News From Terre Haute, Indiana

Opinion

September 1, 2012

READERS' FORUM: Sept. 1, 2012

Now is the time to clean our mess

My fellow Americans, our country is in a mess. Many of you are well aware of this fact, but this message is for those of you who aren’t. Maybe you’ve been too busy making a living, feeding your family. Maybe you just felt like the folks you sent to Washington would look after your best interest, do what’s best for the country. Or maybe you just don’t want to be bothered, maybe fed up with politics.

Well, guess what? Many of the people in Washington are doing a lousy job. Let’s imagine that you wake up one morning and discover you have a $100,000 credit-card debt. You realize that you can’t make the interest payment, much less pay on the principle. You then discover that your credit rating is in jeopardy and little by little you notice that your neighbors don’t seem to show the same respect they once did. A nightmare huh?

That nightmare is happening to your country — right now. This is the mess our leaders have allowed to happen. We have a Senate which hasn’t passed a budget for four years. We have a president who is ignoring the crisis we face and instead is attempting to divide us for personal gain — another four years. Four more years of this and we lose our country as we know it.

Oh boy, here we go, you say, another Republican bashing the Democrats. No, my friend, I’m a conservative who will vote for anyone who is willing to go to Washington and stop this madness of spending and regulating us into oblivion. (I’d like to have our laws enforced, too).

You see, we can’t afford Democrats and Republicans anymore — they’re ruining our nation. The measure of success in Washington today is “What’s good for the party?” “What keeps us in power?” “What makes the other side look bad?” “To hell with what’s good for the country, for our citizens, we don’t have time for that!”

Yes, we can keep biting each other over party affiliation all we want. And while we fiddle, America burns. My friend, if you think I’m exaggerating about this crisis, take the time to educate yourself — not by what I say but what the truth is. Believe me, it isn’t pretty. In politics, the truth has no friends.

When I was in school, they had things called typewriters. When you practiced typing, you used the following sentence — now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. When the business of running this nation falters, it is the responsibility of “We the People” to re-set the course, that is, if we truly believe that ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Now is the time for all good men and women to come the to aid of their country. Use the strongest tool you own — your vote. November is coming, please vote. America needs you.

— Mike Collins

West Terre Haute

Productive give too much to wealthy

The Aug. 27, 2012 front page had an Associated Press story from Washington, “Poll: Raise tax to save Social Security” with the subtitle, “Increasing retirement age also gains support.”

This is an interesting use of the same trick used in the 1980s. Ignore productivity gains and transfer wealth to the trillionaires.

Counterfeiting and monopolies protected by government agencies execute this dirty work. A rough estimate on the amount stolen can be accomplished by looking at the financial markets. Although banks and insurance companies should be a relic of the past for a wealthy country, the financial markets now make up 40 percent of U.S. business. This is a good estimate of the wealth currently taken from the productive.

Sure, some financial markets are necessary or perhaps wanted, but this small amount is much surpassed by today’s monopolies. Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Banks, and the Sick Care Industry are protected by the FDA and others.

Polls should ask how much work should the productive give to the very wealthy. My current estimate is two days per week. At 60 percent, financial business your children will give three days per week, and at 80 percent it will become four.

Let the real discussion begin.

— Ed Gluck

Terre Haute

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