Security suggestion and Kennedy on tax cuts

Barry Hazen, a former neighbor and Missouri state archery champion sent this informative email to a Central Tiger blog.

What to take to bed with you --

Not a joke

"Pretty neat idea. Never thought of it before. Put your car keys beside your bed at night. Tell your spouse, your children, your neighbors, your parents, your Dr's. office, the check-out girl at the market, everyone you run across. Put your car keys beside your bed at night.

If you hear a noise outside your home or someone trying to get in your house, just press the panic button for your car. The alarm will be set off, and the horn will continue to sound until either you turn it off or the car battery dies.

This tip came from a neighborhood watch coordinator. Next time you come home for the night and you start to put your keys away, think of this: It's a security alarm system that you probably already have and requires no installation. Test it. It will go off from most everywhere inside your house and will keep honking until your battery runs down or until you reset it with the button on the key fob chain. It works if you park in your driveway or garage.

If your car alarm goes off when someone is trying to break into your house, odds are the burglar/rapist won't stick around. After a few seconds, all the neighbors will be looking out their windows to see who is out there and sure enough the criminal won't want that. And remember to carry your keys while walking to your car in a parking lot. The alarm can work the same way there. This is something that should really be shared with everyone.

Maybe it could save a life or prevent a sexual abuse crime.

This would also be useful for any emergency, such as a heart attack, where you can't reach a phone. Suggest that your parents carry their keys with them even when working in the yard in case of an accident. The car alarm can be activated and alert others to a problem."

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My how things change. To paraphrase George Santayana: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to (make a mistake) repeat it.

The following is an Associated Press article from March 23, 1963, in which President Kennedy advocated a tax cut of $10.3 billion to help the economy. It was published in the Southeast Missourian.

'Kennedy Reports Growth Answer to Job Creation'

"President Kennedy said today that even without a recession the unemployment rate will climb 'steadily and swiftly' to 7 percent 'unless we step up our rate of growth.'

Kennedy spoke of this disturbing prospect in a speech for a civic luncheon to follow his dedication of O'Hare International Airport -- the world's busiest airfield.

Kennedy said his administration's 'No. 1 domestic concern' is jobs 'for the tidal wave of men and women now flooding our labor market.' He said it stems from a combination of the revolution in agriculture, the flood of postwar babies reaching job-seeking age, and labor-saving automation.

'Unless we step up our rate of growth -- unless we create a supply of jobs that is more equal to the demand -- our rate of unemployment will steadily and swiftly climb to the recession levels of 7 percent even without a recession,' he said.

A jobless rate of 7 percent would compare with the February level of 6.1 percent, the highest in more than a year.

In another talk, for dedication ceremonies at the sprawling airport which last year handled 13.5 million travelers Kennedy said the United States 'intends to be a leader in the supersonic age' and develop airliners that will travel three times the speed of sound, or about 2,200 miles an hour.

Once that is accomplished, he said, it will be a smaller world.

'Let us also see to it that it is a better world,' he said. 'A more just and peaceful world for our children and for their children after them.'

In his luncheon address Kennedy spotlighted just one of the obstacles, unemployment, to be overcome in creating a more promising world.

The President noted, for example, that unemployed Americans last year lost one billion work days -- equivalent to shutting down the entire country with 'no production, no services, and no pay for over three weeks.'

While saying, 'This nation can do better than that,' he emphasized the ominous possibility of doing much worse unless effective counter measures are adopted.

'Above all,' he said, 'We need to release the brake of wartime tax rates which are now holding down growth at the very time we need more growth to create more jobs.'

He said a $10.3 billion tax cut would 'be multiplied many times in new markets, new equipment, new jobs, new payrolls, and then still more consumption and investment.'

At the same time, Kennedy said, 'No single magic solution will solve all of our manpower problems.' He said Congress and the people also should support and adopt a number of controversial administration programs aimed at improving schools, expanding job opportunities for young people and aiding distressed areas."

Gary Rust is chairman of the board of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian, as well as a member of the editorial board.