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Hernando Today

Vote 'No' For Better Service

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Hernando Today

Published: October 26, 2008

Updated: 10/26/2008 10:02 am

Vote 'No' For Better Service

The Spring Hill Fire Rescue District is at it again: "Board Ignores Salary Freeze." This shows you how they operate. The two raises: one more than $2,500 and the other more than $2,400. Rather nice raise, when there is a salary freeze on.

At the recent SHFR District meeting we were told of the reasons to vote "yes" for independence. Among them was "better service" along with many others.

But the truth of the matter is, if we vote "No", we will have better service.

About a month ago I had to call 911 because of a medical problem with my wife, and after explaining the problem to the operator, I was then transferred to another operator, for whom I had to repeat the same things that I had just explained.

This delayed the response several minutes. With some critical health problems, just minutes of delay can mean the difference between life and death.

This wasn't true in my case, but time was critical, because the technicians said that they should take her to the nearest hospital because time was of the essence.

To vote "No" would make for better service and shorter response time and also save taxpayer money.

Do not let the powerful union and employees scare you into voting "yes."

Vote "No" for independence and for better service with a savings of tax money.

Claude Kinard

Spring Hill

Principles Of Democracy

There are three principles of elections in a democracy I'd like to share before our national election in a couple of weeks. Some of these, I'm sure, you've heard already:

It is your duty to vote. If you are eligible, you have a duty to register and vote. However, less than half of us do. It is embarrassing that our nation, founded on the most democratic principles, allows nonvoting to continue. How can we ever say that the will of the people is being represented with numbers this low?

Some believe this is a sign of silent approval. I believe it's a sign of un-empowerment and apathy. But both are merely guesses. A friend I know from Australia tells me that those eligible who don't vote are given civil fines - something equivalent to a traffic ticket. It's always too bad that "duty" isn't strong enough, and that "law" must be enforced, but perhaps this the best/only way.

Vote your conscience. Many people confuse the theories of capitalism and democracy, perhaps because we have both. But this is probably more because the distinction between them is not made in our educational system.

Capitalism is achieved when everyone looks out for their own personal interests. Through this competitive process, a fair market develops that provides exact pricing and availability for a wider range of goods and services. This "dog-eat-dog" approach is not inherent in democracy.

Democracy, on the other hand, is about personal beliefs. For instance, if someone were to propose a vote on a law that would give all folks whose last name began with the letter "M" an extra $500 tax credit, that would clearly benefit me personally. Naturally, this is unfair. So my conscience says to vote against it even though it's in my personal interest. Of course this is a bad example, because even using the competitive approach of capitalism, the other letters of the alphabet would all vote against this.

However, what if the proposal was - that all those "M" people were required to pay an extra $500. What should be the outcome of this vote? When we vote, we need to follow our conscience.

Elected representatives are servants. By servant, I mean perform a service. Unfortunately, representation nowadays has become somewhat glorified and perhaps too attractive monetarily. This has generated the term "career politician." To me, these two words don't belong together.

There have been initiatives, such as constitutional term limits and other ideas like making such representative positions strictly voluntary, but ultimately it is the voter who has control over this. Continuously re-voting for the incumbent is just the opposite of the kind of thinking that voters should have in mind. If being in office was truly thought of as a service, then its weight should be shouldered among us.

Conversely, individuals "hogging" the representative role is not fair either. If incumbents can't gracefully step aside after performing their duties, we need to remove them - not necessarily because they did a bad job, but merely on principle.

Jim Mastro

Brooksville

Obama Plan Would

Nix Managed Care Plans

Sen. Barack Obama has promised to cut costs of health care and one of his cost saving measures is to stop Medicare payments to HMOs and managed health care plans like Wellcare. Many Floridians belong to these programs because they have better coverage than Medicare, specifically preventative health care to catch problems early.

Many of these plans require no payment per month, but you must have Part A and Part B Social Security.

Remember Medicare covers only medically necessary care and usually pays 8 percent of what they cover and you pay 20 percent.

Obama promised again during the last debate to cut the heavy cost payments to these managed care programs, which he has promised on other occasions before.

Am I the only one who has noticed this point in his health care program? I ask everyone to think before you elect him president, before we lose our medical programs.

With our current economy and our expenses increasing so rapidly, can you afford to take on even greater expenses for your medical care?

I know Obama wants to cover the poor and the illegals, but it should not be at the expense of senior citizens or Floridians in HMOs. I don't want to be forced back into Medicare.

Carol Daus

Brooksville

Low Mentality

With Obama signs prospering in Spring Hill and McCain-Palin signs being vandalized, stolen and disappearing, it is obvious Obama supporters are so ignorant and small-minded that they don't want those of us who support McCain-Palin to exercise our First Amendment rights to voice our opinions. I guess they feel only their opinions should be allowed.

Seeing the vandalized sign on County Line Road made me think I was back in Philly with graffiti.

Evidence of the same low mentality down here as back there.

Dee Clark

Spring Hill

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