Joe wrong about Kaptur
I couldn’t believe it when I saw the headline in your May 6 issue, “Veterans
deserve more respect from Kaptur.”
Marcy Kaptur has been one of the greatest advocates for veterans to ever sit in the House of Representatives. From her tireless efforts to bring the World War II Memorial to the National Mall in Washington to the Honor Flights that salute the soldiers of our “greatest generation,” her push for accountability for our POWs, her strong support for the Webb GI Bill, her work to create a Veterans’ Job Corps — her work for and with veterans includes many of her greatest accomplishments as our representative.
But then I saw that the column was written by Joe the Plumber, and it made sense.
In Joe’s world, you don’t need to know the details of anything or deploy basic logic to make arguments. What I got from his piece — a great example teachers could use in classrooms of how to violate all six rules of critical thinking — is that offering veterans employment and education is disrespectful. Marcy’s proposal is to give veterans gainful, satisfying employment, what he derisively calls “landscaping and grounds keeping,” along with credits for education, instead of simply providing unemployment checks.
But Joe would rather wait for the market to grow jobs that fit skills veterans learn in the military — in his case, plumbing — while feeding their families on, what … their old combat boots?
I served in the field artillery, but didn’t see much call for those skills in the wantads when I got back from Vietnam. Instead, I took advantage of the GI Bill, that nasty socialist program out of Washington that I’m sure Joe would gut as soon as he got to Congress.
But fortunately for Northwest Ohio and America, Joe won’t get there, because combat veterans like me and a whole lot of other fans of Marcy know who she is, what she stands for, what she has done and what she will continue to do for us all.
— Tom Barden
1st Lt., U.S. Army (RET)
Ben the Ignoramus?
You guys print some pretty dumbstuff once in a while, but Ben Treece’s May 13 column, “Eliminating the 2013 deficit without raising taxes,” might be the stupidest thing I have ever read in my entire life.
I am dumbstruck by the level of ignorance so apparent in his comments, and I am surprised that you would permit anyone to fill up so many column inches with such drivel.
You can see he dug way down deep into the budget before he applied his red pencil. $10 billion? I’ll give you five! We’ll just fire three or four hundred thousand people. We’ll cut
funding for programs (whether they are mandated by law or not). And we’ll eliminate whole departments and hand them over to the states. It’s as simple as that.
Move over, Joe the Plumber. I’m voting for Ben the Ignoramus.
— Thomas J. Menacher,
Maumee
Vote for Lake Schools
This coming August, Lake Schools will put a 6.75 mill levy on the ballot for the people to vote on.
Note, this “mill” does not stand for “million.” “Mill” is a percentage of your property value.
I am a student at Lake High School. I’m a member of Student Council, SIA (a group designated to volunteering) and Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
In addition, every day from 2:30- 3:30 p.m. (Monday-Friday) I volunteer at Lake Elementary for three different teachers.
My goal through all of this work is to give back to the community and teachers who have supported me and given me a wonderful education. I’m writing this letter to encourage everybody to go out and support Lake Schools. I am just one of many students who would like your support.
I believe that with great support of the community, to add to our already wonderful teachers, administrators, BOE , etc. we can continue to be excellent together. However, we can’t keep up the excellent and beyond state ratings without your help. We need this funding to ensure that teachers can still teach, classrooms can be a goodsize and to ensure that our education remains incredible. I’m proud to be a Lake Flyer.
Also, I will continue to stand up for my school and do everything in my power to help this levy pass. I hope those who are able to vote, will vote for our levy. Remember, each “no” vote is a downgrade of property value and less support for our wonderful school district. Remember the students this August.
— Byron Swartz
Freshman, Lake High School
