Passing the buck

This whole fiasco with the commissioners is something else. Dan Hausman is just passing the buck on this one. Everyone who went to school knows that the government has checks and balances. And if ours doesn’t, he has had almost four years to change that. It is pretty obvious that Dan Hausman signed off on the check along with Bud Crockett, and to say it is Tom Mann’s fault is ludicrous.

Then there is the issue with the LEC parking lot. Spending almost a half-million dollars on a parking lot that already exists is mind-boggling. I might be able to understand it if it was a project that was started from scratch. He was told in an open meeting months ago by the county auditor that they’d better watch their spending or they will run out of money. Well, look at them now: out of money and they had to lay off four county workers. It is a pretty sad day in Buchanan County when you have the help of the auditor and he still can’t balance the county’s checkbook.

And finally, the public has a right to know why Dan Hausman is so intent on getting this expo center going. He and R.T. Turner are making it sound as though it is a county project when it is not. Are they going to allow a nonprofit corporation to control county land that is valued at $1.5 million? The big question is, what is in it for them?

You Republicans who are thinking about voting for someone just because he is in your party had better think again. If he were in my party, I would be distancing myself from him in a heartbeat. Rosie Haertling is someone you can trust and will do a great job for Buchanan County, and she is getting my vote.

George Scott,

St. Joseph

Read the label

I love to listen to those who voice the opinion that Sam Graves does not speak for Northwest Missouri and in the same breath tout the attributes of Kay Barnes. I have followed Kay Barnes since she declared for the 6th District, and I believe her to be trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

Kay changed her mind on drilling for oil because the 6th District desires the pursuit of oil and Nancy Pelosi encouraged her to say whatever it takes to get elected. Kay was instructed by the House speaker not to be concerned, knowing full well that environmentalists would tie up any oil leases in court for the foreseeable future. Kay does not feel your energy pain!

Kay stated that she was in favor of “limiting” the number of abortions while encouraging adoption. When is the murder of innocents made palatable by just reducing the numbers? Kay will never deny a woman the right to kill the unprotected.

Voters need to read the label on the goods she is selling.

William Arthur,

Osborn, Mo.

Obama fighting the good fight

Integrity and principles. Barack Obama has demonstrated both of these over the past year in a way that few politicians before him have: to stand in the face of unyielding criticism without giving in, to take punch after punch and then to “turn the other cheek.” There are a lot of good things that he speaks about, but it’s some of the things that he does not say that make him great. He has led a clean campaign, free of slander and gross negativity. He has defended the values and beliefs of the very opponents whom he runs against. He has been a living example of what we wish politicians would be like — fair and decent. A man has stepped up to help deliver on the dream of a generation. A dream that we have all had. Real integrity and real principles are that dream. Obama is the man who has answered the call.

He has done his part and now we have to do ours. We have asked for this and now all we have to do is want it. Believe that it is possible! Real change brought about through collaboration and partnership. Out with the negative and in with the positive. Dispensing with our fear and embracing hope for the future. This election is a battle of principles and integrity. It isn’t always that you win the fight that matters, but how you fought the fight. In this, Obama has already won.

Vote for the person whom you can look up to, the one who played nice the way we tell our children to play every day. Speak out with your vote and show the world that America is great, not just because of our might, but because of our spirit.

Tom Burnett,

St. Joseph

Unusual dream

It’s last Sunday afternoon, the end of the worst week Wall Street has had since the 1930s, and I’m looking up at a beautiful blue sky, cloudless except for a few large, white fluffy ones. And then I had a dream. I dreamed the sky was filled with what appeared to be great golden parachutes.

I watched as one slowly detached itself from the group and glided downward to Earth. On landing, the chutist pulls in his chute, folds it neatly and takes it briskly to a large, impressive building. It looks like the U.S. Treasury building. He opens the door, hands his bundle inside and walks away.

In minutes, another chutist descends, and then another and another. They follow the same procedure as the first depositing their chutes and walking away.

In my dream, I wonder, “Who will be the first chutist?”

Pleasant dreams.

Patricia Wright,

St. Joseph, Mo.

Church, state don’t mix

My understanding of the First Amendment in regard to religion — “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” — is that the state does not favor one religion above others. That does not mean church groups should not be involved in the political process, but when the state starts favoring one religion over others, the wall of separation of church and state is broken.

Evangelical ministers are conspicuous by suggesting that God wants Americans to vote Republican because that is the Christian thing to do. President Bush himself suggests as much, with his faith-based initiative to increase the role that Christian organizations and churches play in providing and distributing government services and benefits. These things amount to saying that what is desirable is the establishment of Christianity as the state religion of America. What makes matters worse is the implication that these views alone are true and have God’s blessing. Those who oppose them are not just misguided, but sinful, intolerant and unpatriotic as well.

In radical countries around the world, there is state-sponsored religion. Here, there is none. This explains the unanimity and fervor with which the American people uphold the separation of church and state and wish to maintain it inviolate. But evangelical Christians are eroding the cornerstone of the wall between church and state, and in so doing are attacking the First Amendment to the Constitution. Evangelicals are hoping and praying to replace the Constitution with the Ten Commandments, and therefore should be considered radical nationalists, and a clear and present danger to American freedoms. If you want religion in your government, move to Iran.

Stephen R. Albus,

St. Joseph

Be careful what you wish for

The letter by James H. McCord III (Sept. 13) gives Sarah Palin no vote of confidence as a potential president of this country because she was a former PTA president.

He lists none of her other wonderful accomplishments.

This is about as moronic as saying “no” to Abe Lincoln because he was a log-splitter, Harry Truman a farmer, or George Washington for being only a tobacco farmer. Most of us were “something else” “back when.” Obama answered “present” when asked for his vote on an issue and you’re giving him your vote?

Be careful what you wish for, Mr. McCord, because you just might get it all. And then God help us!

Susan Moore

Maryville, Mo.