Letters to the Editor
Why Build a Ballpark? We Don't Have Team
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
I don't get it. We are going to cut school budgets and maybe even close some schools, but we have the money to build a new baseball field in a flood zone -- and Richmond doesn't even have a team.It's a shame when a baseball field comes before children's education. We already have a ball field -- fix it. Give the teachers a much-needed raise.
Carol Thompson. Richmond.
Let the Public Decide Who Gets Bailed Out
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
Gary Brookins' recent cartoon of an enviro-wizard made me think of the silence of our economic wizards. Those wizards of economic arts on Wall Street, in the academy, and in our treasure-house haven't a clue in these economic times. Now they seem powerless to comment as that professional corps of thieves, our legislators, plunders the national treasure for their gain. For Congress to reward its cronies in big business, under the guise of an economic emergency, is simply criminal.What is clear from the bailouts thus far is that corporate criminals and their partners in Congress have no other intention than to line their own pockets
Really, what kind of economists are these people? If Congress and the president are intent on spending $1 trillion, send it directly to the taxpayers and let them choose what companies win. So much better, that, than to give money directly to failing corporations that already have demonstrated their incompetence in good times.
What Congress needs to do is write checks for, say, $100,000 to each family. Since we have to pay for it anyway, give the money directly to us and let us decide where to spend it. If anyone feels that GM needs a bailout, they can buy a GM car. If someone feels that a certain bank deserves his business, let him save the cash there. Citizens can certainly make as good or as bad a decision as any fat cat with an MBA, or slimy politician.
Thet-Shay Nyunt. Petersburg.
Jews Saw Jesus As More Than Some Guy
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
In her response to Jamie Cowen's Op/Ed column on messianic Judaism, letter-writer Helen Grossman cites conventional wisdom propagated by both synagogue and church for more than 1,800 years: that one cannot be both Jewish and believe in Yeshua (Jesus) as the Messiah.This regrettable misperception cannot be overcome unless people are willing to examine history and enter into serious and meaningful dialogue to understand the real issues.
Yeshua's earliest followers excitedly proclaimed "We have found the Messiah!" They did not say they had found some guy teaching a new religion and decided to convert. These were Jewish men who knew the Jewish Scripture and recognized the Jewish Messiah.
Today, it is an undeniable fact that there are hundreds of thousands of Jews worldwide who are fully Jewish and fully follow Messiah Yeshua -- Jews who, like their ancestors, know the text and "have found their Jewish Messiah."
Greg Johnson. Midlothian.
Don't Balance State Budget on Businesses
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
As a small business owner in Virginia, I am stunned that Gov. Tim Kaine wants to balance the Virginia budget by withholding the fee merchants keep from their sales tax remittance. Of all the groups to go after in this time of recession, the state should not further penalize the business owner who is employing people and paying for our government services (and struggling).I had hoped the only good to come from this recession was that the government would have to cut back on its wastefulness. This also raises the question: What in the world did the state do with the streams of money coming in during the past three years of the real estate bubble and booming economy? Now the state is attacking the business community by trying to remove the sales tax fee. We have to plan ahead and be ready to cut back on our spending every day in our businesses.
The governor should have to as well.
Louise Friday. Urbanna.
When Everyone Gives, Pigs Will Start Flying
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
The day I see the owners of Echo Harbor give their acreage free to the City of Richmond, and additionally spend $8 million of their own for infrastructure improvements for the long-term benefit of our citizens, will be about the time I might consider our citizens should be asked to do the same in Shockoe Bottom for a ball park.In summation -- it will be when pigs fly. The days of feeding at the public trough are over.
Jean Wight. Richmond.
This Isn't Stimulating, It's Massive Spending
Editor, Times-Dispatch:
President Obama was quick to call the excessive Wall Street bonuses shameful.The congressional stimulus package contains very little stimulus. Consider that the bill creates 32 new federal programs, totaling $136 billion of our money, expands 60 existing programs, and spends $400 million on climate change research, $50 million on the National Endowment for the Arts, and $3 billion on a new "prevention and wellness" fund, which includes $335 million for sexually transmitted disease education and prevention.
This is not a stimulus package; this is a massive spending bill. President Obama: Isn't this wild spending by Congress "shameful"?
Dan Benere. Midlothian.
Reader Reactions
Randy had it just right in his comment. It was amusing watching all the bloated toad know-nothings in congress scolding the CEOs. This Stimulus Bill is a scam. Congress removed the provision last night to prevent illegal aliens from getting jobs with this money and allows employers to continue hiring them. This was done behind closed doors. There is no funding in the bill to continue the E-VERIFY PROGRAM which requires employers to check the legal status when hiring employees. This is no change and business as usual.
Ms. Thompson,
It’s called a “field of schemes”. If we build it they might come.
You know, I had to laugh at the irony of that giant malfunctioning entity known as congress reading the riot act to the CEOs of banks yesterday. Our government is running unprecedented deficits and trade imbalances but continues to vote themselves raises on an annual basis as if they think they are doing a good job. The American shareholder (voter) needs to fire these derelicts at the very next election. The new CEO is worse than the old CEO who just left - Chairman Barry just has a more polished presentation, which doesn’t leave us in any better shape, at the end of the day, than the old CEO who stammered and set a new precedence for malediction.
When the question was asked, who has a private plane - the Congress was fortunate that Nancy Pelosi - who does have a private plane - was not in the room. That would have been embarrassing, wouldn’t it?
Don’t get me wrong, the CEOs are a collection of egotistical, myopic screw ups, but, to have Congress chewing them out, especially that half-wit Maxine Waters, is the height of hypocritical sanctimony.
The letters by Mr.Thet Shay Nyunt, Ms Louise Friday and Mr. Dan Benere all have good points.. I suppose the same rules don’t apply to politicians and the Government.
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