Published: August 26, 2008 10:08 am      

Letters to the editor for August 26

Transferring nation’s debt to those who can’t yet vote

I wonder if America’s high school students realize the size of the national debt that President Bush is leaving them to pay off?

I also wonder if some history teacher will read our kids President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation from the night of Jan. 17, 1961. Eisenhower, a Republican, vigorously opposed the growth of big government and run-away federal spending. In his farewell address, Eisenhower warned Americans to be on guard against the growing influence of America’s Industrial-Military complex. He warned that only a knowledgeable citizenry could mesh the huge industrial and military machinery so that liberty and security could prosper together.

The Bush Administration seems to have forgotten Eisenhower’s warning, and during the past seven years, they allowed the creation of our nation’s largest and most secretive government in American history. In the process, they ran up our nation’s largest national debt — ever!

And what will our kids have to show for the trillions of dollars in national debt they will inherit from us? Well, let’s see. So far they can count on inheriting a stagnant economy accompanied by rising inflation rates. They will find shuttered manufacturing plants and office buildings when they graduate from school. And, they will discover needed jobs disappearing in America only to re-appear overseas. They will inherit a credit card society with few people able to live debt-free.

Our kids will live in aging cities without adequate budgets to maintain required city services. They will find many employers no longer offering health care benefits and that the federal government has yet to address national health care solutions. They will still have to solve our nation’s long-range energy crisis; and, of course they will inherit debt from unfinished wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I suspect that the rest of Eisenhower’s warning has also been forgotten by Republicans; I mean the part that says, “We must avoid the impulse to live only for today plundering the precious resources of tomorrow. We can’t mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage.”

I know high school kids can’t vote this November, and that’s exactly why Republicans have transferred our nation’s debt to them — they can’t vote.

Terry Thompson

Jacksonville



Promising to continue looking for whoever took pet

The population of stray animals in Cherokee County, and not to mention the crowded animal shelters, is unreal. Yet, people still find sick pleasure in dognapping beloved pets. Basically, they are taking a member of the family rather than an animal.

I am a 72-year-old father and grandpa whose 10-year-old granddaughter is entrusted to take car of her Chihuahua. The community of Corine knows our family well and that this dog belongs to us. Therefore, I am convinced that whoever took her obviously does not know this family.

So, this is for the person who committed this cowardly crime. You stole my pet, my family and my best friend. If you are in doubt that you might not have my dog, let me enlighten you. She is a black and white female Chihuahua who answers to the name Pedro. She was taken on CR 3305 on Aug. 22.

If you took her I suggest you return her ASAP because we are here on borrowed time and I am already 72 years old; therefore, I plan to make it my life’s ambition to find my dog and her dognapper. If you are scared to bring her to my door, just simply put her out where you picked her up and I am sure she will come home.

F.E. Hassell

Corine