Speak Out 6/2/04

Good people out there

I WANT to thank all the people who helped me with the car trouble I've been having the past week or so. It's good to know there are still people out there who will help a person in distress without expecting anything in return.

Soaring costs, profits

ISN'T IT amazing how health-care costs keep going up and the profits of the health insurance companies keep going up? Wake up, America.

Recognizing problems

ONE OF the reasons the problems in education don't get fixed is that it is almost impossible to get anyone in education to admit that there is a problem.

Conservatives running

IN RESPONSE to the caller who criticized the mayor for stating that our area is very conservative: There are 20 people running for county commissioner. Eighteen are running as Republicans, and only two are running as Democrats. The mayor was correct. I rest my case.

Now a veteran teacher

I THOUGHT Callie Clark's series on Jason Bandermann's experience was wonderful and certainly deserving of honors, but I agree with superintendent Mark Bowles and think it would be good for her to come back in the fall to feature a veteran teacher and to showcase students who have good work efforts and are trying to achieve. This would show that there are students out there who are working hard that we can be proud of as well as trials for teachers.

Skinny people too

PEOPLE WHO think only obese people abuse their bodies haven't looked at some of the skinny people of the world who often live on junk food and don't exercise -- just because genetics are on their side. Poor eating habits are the national problem for obese and skinny alike. Fat people don't have the corner on disease.

Nation of fatties

I BEG the government to please quit subsidizing the crops that are used to make foodstuffs that are turning us into a nation of fatties.

Lacking modesty

I DROVE by a church car wash, and there were girls with their bikini tops on. Do churches teach modesty anymore?

Start at young age

I AM a family and consumer sciences educator (FACS, formerly home economics). Nutrition, among many other life skills, is taught in our class, but most all students want school to be fun all the time. Our classes are often dumping grounds for kids who need a fine arts class to graduate, can't be placed in any other class with their current schedule or think it is an easy grade. FACS should start in elementary school and continue through high school. So many of the hands-on activities of life and homemaking are being lost because everything can be bought: housekeepers, child care, food and entertainment for children. Families, for the most part, are a thing of the past. When computers and other people are supposed to raise your children, why did you want them in the first place? Nutrition training should start at birth, not in junior high or high school. Parents need to be the first educators of our children.

Honest criticism

REPUBLICANS WHO deviate from what syndicated columnist George Will called "conservatives of the traditional Midwestern sort" who oppose what Will referred to as "social engineering" and efforts to "promote democracy" abroad don't deserve the label conservative. Will is a real and honest conservative who is unafraid to criticize the anti-conservatism of the Bush administration.

He's too nice

I HAVE a shocking revelation. Gary Rust is not a conservative. As proof, I call your attention to George Will's recent column. In his excellent piece, Will wrote the truism that "conservatives are not supposed to be nice. ... They are prone to pessimism." Rust is nice, friendly and very upbeat. Case closed. What he is, politically speaking, remains a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.