BEDKE/DENNEY
Idaho House needs new leadership
This is a plea for the House of Representatives to vote for Scott Bedke Dec. 5 for House speaker. Lawerence Denney has refused and will reject the voters’ wishes. The Idaho newspapers have reported his high-handed, rude, power-hungry, strong-arm tactics and bullying of constituents and other legislators — several decent ones have resigned because of him. He has violated the law in his own self-interests (removing redistricting commissioners Randy Hansen and Dolores Crow), used House victory funds to unseat his fellow Republicans, sent lame-duck Phil Hart, the tax dodger, to ALEC using our tax dollars, and so many other questionable actions. He has been anything but decent and forthright (The Times-News).
Under his regressive control, our state has lost ground nationally, the education funding was cut for three consecutive years, $108 million has been slashed from the Medicaid budget. For a man who has no problem forcing his own issues, one would hope he would use his efforts to do good for Idahoans. Instead he has served his own interests politically, divided his party, worked behind closed doors and will continue to do so.
The voters need transparency! Please vote for a leader who will work for the good of all Idahoans.
LOIS MORGAN, Boise
EDUCATION REFORM
Work together to improve schools
“No” on the Luna laws doesn’t mean “no” to real education reform. Quality education requires continuously improving teacher, counselor and leadership education in addition to building and maintaining community support for student success.
“Reform” models don’t work; people do. People can, and I believe will, meet expectations when properly educated and provided with the tools for the job.
The defeated laws were based on the status quo of education reform — test-based reform. It has failed. Our national standings and our nation’s standing in the world demonstrate our leaders’ lack of knowledge about “reform” as well as our own. We don’t have to reinvent any wheels; everything we need to do to advance has been done before. We just need to do our homework and defend our dollars against the greed-driven politics of education.
To ascertain the right goals, concepts that will help us reach those goals, and a plan that sets priorities based on our current realities, the crucial voice of the people must be heard.
Just as education is too important to be left solely to the government, education is too important to be left solely to educators. Set a big table, lay down your arms and be open-minded.
VICTORIA M. YOUNG, DVM,
Caldwell
MCCAIN/GRAHAM
Rice deserves fair treatment
Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham say they are “troubled” by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's explanation about the attack on our embassy in Benghazi. Graham attacked her for making “a statement disconnected from reality.” He went on to say, “American people got bad information.”
I'm asking, where were McCain and Graham when President Bush falsely blamed Iraq for 9/11 and led us into an illegal war that resulted in the deaths of countless innocent Americans and Iraqis? Didn't the American people get “bad information” from their president then? Why are these men so hell-bent on destroying this woman who, unlike President Bush, acted on the information she was given at the time? Give her the same respect you gave to the former president.
JO-ANN KACHIGIAN, Garden City
SECESSION
Red states hold cards with threat
Mitt Romney’s body is not even cold and the liberal media is already piling on. Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank weighed in on the hypocrisy of secession petition signers.
It seems that a number of “red states,” get more in federal dollars than their residents contribute in taxes. There are several problems with this analysis. We are not told how this is calculated. Are Social Security recipients, who gravitate to the southern/warm weather states, included in the transfer? If so, this is not reasonable as where they live is independent of the amount they receive. In addition, many of the states that allegedly feed at the trough have large federal inholdings. Idaho is 63 percent federal land with the limitations that come with that control. If a group of heartland and western states seceded they would change land management policies, necessarily, so the equation would change.
Nobody should be confused, secession would lower the living standards of the entire country as a splintering America could no longer fund public borrowing at under 2 percent. Herein lies the power of secession, the threat of it would impoverish the central government the most as it could no longer fund huge spending.
FRED BIRNBAUM, Boise
CONSEQUENCES
Teach kids lesson about responsibility
When will we start to hold people accountable for their actions? I am tired of parents and friends making excuses for their family and friends.
From the moment we are born, we make choices and those choices have consequences. The modern-day thinking seems to be that every bad consequence deserves and is owed an excuse. No, it doesn't. If we are allowed to experience the full consequences of our choices we would give more thought to the choices we make. This goes for children and adults.
Next time your child breaks a toy, don't buy another one, let him live without that toy. It hurts to watch a child being disappointed, but it teaches the child the responsibility for his/her choice. And then carry that attitude throughout the child rearing days. Then you most likely won't be the parent making excuses for your adult child to a reporter.
JASNA SEKOVSKI, Boise
COMICS
We need a smile
As a retired businessman, I understand that the recent changes in the paper are driven pretty much by economic necessity. That said, though, surely you can find within your budget sufficients funds to restore the Family Circus and Dennis the Menace cartoons. We need every smile that we can get.
BOB MINNIS, Meridian
