Letters to the Editor

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I thought we could all use a break from the escalating campaign hubbub, so following is a group of scenarios about changes in discipline in our public schools. (I found this while cleaning out my office, along with about a million other papers). These scenarios couldn’t be more true, and should cause us to reflect on just how much government control we really want in our schools. I hope you enjoy them!

Americans seem to hold a special disdain for those who have been given much through inheritance but have managed to lose it through foolishness and neglect.

Yet, as a generation, we have done exactly that.

Consider that we—the baby boomers—have allowed our inheritance, the nation’s economic infrastructure, to crumble beneath our feet from selfishness and neglect. Somewhere along the path of being the “me” generation we forgot about “us.”

Great nations build and invest for succeeding generations…like our parents and grandparents did. We have not.

Why should we care?

Every morning as I get ready for work I listen to the local news. Lately the political ads are run at every commercial break – and they’ll only increase between now and Election Day. But despite the huge amounts of money spent on campaigns Americans are not turning out at the polls.

Many will say that people are apathetic about politics and government. But a study by The Harwood Group found that Americans are not apathetic – they’re “mad as the devil” because they feel that the political system has pushed them out of their place in governing the nation. They blame powerful lobbyists, the media and “professional” politicians for creating a system where money – not the voters – votes.

Intellectual honesty. It basically means seeing and admitting that there's more to story than you like. It means that other people might have a different way of looking at things, but that's ok. If you meet someone who's pretty messed up, it might have something to do with their parents. If you don't like someone, you can still notice when they do something that's good. Intellectual honesty is something that's absolutely necessary for a journalist.

I really don't think I've ever been so ashamed to call myself a member of the media. I've been pretty unhappy with the big media companies in general for a while now, but nothing like I've been feeling the past few days. I try to listen to both conservative and liberal radio stations to give me a more rounded point of view. But sometimes it ends up with my son going ”Dad's yelling at the radio again.”

I don't see journalism, I see propaganda that makes me think of Soviet era Russia. The only difference is that these 'journalists' aren't reporting the way that they do under fear of imprisonment. They actually want to print this drivel! I've always prided myself on the fairness of what I write. I think a lot of it has to do with my uncle, who always played devils advocate to me. It really didn't matter about the subject, he always tried to show another point of view to me. And that's the way I write. I report the news. If I have an opinion, I tell you it's an opinion. I try to use logic, but right now I'm feeling pretty emotional. If any of you big name 'journalists' are reading this- you are hacks. You are worthless excuses for writers that are taking this fine tradition in the toilet. And we all know what goes in the toilet. Like your writing.

I didn't get a degree in journalism. I spent a lot of time around journalists though. I worked hand in hand with them as a video producer. I've done many many stories. During these past few years, though, I've come to understand what the people want to hear. The facts, presented in an entertaining way. If you go to my politics page, I can guarantee you that you won't know my party affiliation by reading one of my stories on a certain candidate. I have written stories about subjects that I didn't agree with at all, but you'd never know it. Am I lying? Am I not being true to my journalistic integrity? No, not at all. I still tell the story exactly as it happened. I say who did what and when it happened. Sometimes why and how. But there's no commentary on if they should have done it. If is an opinion, not the news. To be sure, if is very important, and everyone’s entitled to their own opinion- it's one of the things that makes this country great. But you shouldn't do an if under the guise of a what. Or, you shouldn't do an opinion and say that it isn't. You shouldn't use the false front of news and use it to mislead because you don't agree with the message. People place journalists in a position of trust, and losers like you are giving the rest of us a bad name.

If you want to see how a newspaper should be run, look at some of the small town newspapers in the more rural parts of the country. I'm surrounded by them here, and friends with some of the journalists. Their stories tell the news. That's all. Because that's what Journalists are supposed to do.

Several years ago our family went to an amusement park and saw a cute little skit involving cowboys and karate and people flying out of windows. In the middle was a part that stuck with me.

Cowboy- "I just had an apostrophe!"

Railroad worker- "You mean an epiphany. An apostrophe gives possession to a noun."

People use apostrophes the wrong way all the time- we have a thing in front of our house that says "the Allen's" as a plural. It should be "the Allens" or "the Allen's Home". Someone actually paid for that before it was given to my wife as a present. I see it everywhere. The only other way its correct is as a contraction. Is not is isn't; can not is can't. So watch those epiphanies... uh, apostrophes!

Next week we'll discuss the pythagorean theorem. (I'm joking...) If you caught my misuse- good for you!

About two years ago, in Clinton, you referred to Speaker Pelosi as a thoughtful person. Well, right now I'd have to disagree with you. This stunt she's pulling with our energy prices is totally uncalled for. I've seen where she's said that she's worried about being saddled with the blame by the Republicans for the energy prices. So, in other words, she's playing politics.

People are suffering here. St. Clair is a Rural poor county and we use gas to get basic needs. These statements about ten years, 62 million acres and 3-4 cent drops show me she's either lying or stupid. She knows that there's no oil under the 62 million acres, and that's why they aren't drilling in those plots. When President Bush just said, 'Hey, let's drill off the coasts' Gas went down 50 cents due to the speculators. Imagine if we actually did it! She has mentioned the speculators before. They'd see a money losing operation. And we all know that the red tape is what's holding the ten year thing- Plus, I've been to the coasts. You can't see the rigs. Bill clinton said it would take ten years to get the oil from ANWR. It's been more that ten years now. If would have done it then, it would sure help now. Speaking of ANWR, I've seen the areas that would be drilled. It's not the same as the pictures shown to me. It's a barren, desolate, wasteland. Anyway, if it does take ten years, so be it! That means it won't be worse then.

Seeing that she isn't exactly truthful makes me feel a tad annoyed. Well, actually I'm fuming. Tell her not to do this to us. Don't yank our chains. She needs to get her thoughtful behind back to congress and fix this.

Respectfully,

Chris Allen

Note: Letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Golden Valley TV or Truman Lake News. Any opinions expressed are of the writer. Now we encourage letters to the editor to be put onto the forum. This will get them online sooner.

Fortunately the voters of St. Clair County have an opportunity to elect a new sheriff. It is long past time for women to know they won't be considered "a mental case" for reporting crimes of violence and for interference with summons and other due process by the sheriff's office to come to a screeching halt. When the new sheriffcleans house hopefully the deputy, who assaulted a domestic violence victim, hit the woman's head, and caused an epileptic seizure, will no longer disgrace a badge.

GAS!!!!

I just put a sticker on my Van. It’s says “God watches over me and my Chevrolet”. The funny thing is, I had to wait to put it on there because it broke down on me about 100 miles from home. The whole reason that I was 100 miles from home is because my youngest daughter might need surgery. My other vehicle was also broken down. My motorcycle needs a new ignition switch too. I was really tempted to not even put it on for a little while. It sure didn’t seem like God was watching over me.

But- hold on. Sometimes it seems like we seem to just concentrate on the negatives of life. I just put down a lot of negatives. It felt thoroughly justified to sit and go “Poor me!”. But the Van broke down in front of a church. It was only about four blocks from where we needed to be. We went to church and made the appointment in plenty of time. We even had a nice lunch. But here’s the real kicker that got me thinking. As I sat there waiting for my wife’s uncle to show up and help us figure out how we were going to get out of this mess, I looked around. I saw children in wheelchairs. I saw a girl with one leg. In the end it looks like the surgery probably isn’t even going to be necessary, and even if it is, it’s a very minor procedure. A lot of the people came there in mass transit. We own multiple cars! Yeah, they’re in disrepair, but one just got fixed, and the other should be fixed soon.

Well, it’s been a year since I moved here, and I’ve noticed the strangest thing. People keep asking me why I moved here. Honestly, it’s a little hard for me to comprehend why people don’t understand. I’d been visiting this area for about 4 years before I actually moved here. I noticed two things immediately- 1. It’s beautiful here. 2. It’s cheap to live here. I wanted to move here immediately, but we did have a life in Wichita. This is exactly what people are looking for when they think ‘small town’ - and before I go any further, the phrase ‘small town’ a good thing. A VERY good thing.

Whenever we go back to Wichita to see relatives or whatever, I’m immediately struck by the news of homicide. Someone’s always getting murdered in Wichita, and I’ll bet KC’s no better. Then there’s the traffic and the urban sprawl. I spent a lot of time as I grew up around a small town in Kansas called Andale; It’s now steadily becoming a suburb of Wichita. The small town attitude is disappearing, but as far as I can tell, not from here. People wave at you over here- and it’s a friendly gesture! They use all of their fingers. (haha). I know that a lot of people understand what I’m saying, but I also see signs that some don’t. I’m these wondrous hills I find trash sometimes. I just don’t understand how anyone could do that to this place. It’s a treasure and I’m glad to be here.

I’m going to break with tradition a little bit and put an opinion piece in this week- a national piece. Right now our country is very polarized, and it seems that our elected officials say things that are specifically designed to hurt other elected officials. The things done half the time seem to have no other purpose- and it would seem that some people on both sides are getting sick of it. One of the things that amaze me is when you get a vital piece of information, and NOBODY says anything about it. For instance: I hear every morning about how low the president’s approval rating is, but I never hear about how the congresses is even lower. There have been calls for Bush’s resignation, but not congress’s. Why is that? In all fairness, shouldn’t the speaker of the house resign as well, using that logic? Or why not the whole house? We can start over!

It seems like nothing is getting done- again. That’s one of the factors that got the Republicans booted, so why wouldn’t it happen to the new congress? The Republicans didn’t do what they said they’d do- (cut spending, etc.) so their based dumped them. The current administration said they would bring civility back, and it seems that the hostility has only gotten worse. If they’re not careful, the same thing could happen to them. I also can’t help wondering if part of the reason for their low approval rating isn’t because of their handling of the war funds. I’m sure that part of the reason on that level is people, whether they approve of the actual war itself, don’t like the fact that congress is playing politics with the lives of our soldiers.

Another example is with the recent Tornado in Kansas. The Governor, Kathleen Sebelius said on the news that the national guard was not going to be able to take care of the inhabitants of Greensburg due to the war in Iraq. What wasn’t mentioned was that Senator Sam Brownback (also from Kansas) tried to find some replacements at Fort Riley and McConnell Air Force base, only to be told by the emergency management team that this was unnecessary, they had more than enough equipment. I’ve checked since then, and this little fact has been overlooked. The point is that it seems that most of the other news sources seem be part of the cause of the polarization, rather than a cure. If you have anything to say about this, or any other issue, click here and email us.

Freedom?