Sound Off for Oct. 17

Sound Off this week touched on everything from Obama's Nobel Peace Prize to local leaf collection programs.

Needs a job
I'm a Democrat. I ran for office as a Democrat, and I'm telling you right now that I have been out of work for a year and a half and I am not voting for any Democrat. I will not vote for Obama. I won't vote for Bill Foster. I won't vote for any Democrat or Republican ever again. I have been out of work for a year and a half. I need a job. I'm tired of this.

Subsidizing the rich
This is in response to "assisted success." Of course, this person meant subsidies should be removed from people getting Medicaid and welfare. We would save far more money by ending aid to the dependent wealthy. The list of government subsidies to giant corporations and the wealthy is incredibly long. Let's just start with the banks. How about the transportation industries? Air travel, railroads and highways are entirely built with government subsidies. The computer only exists because of government R&D funding through the defense department. Far more medical research is done with government money than the money from the drug industry.We subsidize the wages of the rich by requiring far more taxes of them. The top 1 percent receive $491 billion in tax breaks in the last eight years from the Bush Administration, on top of the tax breaks they received from Reagan and Clinton. In fact, capitalism is a fully funded government operation. My point is not that we should get rid of capitalism or government subsidy but we need to make it much more fair, to realize that we are subsidizing all these things. We can make the economy far more fair than it is. In fact this is why we have democracy.

Deserved jail time
This call is in regard to the Geneva sisters that avoided jail time in the neglect case of their mother. I think the judge let the system down by letting the two women off without any jail time and with just 150 hours of community service and a fine. Obviously they have no clue what they did, nor do they care because the one sister respectfully disagreed with the judge on the verdict. Their mother was covered in her own feces and urine when she was brought to the hospital. Something was desperately wrong in that house. Those women neglected their mother, and they deserved jail time.

Rather said so
It is demeaning to a great recognition when the recipient does not deserve it. So it is with Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Dan Rather of CBS reported that everyone in Washington, D.C., including Obama himself, was asking the same question – why? No one could explain what Obama had done to receive this great recognition. Mr. Rather pointed out the nomination period expired 11 days after Obama took office. What had Obama done in 11 days as president or as a junior senator to earn this prestigious award? Not even Obama's strongest supporters could answer this question. The Nobel Peace Prize committee has turned the Nobel Peace Prize into a meaningless joke. The selection was totally without merit. The award is to be given for what has been accomplished, not what someone thinks someone might do in the future. This is a ridiculous and sad situation. The Norwegian Nobel committee has made me embarrassed to admit my forefathers came from Norway.

Unfortunate decisions
Two unfortunate decisions reported side by side in the Oct. 10 edition of the Chronicle. The exception for Shodeen by the Geneva City Council, overriding the historical society's recommendation regarding replacing wooden windows with modern materials in a historically significant building and the deplorable and insensitive decision by Judge Anderson regarding the punishment of the Barry sisters, who allowed their mother to die under inhumane conditions, their only display of emotion being for themselves and none for the women who nurtured them when they were helpless. Both decisions should be remembered at the voting booth.

No longer Canadian
I knew the minute I heard about the Nobel Peace Prize award to Obama that the Republicans and right wing would find a way to demean it. If it had gone to Jesus, who was pretty much a liberal guy, they would have said the same things they are saying now. It's wonderful to finally have someone look for ways to make peace with the folks who want to kill us rather than ways to bomb them, and us ultimately, into oblivion. It is wonderful that I don't have to hide my citizenship when I go outside the country. I've been pretending to be Canadian for a lot of years even though my passport says U.S. It's just easier than having to continually apologize for my country's leaders and their actions. Contrary to what I'm hearing, we live in the world, not just North America, not just the U.S., and we need to talk to the rest of the world, not find more ways to bomb it.

Chew on that
This concerns our state's attorney, John Barsanti. He is going way overboard on this no refusal weekends. He now wants to set up a Web site, 24/7, anytime anybody is pulled over and is suspected of DUI and refuses a test, which are designed to fail anyway, the officer can get a judge to sign a warrant for obstruction of justice, which is a misdemeanor felony. This is big brother going way too far. Barsanti is just trying to further his political career at the public's expense. I have a solution. Take the Fifth Amendment, which states you have the right to refuse to answer on the grounds that it might incriminate you. You have the right to refuse those tests on the same grounds. Let Barsanti chew on that.

Bad time for cats
Sorry to read that Anderson's Animal Shelter is giving reduced adoption fees for black cats and kittens. In October, most animal shelters don't give black cats or kittens out for adoption. Halloween is a bad time for black cats to be given out. They are used for bad things and from a group of bad people who have sick minds.

Media circus
I would have had a lot more respect for the young man from Geneva who was offended by his teacher if he hadn't started a media circus. I may be wrong. He may have had no control over it. But I've been to a lot of school board meetings, and there's rarely anyone there. So he could have done this and received an apology from his teacher without his 15 minutes of fame. I agree that teachers should not be making comments like that and, with his apology, the teacher also recognizes that what he said was wrong. But if this is the hardest knock this young man has to endure in his life, he should count his blessings.

Government insurance
Our country needs a jobs program, so rather than trying to destroy private sector jobs by creating a government-run insurance company, maybe the president could focus efforts on competing with other countries. Everyone will mince the laws of the American manufacturing base, so maybe the president can bring some of those jobs back to the USA. He could really show the American capitalist a thing or two by starting businesses in which they failed. He's tried a little experiment with the auto industry but those businesses already had their own entire infrastructure. If he could show his entrepreneurial skills and start a toaster company and/or a television business from scratch, that would really be something. He'd silence those greedy capitalists once and for all by showing them what government could do but if you are skeptical about the success of a government toaster company as any person would be then why would reasonable people believe he will have any more success running our health care industry?

Get rid of Medicare
I think the people who feel the government shouldn't run health care are right on the money. We should get rid of Veteran's Administration and Medicare immediately and we will see a huge decrease in our debt now and going into the future when all those baby boomers hit the system.

Not one dime
You recommend in your editorial that the Geneva School Board should have suspended the potty mouth teacher instead of just giving him a warning. Do you know how much that would have cost us? They have a powerful union. There would have been evil lawyers involved. No, the board did exactly what they should have done. The punishment fits the crime. I'll bet $10 the teacher got the message, and it didn't cost us a dime.

Speak up
Where are the 85 percent of Americans who are happy with their health insurance? Speak up. Our beloved politicians are spending all their time on something I thought these people did not want. Stop it. Our government is changing our world as we do nothing.

Follow leaf rules
It's ridiculous how people are disregarding the published rules about the leaf collection program. I've seen five different people in the last week alone using a leaf blower to blow the leaves into the middle of the street. Don't they realize that these leaves will clog up the storm drains and cause flooding, not to mention causing a slippery, dangerous mess in our public roadways? You are supposed to make piles on the grass parkway, not curb or street. The notice that came in the mail said violators will be fined. I hope they are.

• You can Sound Off by calling 630-845-5240 or sending an e-mail to soundoff@kcchronicle.com. Please keep them short, folks.