LEO welcomes letters that are brief (250 words max) and thoughtful. Ad hominem attacks will be ignored, and we need your name and a daytime phone number. Send snail mail to EROSIA, 640 S. Fourth St., Louisville, Ky. 40202. Fax to 895-9779 or e-mail to [email protected] We may edit for length, grammar and clarity.
Only the Good Die Young
Jim Welp’s brief purportedly concerning a condo development on River Road (What A Week, May 31 LEO) crossed the line from edgy to hateful. Was he kicked by an elderly person as a child? Such witless venom aimed at those who have dared commit the unforgivable crime of approaching the ripe old age of 60! He seems upset that we haven’t had the good manners to go on and die. At least one “geezerized … old fart,” between noshing on baby food and changing his diapers, can only hope that Mr. Welp will conduct himself more appropriately and die before he gets old.
James A. Reeves
Hoosier Source?
Attn: Rick Robbins
In Rick Robbins’ second letter to Erosia, Robbins begins by explaining to Mickey Eversole that to attack a Hoosier is to attack someone from a state that tops Kentucky in education. So I guess I should never attack George Bush! He went to Yale, I only went to IUS. Of course, I got better grades. Robbins then goes on to explain how Anne Northup champions the cause of education by supporting a bill (Kentucky Reform Act) that does not even bring the education standards up to those of Indiana. …
Robbins then decides to discuss class warfare. All of Indiana must have cringed. According to him, Gore and Edwards pit classes against each other with their rhetoric, while Bush and Reagan brought them together with tax cuts. You see, Mr. Robbins, you are wrong. You stated that Bush and Reagan gave all taxpayers more money to spend. Well then please come to my house and figure out how my tiny federal tax cut is more than the increase OUR state dropped on me with increased state income, sales, property, gas and county taxes. You see, when the federal government has less to give to states, they have to compensate.
As for what Northup does support: 98 percent of everything George does. She supports his illegal wiretapping. She supported the Arnold Ziffel transportation bill, the energy bill that has given the oil companies the largest corporate profits in American history, while I am handing over my tax cut to fill up my tank. And then there is the war in Iraq. You know the one where we have lost more than 2,750 American soldiers to help the Republican Party get reelected?
I would like to finish by thanking you for stating the fact that Benjamin Franklin helped found this country. That part you got right. Of course, the nation he founded was based on the separation of powers in government, the separation of church and state, the right for the press to be free from persecution and, most of all, the right of all Americans to know their freedoms will never be sacrificed.
John Yarmuth may have been born with half a silver spoon in his mouth, but at least he learned from his parents that doing for others is more important than doing for yourself. I don’t know where Anne grew up. I don’t care. It is not what you had when you were a child, it is what you do with it.
Richard Hodge
No More Letters
Please stop printing these ridiculous letters from a person that has such an obvious agenda to spin Republican propaganda. This “Hoosier” states that Anne Northup brings money through the Appropriations Committee and is a defender of education through “No Child Left Behind.” Just passing a law is meaningless if you do not support it, hence the recent action of the Republican-led committee that voted on party lines to “cut grants to help schools recruit, hire and train teachers to meet No Child Left Behind mandates by $300 million, or 10 percent” (as per The Courier-Journal).
How can people defend the actions of this woman and her party? Why does a newspaper as smart as LEO allow such an obvious inflammatory letter as this person’s to even see newsprint? Enough hate-mongering, the facts speak for themselves and Anne must defend herself against them, instead of the spin and subterfuge that is being offered.
Matt Jablow
Capable Crime Fighters
Wow, looks like the LMPD just wants to let all would-be criminals know that they spend zero time looking for thieves. Even if they are so swamped with theft cases that they really don’t have time to deal with most of them, this is one instance when they should have lied their pants off! They basically let everyone know they have no time for theft cases, so we might as well all go steal a car. Instead of saying that they spend time looking for criminals, they were more concerned with letting us know they take complaints against the department seriously. Maybe they should take CRIME more seriously. Louisvillians don’t pay taxes for customer service representatives, they pay for “crime fighters.” I’m so glad I made the decision to become a Hoosier.
In addition, if the LMPD is having difficulty finding enough people to look for stolen cars, they could dedicate their parking ticket crew to finding the real criminals. Because they always seem to find the time to write tickets on Bardstown Road, I see those little green envelopes EVERYWHERE.
Stephanie Parsons-Braun
Impotent and Incompetent
How pathetic. George Bush has once again exposed his intellectual, moral and political impotence. Exacerbating bigotry against a group of American citizens to save himself from his own incompetence is no sign of leadership. It is not defense of marriage, as he dishonestly claims. It is weakness of character, plain and simple.
Surely, our country is better than this, even if he isn’t.
Ken Herndon
Bible Belting
I am appalled at suggestions the “Defense of Marriage Amendment” is nothing but political pandering. The truth is this amendment will solve virtually all of our social and economic problems. Doubters should read God’s Bible rather than our atheistic Constitution, which begins with “We the People,” when it should read “With God’s Guidance.”
Look at our war in Iraq. What should have been an easy victory has turned into a quagmire. Why? As the Rev. Fred W. Phelps Sr. of the Westboro Baptist Church explains, our soldiers are returning blind, without limbs or in body bags because the United States harbors homosexuals. Once we get right with God, the Iraqis will lay down their arms, and the mounting U.S. casualties will stop.
And what about Katrina and other natural disasters? Atheistic scientists would have us believe the increase in storms and their severity has something to do with warmer Gulf waters and that global warming and the ozone hole might threaten human life. Don’t believe it — read your Bible! God frequently uses plagues, wars and natural disasters to teach his people a lesson. God might even kill your family and friends because you sinned or lacked faith.
Dr. James Dobson, a man Bush praises and admires, was a special guest at the president’s speech supporting the gay marriage ban. Dobson, like so many others, points out AIDS is God’s punishment for homosexuality. But God does not kill just sinner homosexuals with AIDS. God also kills many innocent people to teach the sinners a lesson. If we don’t stop homosexuals now, Dobson warns, “It will destroy the Earth.”
If you are like me, you are feed up with high gas prices, corrupt politicians lining their pockets, corporate executives stealing worker pensions, drug abuse, murder, theft and illegal immigrants. Now more than ever we need to replace the atheistic “We the People” mentality with God’s laws as stated in the Bible. Support President Bush and Republicans like Northup to amend the Constitution by passing the Defense of Marriage Amendment. God will reward us with peace, health, better jobs and lower gas prices.
Sam Sloss