law, education business and the entertainment industry.