Letters 9/8/05

Sept. 7, 2005

13 questions
I’m Joe Morio, an unemployed factory worker. My job got outsourced and it ain’t coming back. I got 13 questions.
1. Why is it the only American-made products I can find in Walmart are food and condoms?
2. When you pull up to the fuel pump, what‘s getting hosed?
3. How many times do you have to get hit by a hurricane before you move to Montana ?
4. Why are we closing bases and V.A. hospitals when we’re at war ?
5. Did Osama make it back home to Saudi?
6. Why didn’t the “Patriot Act” include closing the Mexican border?
7. Have you made your reservations for the Superbowl in Detriot this February yet?
8. Does “Intelligent Design” include televangalists?
9. Why would a person get a Hummer?
10. Are the effects of global warming turning the Weather Channel into the best reality show on T.V.?
11. How much money could taxpayers save if we would outsource government?
12. What is keeping the President from declaring a “Manhattan Project” to end our dependence on oil?
13. Is Rush Limbaugh an Oxy-Cotton-Moron?

Joe Morio • via email

The truth about gas prices
This is in response to Representative Stupak‘s column regarding high gasoline prices (Express 9/1).
With all due respect to the Representative, please give your constituents the truth. You owe them that much when you took office. First, gasoline prices are high because of many aspects of our global socioeconomic condition.
Tell me Bart, when are you going to remind your taxpaying constituents that 40 - 80 cents of every gallon of gasoline goes to the federal and state government in the form of taxation? Can you level with your voting base and remind them that, although prices are high (let‘s re-evaluate the taxation here), we still pay much less per gallon than our “allies“ in Europe.
Before everyone blames Bush for our woes, consider that you all gripe about paying $2.50 for a gallon of gas, then don‘t bat an eye to pay $1 for 8 oz. of “spring water.“ I honestly don‘t know how to debate this issue because it is so obvious that it borders on the absurd. Congressman, either your mathematics are juvenile or your politics blind you from facing the truth.
This country needs to wake up and realize that, in order to supply a commodity that is in demand, taxes on that commodity should be lowered, and environmental restrictions that were put in place using junk science, must be relaxed.
How can we supply gasoline at reasonable prices when we cannot manufacture it in this country? The restrictions put on refineries make it impossible, and therefore not profitable, for major oil corporations to invest in new refineries that would alleviate the supply/demand differential.
It is easy to use the president as a scapegoat, but wasn‘t it the same Democratic party that screamed “no blood for oil“? If that were the case, we would be driving hundreds of miles on a $20 bill. You cannot, logically, have it both ways. I am firmly convinced that this is not ignorance, though I see it a lot; this is a simple case of trying to make political mileage on an issue that ordinary people will gravitate to.

Brett Yokom, P.E. • TC

Good examples
In the Aug. 25 issue article, “Roadside Bombs,” Dave Page is quoted, “Bombs are the weapons of choice for terrorists and despotic regimes.”
I could not agree with him more -- there are Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, Desert Storm, Shock & Awe, and Jennin as a few examples.

Randy Bond • Beulah

No rules for grieving
The last line of your Random Thoughts (“Why the President should meet with
Cindy,“ 8/25) ruined an otherwise excellent column.
You suggest that Bush should meet with Cindy Sheehan so she... “might stay home in support of (her) grieving family where (she) belongs.“
Cindy Sheehan has been mourning the death of her son for a year; she will mourn his loss for the rest of her life. We each grive in our own way. There are no rules, no timetables, no place “where we belong.“

Linda Badalucco • Carp Lake

Cindy shows the way
If the world were run by women there would be fewer wars, for we know the consequences and our sons and daughters are too precious to sacrifice.
Cindy Sheehan has struck a chord in the hearts of women everywhere. We want better reasons than those already given for sending our children into harm’s way.
We support the women of the world, in Iraq and Iran, in Ireland and Indonesia, all of whom want a peaceful world in which to bring up our children. We see resources being drained from our countries which could bring about an end to hunger, health care for our families, clean water and opportunities for education.
President Bush, we call on you to meet with Cindy, our representative, to give us answers to this immoral war.

Lou Ann McKimmy • Rapid City