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Thursday, July 03, 2008

Letters to the Editor



      Bus Co. Shutdown Was Unavoidable
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
    Plant School Transportation, Inc. was forced to shut down operations after providing bus services in the community for 37 years.
    We advised the Moriarty-Edgewood School District of our decision not to renew the annual contract on June 13, 2008, approximately 65 days prior to school commencing for 2008-2009, thus providing more than 60 days notice.
    We were barely able to complete the 2007-2008 school year and had we obligated ourselves for another, we believe we would have been forced to shut down in the middle of the school year creating a significant hardship.
    The two financial issues over the last five years have caused the financial demise of PST have been fuel prices and the decline in the number of students in the Moriarty-Edgewood School District.
    When the student count declines, PST is required to return part of the contract revenues. This has happened for the last five years and on average, PST has had to return more than $75,000 per school year.
    Fuel prices are budgeted at the beginning of the year and fuel price increases for the most part are a hardship for the company. We estimate that the fuel prices per actual purchases have exceeded the original budget by more than $60,000 per school year.
    These two factors have created a financial loss of more than $130,000 per school year and we reached a point where we could not continue.
    We apologize for any inconvenience that this decision has caused our community.
   
    PLANT SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION
    Moriarty
   
    War in Iraq Is All About Money
MR. DEMAREST FAILED TO MENTION that the invasion of Iraq was illegal and one the most horrible war crimes that one nation can inflict upon anther nation. (Mountain View Telegraph letter, June 26, 2008). Mr. Demarest hasn't heard everyone who has left the Bush administration has said the war was about oil.
    Mr. Demarest hasn't heard this country is being run by corporations. They have no allegiance to any country, all they care about is making a profit. So the kids in Iraq who are getting their arms, legs and heads blown off are just pawns in the scheme of things. Our armed forces are supposed to defend the country. They are not doing that in Iraq. It is to control oil and for the war contractors to make a bundle. It is estimated by reliable financial experts the war on terror is costing over a trillion dollars. The war in Afghanistan is not defending our country either. It's about an oil pipeline UNOCAL is building from the oil rich countries north of Afghanistan to the Pakistan coast. Whoever controls Afghanistan controls the pipeline and the oil. They could have killed or captured Osama bin Laden years ago. He's just an excuse for being there. In both countries the finest armed forces in the world are at the breaking point. Being brought down by a bunch of ragtag fighters using recycled ammunition. We can't afford to fight the war on terror this way. We will eventually have to leave both countries or face financial ruin.
    Mr. Demarest hasn't heard we already had a war against alcohol. It was called prohibition. It was a complete failure just as the war on drugs is a complete failure.
    We are the richest country in the industrial world yet we treat our citizens poorly, compared to other nations. We don't have health care for all our citizens. France has the best health care in the world. Its free and guess what? The doctors make house calls. So you don't have get out of bed when you have pneumonia or the flu and go sit in awaiting room and infect all the other people in the room. We don't make decent wages. We don't have paid college education as other nations do. We are not guaranteed paid vacations. We don't have paid maternity leave. People have to work two or three jobs just to survive. Many of our people are living in substandard housing or living on the streets. We humiliate people who are on welfare and food stamps. And people like Mr. Demarest wonder why so many people in the country are anesthetizing themselves with alcohol and drugs. They feel like they are trapped in hopeless poverty.
    I wish Mr. Demarest would name the religious cult that is supposedly organizing the anti-war protests. I would like to know which religious cult I belong to, and so would a lot of my friends.
   
    P. WALSH
    McIntosh
   

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