Opinion
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Edgewood Parade Turned Out Nicely

AYP Status Doesn't Tell Whole Story

Letters to the Editor

Editorial: Hibbs Has Done Job of 2 Mayors

Editorial: Law Revised for Problem Animals

Guest View: School Funding Trend Is Backward

Letters to the Editor

Editorial: We Need Jobs, Not Tax Rebates

Guest Column: Trust Keeps Byway Looking Scenic

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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Letters to the Editor



      Thanks for Help In Raising $2,000
I WOULD LIKE TO PERSONALLY THANK all the people who contributed to and helped organize the flea market for the benefit of the music festival at Wildlife West on Aug. 1, 2, 3. Our community is truly behind the park and the 6th annual music festival that the current administration has mysteriously pulled the $20,000 that was promised for this. Hundreds of people assured me that they are behind this event, and they certainly showed this last Saturday by raising over $2000! Thank you very much!!
    ROGER ALINK
    Edgewood
   
    Personal Attack Was Uncalled For
TO MR. JOHNSON I SAY, THAT I AM WELL INFORMED, it is the American public in general that is misinformed and seriously uninformed. (Rik Thompson's letter on July 24.) I get a little upset when people criticize one of my letters. After all I am human, but, I get downright livid when someone attacks me personally. To resort to a personal attack demonstrates a lack of civility and savoir-faire. Either you don't know the definition of the word silly or you don't care. This is Webster's definition: "Weak-minded or lacking good sense; stupid or foolish." Is that what you really meant to say? I am surprised the editor didn't delete the word silly. I think you are taking a lot for granted when you say "people reject your missives out of hand as silly and uninformed." You should have said, "I think your letters are silly and misinformed." For your edification I would like to inform you I have received many letters and phone calls from people who appreciate my letters. I have received an e-mail from an editor of one of the local newspapers saying a letter I wrote was one of the best opinion articles he has ever read.
    Why is it that every time I receive a critique on one of my letters, it is assumed that I get my information from a left-wing blog. Although there might be some good info there, some of it is unreliable. I have never gotten any info from the blogosphere. Although I do a lot of research on the Internet, I do get my info from news journals I subscribe to. I also get my news from news networks that are supported by contributions from people who want the truth. Who would you trust to give you the truth, a corporate news network or a news network supported by public contributions? Living in this area of the country is like living in a cultural wasteland. At the checkout counters you can buy all manner trash to read, but you can't find a Newsweek, Time or U.S. News and World Report. God forbid you find a Nation or Progressive magazine. The majority of the people in this country get their news from corporate TV news networks or talk radio funded by corporations.
    I have to admire the loyalty of some Republicans for their pertinaciousness when it comes to defending their leaders, no matter how corrupt and lawless they have become. I have news for you Mr. Thompson, you are living in a corporate controlled world. Your vote will not change a thing. Case in point; the 2006 election, where people fed up with Bush and his war in Iraq put a Democratic majority in Congress. What changed? Nothing! Bush is still in power, and we're still in Iraq. Both the Democratic and Republican parties are corrupted by corporate money. No matter who wins, it will be business as usual in Washington. Very little will change. Business Week magazine in a recent article stated, "Corporations should get out of politics."
    The WTO and NAFTA are corporate run; they have no allegiance to the U.S. or any other country. It is another form of colonialism run not by national empires but corporate empires. They took American jobs and sent them to India and China. Now the Indians and the Chinese are getting affluent and buying cars, which has sent the price of oil out of sight. So now a lot of Americans are not only out of work, they are paying $4-plus for a gallon for gas. Our current economic problems are the direct result of corporate power, where they made up their own rules and corporate greed ran amok. This whole economic fiasco we're experiencing is the direct result of unregulated corporations. Now the corporate government is bailing them out ... with your tax money Mr. Thompson. How do like the incredible drain on the economy this is causing? If you don't like welfare, how about corporate welfare? GE, INTEL, CISCO, Pfizer, Merck etc. All the big corporations are on corporate welfare and getting tax breaks from the government. The difference between capitalism and corporatism is if a capitalist errs, he goes bankrupt; if a corporation errs, it gets bailed out by the taxpayers.
    One of the biggest blunders made by the Supreme Court was in 1886 when they decreed corporations had the same rights as a person. There was no case brought before the court or was it argued by any lawyers against it. They did it arbitrarily. It's ridiculous; a corporation doesn't vote; a corporation doesn't have children and support a family; and a corporation doesn't fight in Iraq. They let people fight in Iraq. So how in the world can a corporation be a person. This judgment by the Supreme Court needs to be reviewed and argued.
    According to the criteria set by the Nuremberg Tribunal that was establish by the United States and its World War II Allies, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are possibly guilty of war crimes punishable by death. Before Cheney's last trip to Germany, he asked the German government to promise that he would not be arrested while he was in the country. After he retired as secretary of defense, Rumsfeld took a vacation trip to Paris last summer. While he was seeing the sights, the French were busy trying to obtain a warrant for his arrest. Tipped off, Rumsfeld disappeared. You don't hear about these things on the corporate news networks.
    I realize nothing is free. The French are paying for their health care through taxes, but at least they are guaranteed health care. People in this country who are paying for health care may or may not get the treatment they need depending on insurance company policy. The more claims they can deny, the more money they can make. So most of the money is going to make the CEOs and stockholders rich, not for health care. It's a wasteful system. If we had a universal, single-payer health care system, the money would be going directly to the medical profession instead of making these leeches rich.
    "When government is controlled by a private economic power that is fascism" — Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
    P. WALSH
    McIntosh
   

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