Is U.S. headed to socialism? (02/10/2009)

To the editor:

As I see it:

The Declaration of Independence states that we are created equal and endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. Among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

We are guaranteed these rights as individuals. The government does not guarantee them.

Looking back over my 60-some years, you can see how very slowly we are losing those rights. Now for about 30 years these rights are being lost more rapidly.

Starting back when Jimmy Carter was president, the government passed the Community Reinvestment Act. The government believed the pursuit of happiness means that everyone is entitled to a home.

The banks were directed to give mortgages to people who did not qualify for them. If you had bad credit or no credit, you could get a home just like the people with good credit.

When Ronald Reagan was president, he said the government was not the solution to our problems, but that the government is the problem.

When the immigration bill in 2007 was defeated, it was because of the response of the people calling in. Congress was ticked-off with us, because in their eyes they knew more than we did. They called us crazies, uninformed and stupid.

Last year when Barack Obama was running for president, he talked about passing the wealth down to the workers earning lower salaries.

There was to be free health care (nationalized), free this, free that and so on. It was said that a woman was going to vote for him so she could get her mortgage paid. A man said with his vote that he could get free health care for his family. He wouldn't have to worry about it.

Now we have a new problem. The housing market tanked. Foreclosures all around. Businesses are laying off people or are closing their doors and going out of business. Investment banks are in trouble, or they're buying out other banks.

Last year there was a stimulus package of $700 billion passed to help out the banks. Half was spent with no guidelines and the other half left to be given out.

This year an $800 billion-plus stimulus package is in Congress. It is loaded with pork. If you took the pork out, the package would be around $300 to $400 billion.

On Friday, Jan. 30, it passed the House with 10 Democrats and all the Republicans voting against the bill. On Feb. 2, the Senate got the bill. I don't know when they will vote on it.

I contacted our Senators and U.S. Representative in Washington D.C. about this bill. I do know that it will be passed. With how much pork, I don't know.

The socialist name has been used a lot by the way things are conducted in Washington.

I do know that there are a handful of politicians in Washington who care about what goes on, like the majority of the population.

We are considered the greatest country by the majority in the good old U.S. of A.

If we are not careful, it might be considered the U.S.S. of A.

Gary Miller

Portland

Scout thanks

To the editor:

Cub Scout Pack 3202 recently held its annual Pinewood Derby at the 4-H Building at the Jay County Fairgrounds. This is the biggest and best event for all of our Cub Scouts and their parents.

A special thank you to Fisher Packing for their generous donation of all the meat we needed for the concession stand. Also, a big thank you to CVS, Pak-A-Sak and the Hoosier Inn for donations to our concession stand. Thanks to the Jay County Fair Board for use of the 4-H building. In return our scouts will be cleaning at the fairgrounds this spring and fall. That is a wonderful thing for them to do so they can learn about responsibility and volunteer work.

To all of our wonderful parents and leaders, because of all your donations we made a wonderful profit for the scouts.

We are thankful to all of you for the help we received getting everything ready and cleaned up. Without such wonderful parents and leaders our program would not be thriving as well as it is.

April Ludy, for

Committee of Cub

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