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On Your Mind is the Herald/Review’s telephone opinion line and is intended as a public forum for our readers. Comments represent the opinions of callers and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the newspaper or any specific knowledge that we have. Readers may share their opinions by calling 458-0332, or by e-mail to svhoym@transedge.com or regular mail at 102 Fab Ave., Sierra Vista AZ 85635. Due to the volume of submissions, comments will be limited to 150 words or fewer. Comments are edited.
Aug. 25
The Electoral College was not set up for the modern world. It was set up by the framers of our country for a specific reason and the time and day. That’s no longer the case and needs to be abolished. And according to a comment in OYM recently, the Electoral College is not based on the popular vote. They can vote any way they want. They don’t have to vote the way the state says they should.
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To the Obama voters: How can you vote for a person who just purchased a $1 smillion home in Chicago and has a half-brother in Kenya living in poverty? How can such a person be good for us when he can’t help his own family? Let’s all pray for a McCain win. God bless.
Thank you so much to the Herald for bringing back coupons in the Sunday newspaper. Many of us have missed these very much and are very thankful to have them back. Thank you very much.
This thank you is a bit overdue. On the evening Buffalo Wild Wings was offering 15 percent of our purchase to go toward the Colt Booster Club, we took our son and his friend after a Buena parent football meeting. While the boys were waiting to purchase our order for take out, a gentleman apologized to them because he felt he “cut” in front of them. He offered to pay the tab of $35 due to his alleged rudeness. The boys said they tried to give the gentleman the cash they had since they didn’t believe he “cut,” but he refused. He asked to use the flier so that 15 percent of his bill would go toward the CBC, too. One of the boys stated he didn’t think nice people still existed, so thanks for placing belief back in our boys and thanks to BWW for supporting the CBC.
My second thank you goes to all the volunteers who supported and made Vegas Night at the Windemere a success and great fun for friends and family of the Buena Booster Club! It was a win-win situation (the public had fun and the booster club made money). The auctioneer was energetic, the music was great, the food was good and I was happy to see teachers and coaches there in support of the event as well. Can’t wait to do it again next year.
I see once again the Border Patrol has put up the worthless checkpoint on Highway 90 north of Whetstone. Once again they pull agents from along the border.
Tonight at the convention site Mrs. Obama delivered a superb speech. I think she should be the Democrat candidate.
It’s been a while since I’ve been in the City Manager’s Conference Room, but did any of you people know that there is no flag of the United States of America in there? At least, that is, from what I remember. And I have made a point of mentioning this to people who I was in contact with in there, and such sentiment and such people seem to be the sort of “stepping-stone,” use-us-for-their-resume people who exist around here, like naming streets after people who don’t live here or naming facilities after people who don’t live here. Do any of you remember that they conduct official “city” proceedings in there, and there is not an American flag in there? You really love your money as long as you don’t have to attend funerals of the roadkill, don’t you, all of you Cheshire cats.
Aug. 26
I see that the superintendent of the Sierra Vista public schools is taking lessons from the county supervisors. He has the nerve to say in his letter in today’s newspaper that the secondary rate will decrease from 70 percent per $100 to 66 percent per $100. What he neglects to say is the property values increase will more than offset that. He can forget an override. I voted for it the last time. After the debacle of last year when they couldn’t balance their books and our tax rates went up so bad I will not support an override.
So now the county supervisors want to create a cat tax. Oh, goody. Just because some people cannot control their animals we are all going to have to pay, even those of us who have cats that never leave the house. What’s next, hamster tax? Ferret tax? Or wait, maybe even a bird tax since birds can carry the bird flu. It’s time to stop the ignorance. Do not vote for any of the current county supervisors.
Americans are extremely tired of the last eight years of failed policies and division, and we’re all ready for some bipartisanship in Washington. The Great Uniter turned out to be the great divider (or is that the great liar). What we need now is some serious positive change; that will require Republicans and Democrats working together for the common good. John McCain has no strategy for change or uniting our country. His campaign is focused on fear, smear and lies. He is G.W. Bush redux. He has worn out the old POW hero bit. I used to admire him; not any more. He has chosen the low road. And he is way too old, way too rich, and way too lame. Believe it or not, most Americans are either liberal, progressive or moderate and that leaves McCain no place to go but down.
If any of our county supervisors vote to treat cats as dogs in a new Animal Control Ordinance they will undoubtedly be committing political suicide for their next terms. Putting cats and dogs as one category of creature is inconceivable for anyone who has ever owned both pets. Their differences are night and day. If thousands of residents who let their cats in and out are forced to keep pets they have had for years of being able to do their natural roaming end up incarcerated into the house for life, there will be unfortunate repercussions for cats and neighbors alike. To say this is fair and to keep rabies under control is ludicrous. It is a combination of additional funds for the county and some pet peeve annoyances of small numbers that is most likely driving the issue. Is it a wonder that no other county in the entire state has any cat control laws?
John McCain’s age is no joke. He will turn 72 on Friday and would be halfway to 73 if elected and sworn in on Jan. 20. That would make him the oldest first-term president ever, two years older than Ronald Reagan. He has survived four skin cancers (melanomas), including one in 2000 that was classified as Stage IIa. McCain is two years older than his father was when he died suddenly of a heart attack at 70. He is 11 years older than his grandfather was when he died suddenly of a heart attack at age 61. The U.S. cannot afford the risk that McCain would die suddenly in the middle of an international crisis. Nor can we afford the risk of dementia. Twenty-two percent of Americans over 70 are affected by mild cognitive impairment, while 13 percent over 65 have Alzheimer’s. Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at age 83, but early signs were evident during his first term.
I want to say to the public that if they think that John McCain and his corporate friends and his rich circle of friends are going to help out the middle class, small business people, people on Social Security and Medicare, the homeless, and people who have lost their homes, they have got to be insane. History has proven since primitive man to the present that the rich or the “haves” have always suppressed the “have-nots” Myanmar is a prime example, all of Africa, all of South America, Mexico, Russia, China, the Philippines, you name it, all the other countries including the U.S. The rich have always oppressed the poor and the middle class and the have-nots. John McCain is not going to be much better that what George Bush was and history is going to repeat itself. We need a change.
Aug. 27
We need to stop saying the health care crisis is too complicated and too hard for us to solve, that being energy independent is too complicated and too hard for us to solve, that rebuilding our infrastructure is too complicated and too hard for us to solve; we went to the moon for heaven’s sake, we can solve these challenges. But we can’t do these things by cutting taxes on the rich or by saying that gridlock in Washington is a foregone conclusion. We can do them by voting for change in Washington and then holding their feet to the fire until we get the kind of government we deserve.
Three days into the DNC convention in Denver, I have not read or seen much to convince me that Barack and Michelle Obama are anything less than nascent left-wing racist revolutionaries, i.e., pro-government control freaks, pro-green/anti-fossil fuel proponents, pro-class warfare, pro universal health care and welfare handout advocates, pro-open borders, pro-entitlement oriented, pro-union, while on the other side of the spectrum they are anti-capital formation, anti-Wall Street, anti-management and if not anti-military they are at best lukewarm toward our military.
When Gabrielle Giffords says she supports our troops but wants them pulled out of Iraq that is supporting our troops. That’s keeping our people alive because we do not belong in Iraq. To have them pulled out is supporting our troops. We do not belong there. It is not our war.
At the DNC Convention, Michelle Obama did her best to portray herself as no longer carrying a “chip on her shoulder” against America. In her speech, she conveniently omitted her previous characterization of the United States of America as a “mean-spirited” country (a quote printed last March in New Yorker magazine). Mrs. Obama has conveniently forgotten that it would have been impossible for her to have achieved on her own what she has managed to accomplish thus far save for the generosity of this country’s democratic and largely generous institutions (private and public) in tandem with the Civil Rights Act and Affirmative Action. Every African-American is so immeasurably better off in terms of life, liberty and the pursuit of opportunity than their African-domiciled forbearers.
On the first night of the DNC convention in Denver, when Michelle Obama mentioned Barack’s decision to eschew a career in New York in favor of becoming an “organizer” on the south side of Chicago, her mention of the words “Wall Street” were coated with contempt. I gather she doesn’t like or understand Wall Street. Yet where would this country be without investors? Wall Street remains the link between creative people with ideas and management skills and investors with the money. Amongst Wall Street’s investors are many rank and file Democrats who have their life savings invested in 401k’s. Millions of Democrats along with Republicans have a stake in the continuation of Wall Street’s health. Businesses and their employees pay the taxes necessary to support government. Private sector jobs are created only when investors copulate with people who possess ideas and management talents.
Neil Barrett’s bashing of Bob Bland’s Point-Counterpoint stunned me. What blind venom bled through Barrett’s remarks. Bland’s reflection of what Obama must and will do to get this country back on track was clear and inspirational. We should all be thankful to have Obama in line for the presidency. His world view is intelligent and will put the U.S. back into the leadership role it should have, not the bully role it has had.
Joe wrote on Sep 15, 2008 2:11 PM: