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Ban Gun Control

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Hernando Today

Published: March 14, 2009

Ban Gun Control

There is a bill that liberal congressmen would like passed to remove weapons from the average responsible citizen.

In a town in Texas where every man and woman carries a sidearm, there is no crime. If the store owners and late night convenience stores cannot defend themselves, especially since this economic downturn will increase civil disobedience, what then?

Australia tried it, and crime has run rampant.

Even in England, certain police in certain areas are armed. Will President Barack Obama have his Secret Service people remove their weapons? Will some judges not have a weapon handy, as they can be quite vulnerable?

Arthur R. Croci

Spring Hill

Counterproductive Cuts

These state budget cuts are the result of Republican demands, which they are enabled to make by the rule requiring a two-thirds vote to pass a budget and generate new revenues. Cuts to schools will continue until we get rid of that rule, which gives conservatives a veto over state policy.

More than 26,000 teachers have already been given a pink slip. These layoffs will make our economic crisis worse as laid off teachers will have trouble paying their mortgages and spending money at small businesses.

Education cuts are a counterproductive response to economic crisis. We cannot sacrifice a generation of students to close a short-term budget gap. Economic recovery requires a well-educated population.

President Barack Obama earlier this week called on Americans to serve their country by becoming teachers. California is undermining the president's plans by instead telling those who made a career out of teaching that they are no longer wanted and discouraging others from entering the profession.

California is 47th in education spending in the nation, ahead of states like Mississippi. Alabama spends more money per student than California does.

The scale of the budget cuts is so large that some schools are closing libraries, ending reading programs and terminating other services essential to a child's education.

Larger class sizes and fewer teachers will make it more difficult for schools to meet federal No Child Left Behind requirements, causing further cuts and potentially even school closures.

Patti Constantino-Martin

Spring Hill

Kicking And Screaming

When employers in the business community started telling me, "You don't have any children. What do you need a job for? There are families out there that are suffering. They need the jobs more than you do!" I and many like me got the message.

Both President George Bush and Sen. John McCain were saying, "The economy is strong," despite our sufferings. Both the leadership of the Republican Party and the business community believed that we were not very important at best or, worst case, expendable.

We are good enough to pay for schools that we do not have children to send to, and give them free health care, breakfasts and lunches, too. Our income taxes go to pay for child tax credits and earned income credits and are denied claiming these children as dependants of our own. Instead, the parents get to claim them, further reducing, if not completely eliminating, any tax obligations that they might otherwise have had to pay. Some even got more back from their return than they paid in thanks to $1,000 per child tax credits. Why don't parents support their own children?

Then when times get tough, we are expected to just get out of the way and make room for those who really need the few jobs available because we don't really need them anyway. We are always the first fired and the last hired. Then after we are forced to fall on the sword for the common good — known as, "it's for the children" — we are shown gratitude by being called lazy. We are told that we'd rather suck from the public trough, collecting welfare and food stamps, than do an honest day's work.

That is why I voted for Barack Obama as president. My vote does not come cheap, and if I'm expected to cast it and get little or nothing in return, then I will wield it as a weapon.

I refuse to be excluded from the work force and denied participation from building a better future for myself.

I, and many like me, will show the Republican leadership and the business community that we are important, and that they do, in fact, need us to prevent a socialist, communist or the likes of Mr. Obama, take over! We will not allow ourselves to be cast aside and left to drown alone.

We will do everything in our power to drag as many as we can down, kicking and screaming, with us!

Lorne DeWitt

Brooksville

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