Letters
Letters to the editor, Nov. 23
TBO.com
Published: November 22, 2011
Time to clean housePublished: November 22, 2011
It is time for we, the people, to exercise our exit strategy for the corrupt politicians who have taken our country to the brink of disaster.
In case you may have missed it, the directors of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac just recently voted themselves multi-million dollar bonuses. How insulting to we, the people, who are left holding the worthless IOUs from yet another failed big-government entity that has been fleecing the public for decades, filling the pockets and funding the bloated bank accounts of self-serving, elitist politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, and Fannie and Freddie administrators under the guise of compassionate programs to aid the poor. (Where is Occupy Wall Street?)
And, while all the attention is focused on the Fannie and Freddie bonus debacle and the bogus "Super Committee" on Debt Reduction, just this week the bipartisan congressional committee quietly agreed to increase the FHA's mortgage limits from $625,500 to $729,750 through December 2013. Why would they do that when our national debt is spiraling out of control at $15 trillion and counting and we, the people, are still bailing out Fannie and Freddie from their financial collapse?
I thought the FHA was all about providing a path for affordable home ownership for those less fortunate. A $729,000 mortgage? $625,000 wasn't enough? Is this their definition of affordable housing for the less fortunate?
Once again, the Washington elitists on both sides of the aisle are showing total disconnect with the American public with their in-your-face disdain for we, the people.
It is an outrage that this administration is curiously silent and without comment on the multi-million dollar bonuses that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac directors have voted for themselves as a reward for their abject failure. This president, aided and abetted by his cohorts in Congress and the White House and propped up by a fawning press, has spent the better part of his presidency lecturing and excoriating private-sector big finance and Wall Street for their unscrupulous deeds, greed and improprieties as he disingenuously mounts his crusade of class warfare to deflect attention from the abysmal failure of his policies.
When he's not busy attacking the evil "millionaires and billionaires" who pave the way for future entrepreneurs and innovators in pursuit of their American dream in our free-market society, he attacks the American people with his derogatory remarks about how soft and lazy we've become.
Really?
The president's contempt for the middle-class, small business entrepreneurs and honest, honorable, hard-working, self-reliant, responsible Americans couldn't be more obvious.
We, the people, desperately need heroes in Washington who take pride in the goodness of America and will serve their country honorably out of a genuine sense of duty, protect and preserve our Constitution and our individual liberty, and set aside their personal and political ambitions to save our great nation from impending doom.
Where are they?
Our bloated, self-serving government bureaucracy in Washington, D.C., from the top on down, is rife with corruption, crony capitalism, special-interest nepotism, deception and dishonesty. We, the people, must demand accountability. Washington elites haven't learned anything from the election results of 2010 and continue their sleazy business as usual behind closed doors, plotting and scheming to raise more "revenue" (i.e. taxes) to feed their insatiable appetites and churning out countless rules and regulations at record speed to control every aspect of our lives.
Of course, they exempt themselves from the rules that they impose on the rest of us. They betray the public trust, abuse their power and use their influence and inside information for personal and political gain and when they finally leave office, they're multi-millionaires.
Nice work if you can get it.
Enough is enough. It is up to we, the people, to send a more resounding message in 2012 and subsequent election cycles by systematically cleaning house. We must impose our own version of "term limits" because the politicians in Washington will not.
Any incumbent who faces reelection and has "served" two terms must be sent packing and shown the door if we are ever going to change the pervasive corruption in Washington. We must stay engaged in the political process, hold our newly elected representatives accountable, and show them the exit door when they renege on their commitment to we, the people.
Let the process that began in 2010 continue in 2012. Career politicians need not apply.
Katherine Roa
Spring Hill
Trash service
Since moving to High Point a year ago, we have received service from Waste Management. I know what service we have had, but do not know what our service will be at a higher cost starting in January.
It will not be possible to provide any better service than the service we have received with Waste Management.
Jack Richmond
Brooksville
Thinking satirically
It all started innocently enough. I began thinking at social parties now and then — just to loosen up and be a part of the crowd. Inevitably, though, one thought led to another; and I soon found myself becoming a serious social thinker.
I began to think alone — "to relax," I told myself — but I knew it wasn't true; Thinking was becoming more and more important to me, and finally I found myself thinking all the time; I was becoming addicted to thinking. That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I just turned off the TV and said to my wife; honey I've been thinking about this: What's the meaning of life? She spent that night at her mother's.
Soon I began to think on the job, knowing that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't help myself. I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking my fellow employees, "What exactly do you think we are doing here? Where do you think we are going?" One day the boss calls me in and says, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."
Well, this gave me more to think about. So when I came home I said. "Honey," I confess, "I've been thinking..."
"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"
"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."
"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think more than a college professor and a college professor don't make a lot of money, so if you keep on thinking, we'll go broke!"
"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently.
She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with her emotional drama. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door. I headed for the library. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big glass doors. They didn't open. The library was closed.
To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for few lines of Emerson, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked. You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster. This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker.
I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting. I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seems easier, somehow, since I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.
Today I took the final step; I joined a political party, Thank God, I'll never have to think for myself again.
Jim Gries
Weeki Wachee
Not the answer
Speak up Mr. President; it's time to stop the politicking and tell the Wall Street et al protesters that what they are doing is wrong.
They made their point, now go home. Stop interfering with the hard working people who just want to go to work and earn a living for their families. They don't need the hassle of these occupiers blocking their paths and now disrupting the New York subway system
Mr. President, you and Barney Frank and your ilk will not gain any votes by "understanding" their frustration. Most of them have no idea how the government or the economy works and the majority will not even vote.
There are serious crimes going on in these conclaves and an overall disregard for the police responsible for the safety of our citizens — not to mention the matter of sanitation, which doesn't exist in these gatherings.
So be a leader Mr. President. Tell them to go home and make their voices heard at town meetings, political conventions and at the voting booth.
No one likes what is going on in our country today regarding the economy and inability of our leaders to work together, but disrespecting the law and infringing on the rights of everyone else is not the answer.
Ron Dakin
Spring Hill