Your letters, Oct. 13, 2008
It’s time for a solution
Rob Schaaf, doctor, state representative and insurance company bigwig, is quoted as saying schools don’t lose funding when students leave for private schools. What? How does that work? Public schools get state funding depending on the number of students enrolled and attending. Take students out of school and funding goes down. (Editor’s note: Dr. Schaaf was referring to a bill that would not have subtracted any students who leave public school for private school in the public school’s funding formula.)
The school voucher bill Dr. Schaaf was talking about is aimed at Kansas City and St. Louis districts that our state representative says provide a steady stream of inmates to state prisons. (Alienated a few of our neighbors to the south and their representatives with that one, didn’t you, Doc?)
And so he says offering tax credits to the parents of failing students in failing school districts will put them in private schools, thereby solving the problem. OK, let’s take a look at that one. Talk to the “failing students” and say, “How would you like to go to a school where you are going to have to work hard and get to learn a lot?” Then go to their parents and say, “If you pay tuition to send your kids to a private school, we’ll take it off your taxes at the end of the year.”
So who will accept this generous offer? Those few students who still have the incentive needed to achieve in school with parents who care enough to help them. Private schools will siphon off the top students, leaving the majority who have little or no incentive in “failing” schools that will have less money to teach them. Some solution.
Finding the answer is going to take study. It’s time for the government — federal, state and local — to back a search for new, modern education methods that deal with today’s education problems and will work with today’s students.
Bob Lafferty,
St. Joseph
More than tradition
Traditions are touchstones of our experience as Americans. Missouri families have traditions like those special meals on certain holidays and listening to Cardinals baseball on the radio in the summer. Thankfully, traditions are not rights. For, while traditions may come and go, rights are tougher to get rid of — especially those found in our Constitution.
When it comes to the ownership of guns in America, Barack Obama says we “have a tradition of gun ownership in this country, which must be respected.” I applaud Obama’s acknowledgement of the “tradition” that we as sportsmen choose to enjoy and hand down to our sons and daughters. However, I am troubled that he did not acknowledge that legal ownership of guns is more than a tradition in this country; it is a right.
John McCain understands this. The Constitution is what he has been defending all of his adult life. To him, our right of gun ownership is as sacred as our right to free speech. As a sportsman, John McCain saying he is a “Teddy Roosevelt Republican” has a special meaning. Roosevelt was the consummate conservationist. He proves that Republicans and the environment are not mutually exclusive. Every one of us who spends time in a stand or a blind or in waders knows how much the environment means to us. John McCain knows the legacy of Roosevelt, he knows what the true traditions of sportsmen are, and he will ensure our rights are protected.
I urge you to think about the positions of the candidates and how they would affect you. The Second Amendment is fundamental to what it means to be an American. It is our right. By simply referring to gun ownership as a “tradition,” Barack Obama has proven to me that he simply doesn’t get it.
Matthew A. Morgan,
Missouri state co-chair,
Sportsmen for McCain
Springfield, Mo.
This story has 10 comments. Click here to join in on the discussion.
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I thought gun ownership, like driving, was a PRIVILEGE, not a RIGHT
Posted by comment on October 13, 2008 at 9:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)incendiary
I think you thought wrong!
Posted by thetruth on October 13, 2008 at 10:28 a.m. (Suggest removal)Yes, Rob Schaaf has done it again. Stuck his foot in his mouth. He is not part of the mainstream. The majority of his constituents do not favor vouchers but he does and he comes up with this lame justification for it and we should all just sit back and accept it because Rob knows best. His neo-con pompous arrogance is showing through again.
Schaaf hasn't thought ahead on this one. Vouchers eventually, (no matter how you slice it, dice it or frame the arguement) take funds from the public school taxes that we pay and supplement support for private schools. In addition to the point that Mr. Lafferty makes you must also realize that Schaaf and his neo-con buddies want to continue to reduce taxes. When taxes are reduced, funding tanks for public schools and this gets even more exaggerated in today's diving economy. How will this work? It won't. The public school system will be decimated and the middle class who can't afford private schools will be left dumb and poor. Ah, it just came to me....maybe Misrepresentative Schaaf is thinking ahead. Maybe this is his agenda. If we're left dumb and poor, we are hard pressed to challenge him.
In closing, I really believe this guy is bad for Missouri and he proves time and again that he's like a fish out of water unless he can dump on Heartland.
Posted by ninja_man on October 13, 2008 at 10:50 a.m. (Suggest removal)what a lovely letter Mr. Morgan... it almost makes me want to throw up.. theres much more important issues to look at that whether or not you and your hunting buddies can go kill some animals because you don't feel enough like a man even after you drank that case of natural light and just beat your wife.
Posted by tigersfan on October 13, 2008 at 11:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)i'm sick of John McCain trying to compare himself to former republican presidents... can't he stand on his own 2 feet? doesnt he have any of his own ideas? all you ever hear from McCain is how he's like Reagan or Rooselvelt.. how about if he tries being John McCain?
Amen to that ninja_man!!
Posted by lilyann on October 13, 2008 at 11:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)Ninja_man,
Your comment makes me want to throw up.
Don’t get me wrong…I’m not disputing what you say about McCain or the fact that there are other important issues to look at in regards to this election, but the picture you try to make of people who do think that the second amendment is important is completely unjustified.
Just because someone owns a gun or hunts does not make them a wife beater, a drinker, or someone trying to prove just how much of a “man” they are. I am an avid hunter and gun owner and I am certainly not any of those things you mention. I choose to hunt for the sport and also to protect the crops and land that I work hard to cultivate everyday. I also own guns for the protection they afford me.
Posted by bs64507 on October 13, 2008 at 2:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)There are obviously other issues that you need to consider when referring to gun owners!
We best be careful. Rights can be lost if we don't watch out. The government is trying to run everything. They already run the mortgage industry, thanks to bailing out Fannie and Freddie, and are getting ready to take over the banking. If you think that they can't take away your rights then you are mistaken. A Liberal Supreme Court and liberal government will take everything that we let them take. Not just the right to keep and bear arms, but the right to free speech, which we are alreadly losing in this PC society, the right to gather in public and many others. Religion, privacy. We have to stop it now. Get out, vote. Make your voice heard in the wilderness.
God Bless America and God Save the Republic.
Posted by dsbsh on October 13, 2008 at 10:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)To bs64507: I agree with you that our rights are in danger from an overreaching government. But a "liberal Supreme Court?" Utter nonsense. The Court has tilted conservative since the '80s, and the current Court is one of the most conservative in our history. The most liberal member of this Court was appointed by Pres. Ford; he was a moderate conservative when appointed and hasn't changed. The free exercise of religion, privacy, speech, 4th and 5th Amendment rights... all of these have been eroded by a conservative Supreme Court more often than not (although there certainly are exceptions).
Posted by gr8fan on October 13, 2008 at 11:43 p.m. (Suggest removal)ninja,
Obama would compare himself to past democrats, but none of them were ever associated with the likes of Wright, Rezco or Ayers. Thank God! The way he sounds on his economic (or should I say socialistic) plans, I'm sure he could make comparisons between himself and Jimmy Carter, but I don't think he wants to go there.
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