Letters 03-12-2012

March 11, 2012

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Rush is wrong

Radio commentator Rush Limbaugh apologized on March 3 for labeling Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke a "slut and a prostitute" for her congressional testimony in support of birth control insurance coverage. He claimed his insulting diatribe occurred only as a result of a poor "choice of words," and a failed "attempt to be humorous."

I find it difficult to imagine how a skilled wordsmith like Limbaugh could fall victim to poor word choice. It would have been helpful to know, in retrospect, just what his choice of words in this somewhat limited category could have been. Perhaps, instead of "slut and prostitute," he might have selected trollop and whore.

In truth, four-times-married Rush Limbaugh views all of the 98% of American women who elect to use some form of birth control as his moral inferiors. The women of American should take note of the views expressed by this spokesman for the Republican right wing and then express their own views by voting for women’s health on November 6th.

Bob Ross - Pellston

Replace incumbents

Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s goal is to assure gas prices go as high as Europe’s to force us into small cars and alternative fuel sources because that’s what the administration wants.

Hence, no Keystone Pipeline. Never mind what we want or need ...

Attorney General Eric Holder has refused to provide Congress all the documents needed to investigate Fast & Furious-gate. Never mind what we want ....

Joe Lieberman and Charles Dent propose the Enemy Expatriation Act, giving authorities the right to strip any citizen of citizenship and passport. Never mind what we want ...

$370,000 went to bonuses to employees to break up Solyndra. Taxpayers shelled out $500 Million plus another 50 Million that we pay for them to defend themselves against us ... Never mind what we want ...

We have no more property rights. Permission must be granted by "them" via license, fee, inspection and fines issued if "they" deem not ok. The only right we have is to pay the taxes. Never mind what we want...

God gave man dominion over the earth, not over man! Any power not specifically granted by the Constitution is illegal. Most officials have breached this trust, thereby committed treason.

We must take responsibility and action by participating in the Get Out of Our House (goooh.com) process to rid ourselves of incumbents & corruption.

These citizen candidates have completed and signed a questionnaire as to how they will vote or resign in 3 days.

What is there to lose if we don’t?

Freedom...

Katheryn Burson - Houston TX

Academic performance

One teacher in Troy recently went before the board of education to explain the 20 percent increase in scores across all of her students for the first half of the year. Her innovative ideas involve three areas: classroom structure, embedded writing in her curriculum and student nutrition.

As part of a three-year longitudinal study it turns out that she has been able to simulate same gender effect in a mixed student class room by original vertical and horizontal placement of students in the classroom.

Decibel readings clearly show that the sound is much less in her "in the Zone," arrangement, allowing students to hear better and perform better on tests.

Recently neurologists are linking handwriting with increasing memory retention. This teacher has handwriting embedded in her program at many levels with specialized writing templates for homework, lab reports, MEAP review and every day in class note taking.

Because we are so culturally diverse in Troy, we can look to our friends in the Indian communities for help with good things to eat for our minds.

Turmeric, which is found in many curries and is commonly put into plain yogurts for consumption as part of an Indian diet, may explain the dramatic results on test scores in one teacher’s student population. Both turmeric and plain yogurt have been linked to better cognitive functioning.

When random samples of high test performers and low test performers were asked if either plain yogurt or turmeric (curry) was a regular part of their diet, the high test performers had a much higher percentage of these foods in their diet than did the low test performers.

In addition, those of us who love dark chocolate will be pleased to hear that it also has a positive impact on brain function.

Gail Hall - Troy

Taxes on pensioners

As we all know, our Republican Governor and Messers Walker, Schmidt and Franz (you know, the Republicans: "No New Taxes") passed into law a NEW TAX on pensioners set to begin with our first checks come 2012.

Adding insult to injury, there appears to be no accounting for deductions or exemptions. The total being taken from our pockets and therefore from this community is 4.5% of the entire check.

That amounts to money that is no longer going to circulate in and around Leelanau and Grand Traverse County. It constitutes movies not seen, dinners out not taken, groceries not bought, charities doing without and so on.

For those of you who really believe that the Republicans are the party of the people, I have a bridge between Mackinaw City and Saint Ignace that I’d like to show you. Talk about hypocritical.

This, by the way, is what "some folks" used to call taxation without representation. None of these guys are doing the things they represented themselves as doing. A tax is a tax is a tax.

And if you are going to impose another new one Mr. Nerd, at least get the math right.

Bill Brown - TC

Fund schools equitably

I attended the Northwest Michigan Economic Summit held at the Hagerty Center on Friday, March 2, 2012.

During the Q and A with Governor Snyder, Mr. Luciani, President of the Traverse City Chamber of Commerce, questioned him about inequitable school funding. Gov. Snyder shared he would put it on his list and it might be considered in a couple of years.

In the meantime, any cut to the foundation grant for TCAPS results in a greater percentage cut than higher funded districts. Any increase in the grant means a smaller percentage increase for our district.

The bottom line is TCAPS takes larger cuts and smaller increases at the whim of the governor and legislature. The students of Traverse City simply can’t wait a couple of years.

Take relentless positive action by contacting Gov. Snyder and our local legislators. Tell them you believe our children are not worth less than other children around the state. Tell them our children deserve equal opportunity with students in higher funded districts.

Tell them we can’t wait a couple of years to end this discrimination.

Mary McGee-Cullen - TC