Tis the season to take a break from discouraging words

Tis the season to take a break from discouraging words

EDITOR:

The national news this time of year is rather discouraging. This should be a joyful time. It is sad to see misery and disappointment overshadowing our attempts to enjoy the season.

Unemployment is high and will probably go higher. Consumers spend their earnings on trivial items rather than investing in American companies. Banks are not trusted. Newspapers are not read. Credit cards take money from their users to fuel short-sighted consumer habits. Politicians in Washington “dither” about which portion of the population will be required to pay the bill so that they can offer universal medical coverage. We just tripled our military involvement in Afghanistan and we haven’t managed to pull out of Iraq yet. The human cost of these operations is truly sad.

Over the past three decades, the Democrats have spent money they don’t have to fund social programs we don’t need. And, the Republicans have spent money they don’t have to fund unnecessary wars. Then, to cover the shortfall of funds, both parties take money from the ordinary citizens through taxes or inflation. Only the Libertarian party seems to respect the citizens and it is still a very minor party.

Let us hope that for a few days in this holiday season, we find the time to overlook the difficulties of the year and enjoy a short time of happiness based on deeper insights and beliefs.

DONALD BUTLER

Warren

Anti-Obama spirit is afoot

EDITOR:

We are now in the month of December. Our 44th president has been on the job for almost one year. Nothing he says or does is without criticism. It’s like an anti-Obama spirit at work. We see this spirit in media talk show host and tea party activist. We saw it twice in September. Parents criticized the president for giving the children a back to school pep talk. A Republican legislator called the president a liar in the middle of a keynote address on health care. Criticisms of the president are so common that we have grown to expect them.

Whether Obama bowed too low to a Japanese emperor or why he shouldn’t have accepted the Nobel Prize for Peace on Dec. 10 should have been of little significance to most Americans. Obama was elected to help solve problems facing the nation and international communities, not bicker back and forth with anti-Obamanites.

In conclusion, when the historians begin to write, they won’t waste space dealing with how long he took to reveal his Afghanistan troop deployment plan. They won’t waste space writing about his dazzling oratory and writing skills. At the end of his presidency, historians will only want to know how far down the road the bus is that Bush drove into the ditch.

ALFRED SPENCER

Warren

Don’t be fooled again

EDITOR:

Voters should vote out congressmen and senators who vote for bills that the majority of the people are against.

They talk about jobs when they are running for election and how they will repeal NAFTA and GATT, and then they forget about it. Why should they care? They have a job with great pay, health care and retirement.

Don’t be fooled at election time when they tell us how much money they brought back for the area. It’s not a fraction of what we pay to the federal government or what our children will pay for the excess spending they are responsible for.

BOB GRECO

Hubbard