Published: January 19, 2008 05:51 pm            

Your Views

In Response to last Sunday's article by Helen Gilmore:



I would like to thank the teachers of all Lauderdale County schools for having the desire and patience that it must take to work with our children daily! I would like to specifically thank the teachers at Clarkdale who have been wonderful to my children over the years.

It saddens me to think that our teachers go out of their way to provide extra educational opportunities for our children such as High School Musical, Peter Pan and other trips and yet some parents insist on finding something to complain about. It would be much easier for these same teachers to remain at school and assign work but they choose to plan and organize trips for our children as rewards and are criticized for it.

For those of you who have only heard part of the story, let's get the facts straight ... kids were not allowed to walk around alone on a field trip, but rather were required to form groups before getting off the bus. teachers walked with these groups, including the group my child was in. Groups were allowed to walk ahead of the main group and if your child felt the need to go on ahead then that would be their decision now wouldn't it? But somehow we tend to blame others and never our kids. Not to mention that during the time they spent at the zoo they were the only people there, no other schools or even families, no one. And what 13-year-old wants to walk around during a field trip in a single file line? That was a reward field trip and was supposed to be fun, which it was for my child.

I sincerely hope that my child's future field trips aren't affected by parents who seem to always find a problem. We love our school, its teachers and administration. If you aren't happy, which is obvious by the way you have complained to coworkers and other parents since your children came to Clarkdale, please return to Enterprise or wherever you were before that! Don't ruin trips for the rest of our children!

Proud parent of Lauderdale County School children!



Leigh Ann Shirley

Meridian



No good reason to vote for Hillary



I read with dismay the editorial of Rheta Grimsley Johnson in the January 18 Edition of the Meridian Star.

Are we now to vote for someone because the media has attacked them, whether rightly or not? I think you will find that the great majority of voters do not even consider, " how strong" Hillary was/is during her personal conflicts. I found R. Johnson to lack any substantive reason to vote for Hillary. I found no defense of Hillary's stated policies, nor of the programs she proposes. Hillary, it appears, has not even read the Constitution, sadly that can be said of most of the politicians currently running for President.

The current top two in the Democratic race both feel deeply about what they profess is necessary for this country, however, they could not be more wrong. It scares me that we have allowed our political process to devolve into the circus it currently is. Should we vote for someone who refuses to answer questions? Should we vote for someone who is a great orator, but has no substance to his oration?

Hillary cries and says that she loves this country and doesn't want to see it fall back, do I care that she shed a tear? No, my question is fall back to what? Sounds to me like she is trying to continue the march towards socialism. National Health care, just a synonym for socialized medicine. How would Ms. Clinton pay for this "wonderful" program of hers? Taxes! I can't speak for anyone else, but my taxes are high enough. Socialized Medicine will drag the income tax rate to at least the 50 percent range or above. England has socialized medicine and a recent report in a major London paper states that folks on the "National Health" are waiting two years and more just to see a Dentist! Hillary only has opinions of the moment, she finds it very difficult to take a stand on an issue. As an example, when asked about giving Driver's licenses to Illegals the first statement was an affirmative, later when asked the same question, she replied in the negative. Come on now, do you really want a President who cannot define the word Illegal? Why can't we talk about beliefs and issues? It is a sad commentary that R. Johnson's criteria for who to vote for as President, is that Hillary is a woman. Such a sad statement from an articulate woman, I thought we had come so much farther than third grade.



Bill Chmelik

Hickory



Dodging some bullets on energy legislation



Members of Congress went home for the holidays only to have political pundits accuse them of having accomplished little or nothing of consequence. But a “do-nothing” Congress sometimes is, as Martha Stewart would say, a good thing, especially when the alternative is enacting legislation that hurts the economy.

More often than not, Congress produces laws that are mixed bags of both good news and bad. That certainly was true of the energy bill passed just before adjourning last December.

Owing to some ill-advised provisions in the bill as initially written, millions of jobs – many of them in the Southeast – were in jeopardy. A study published last November by the highly regarded consultancy CRA International warned that, if passed without amendment, this legislation would boost energy prices and impose substantial costs on the economy. They predicted it would reduce consumer spending, discourage business investment and shrink our GDP.

Thanks to the efforts of Senator Cochran and former Senator Lott, who both voted against cloture and kept debate alive on the Senate floor, billions of dollars in new taxes on domestic energy companies and unrealistic renewable energy requirements for investor-owned utilities were cut from the final version that ultimately was signed into law by President Bush.

Senators Lott and Cochran understand that raising taxes on U.S. producers of oil and natural gas hurts our ability to meet consumer demand with fuel produced here in America, by American workers. Their efforts should be applauded by every consumer and small business owner in America. We can only hope that the fight against illogical, self-defeating federal energy strategies won’t end here.

Congress should be working to develop a sound, practical energy policy that will maximize the amount of energy produced domestically. Such a policy would encourage responsible, environmentally friendly drilling both offshore and on federal lands. While it is unrealistic to think that we will become “energy independent,” these measures will go a long way towards ensuring that we have a reliable and reasonably priced supply of energy.

A sensible energy policy requires Congress to write legislation that expands energy production, avoids job losses and focuses on economic growth. All of these will lead our country to a greater level of energy security. As citizens, we must encourage our government to do just that. Voting down new taxes on energy is the first step towards a rational, comprehensive energy policy. Let’s hope that Mississippi’s Senators continue to vote right on the energy issue.



William F. Shughart II

Professor of Economics at the

University of Mississippi

        

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