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Righting Many Wrongs
Attn: Stephen George,
Your article entitled “Mixed message” (in regards to the recent MSD verdict, LEO, Jan. 31) rang true for me. Being a recently retired school teacher, I was quite active in the teachers’ union. I found in many of the hearings, court cases and grievances that people like the juror quoted, people find that even if there is a wrong committed, they say, “Well, teachers make a lot of money and they get the summers off, so we aren’t going to penalize the school corporation.”
I found that what this leads to is less honesty by the school boards and administrators because they tend to take cases such as the one you described as a “win,” even though they are found in the wrong.
It is my personal opinion that this type of case will be more common in the future due to the high cost of legal representation and the culture of corruption permeating our bureaucratic agencies. I have a friend who was fired from a National Cemetery near St. Louis and is going through the federal courts. He is now representing himself because he can’t afford legal fees. In one case he was represented by an attorney, and the federal judge told him he would lose even before he heard the case. He ranted at my friend and his attorney in open court. When my friend went to file a complaint against the judge, the tape of the hearing had mysteriously disappeared.
I think average citizens are at a great disadvantage when they attempt to right the wrongs committed by higher-ups, even with the whistleblower laws. Nothing will change until courts and juries begin to penalize the individuals making these cruel decisions.
Thanks for your time and keep up the good work.
Spence Wade
Deep-6 65?
Attn: Stanley Collyer,
I have just read your LEO article concerning the, in my opinion, misguided and rather pathetic 8664 effort (LEO, Feb. 21). My question to this whole idea is: WHY?
I see no reasonable reason for gutting a whole stretch of interstate except what appears to me a more obvious reason, a red herring, to deflect the efforts in building an East End bridge. Let’s take this to its natural conclusion and “Deep-6 65.” In fact, let’s bulldoze all interstate systems into the Metro region. I travel I-64 daily east to west and enjoy the vistas of the city, especially from the west. It would be a nightmare to get around without this highway. I visit the riverfront often and have never felt that I-64 interfered with my views of the river nor any activity, save perhaps as a shelter during a downpour.
In my opinion, this idea will never, I repeat never, happen. It would be better if you used your excess energy promoting the city forward. Louisville has had its fill of obstructionism.
Neil Dickson
Tongue-in-Cheek Compassion
I’m outraged at the lack of support Americans (except for Mitch McConnell) are giving President Bush and Vice President Cheney. OK, things aren’t going well in Iraq or even Afghanistan for that matter. But it isn’t fair to criticize Bush. He, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their neocon friends who planned his war had ducked out of Vietnam. Given their lack of experience, I must agree with Cheney that their war on Iraq has been a “remarkable achievement.”
What I find most disappointing is that soldiers themselves are turning against the president’s war. I can understand that facing life without sight or a couple of limbs could be depressing. But this incessant pissing and moaning about a little mold and a few mouse droppings has to stop. It isn’t like these soldiers came from wealthy families. I’d be willing to bet many grew up in similar if not worse conditions. Don’t they realize their complaints are emboldening the terrorists? Court-marshaling a few ringleaders might whip these malingerers in line.
Like Global Warming, the real culprits in the Walter Reed folly are scientists. The Gods of War meant for soldiers to fight bravely and die. But those medical scientists cannot leave well enough alone. Not that I want those 205,000 soldiers being treated in VA hospitals to join their 3,200 comrades and 800 mercenaries in the grave. It is just that the press is not allowed to show pictures of flag-draped coffins, but they keep printing pictures of soldiers without limbs and with caved-in skulls. There should be a law to keep this from the public.
Half a dozen Republican Congressmen have now come forward admitting they knew about the conditions at Walter Reed but kept quiet when they controlled Congress. They didn’t want to embarrass the president or the Army. But Democrats practice no such respect. Now we find out all this talk is upsetting First Lady Laura Bush. Have Democrats no compassion?
Sam Sloss
How Long Gone?
How long is it going to take? How much longer will it be before the beautiful populace of this glorious nation comes to fully understand the complete and total usurpation of power by this presidential administration and many others before it?
How long will it be before we demand that distractions such as Anna Nicole Smith’s death be put to the wayside to make way for truth and accountability? How long before our beautiful Constitution is nothing but an aged piece of paper whose ideology has been outlived by an apathetic and unwitting people? How long, my fellow Americans, before we allow that lost ideology to be forever buried in the rhetoric of media and the forests of administrative bureaucracy?
Our nation that was once based upon the ideals of true freedom has now become a nation whose ideals are based upon fear. We must not allow ourselves be outwitted by the clever foxes whom we have charged with guarding our henhouse. We the People must stand up for what we know is important to us as a nation. We must understand exactly what we have to lose the moment we allow our liberty to be sacrificed for the artificial safety so many seem to promise. There is nothing that we should guard ourselves from more than that very fear. Fear consumes us, and it allows those who truly wish us harm to swoop down like a bird of prey. We must take a very serious look at what those who say they are protecting us have to gain.
It is time, upon the findings of that investigation, to make them answer for their mistakes. It is time for us to regain the prosperity that is deserved by all those who walk the face of this planet. It is time for the truth to be known. It is time. It is now. So be it.
Dan Box