Editor, Times-Union: So Congress is reconvening. Hopefully this will truly be a session that will go down in history as being the best that ever has been. If statesmanship prevails in lieu of political bigotry this can happen. We the people need to insist on it.
This is a country to be a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Therefore, the members of Congress and the president are EMPLOYEES of we the people and need to conduct themselves accordingly.
Campaign reform is a must. The cost of a candidate applying for a job from we the people must be reduced. Paid political advertising should not exceed 30 days prior to an election and no more than one ad per day run three times in a day. If a candidate cannot convince us the employer in this time span that he or she is the best qualified applicant for the job being sought, that person definitely is not capable for performing the job.
We trust that the Congress will not waste millions of dollars holding hearings such as was done for campaign fund raising. We the people know that all politicians take funds and favors from anywhere they can get them, and we didn't need to spend millions of debt dollars to find out about it. Just enact laws to prevent politicians from taking funds from anyone except we the people.
Pass a budget that is within our income, and use any excess income to reduce our debt. No more voodoo arithmetic about deficit reduction.
Fred R. Yohey Atwood
Pierceton Donation
Editor, Times-Union: About a week before Christmas, the Pierceton Presbyterian Church became the recipient of a very generous gift: food items collected by students at Whitko's Middle School were donated to our food pantry! Hundreds of pounds of canned goods, etc., replenished our pantry which had only recently been depleted by our annual Christmas food give-away. Then, in early January, they added to their generosity by making a monetary donation to the food pantry of over $150! The Presbyterian Church in Pierceton annually serves dozens of families totaling over 100 persons. Much of what we give away usually comes from our members and friends of the church. Furthermore, it generally takes us months to re-stock our shelves. The gift of food from the Whitko students is special because it means that we can serve people in need much sooner after Christmas than we are usually able to. On behalf of the congregation, the board of deacons who supervise our food pantry, and of course the people who will come to us for food, I would like to say "Thank you, and God bless you!" to all those who made contributions to the food-collection program, and to the students and their adult supervisors who did the hard work. Your gift of food will mean a great deal to people who, too often, must choose between eating or paying the heating bill.
The Rev. H. Jordan Truman, Pastor
The Presbyterian Church of Pierceton
Recycle, Please
Editor, Times-Union: I think that more people should recycle and reuse newspapers, paper and plastic bags, milk jugs, paper and things like that. My family recycles newspapers, pop cans and paper bags. I think that more people should pitch in to save the earth.
