Last week, callers Sounded Off on topics such as quarantining students and teacher pay raises.

Ridiculous guidelines
I just wanted to sound off about the Geneva leaf pick-up guidelines and potential fines involved and number of pick-ups. Again, the guidelines are ridiculous. The city parkways are to be maintained by the homeowners and it's basically the city trees that are depositing leaves and if they want to keep them on our parkway and kill our grass until the next pick-up, they should have way more pick-ups. It's ridiculous the city's leaf pick-up program does not rival any neighboring city guidelines. I don't know where our taxes are going but they certainly aren't being allocated in the right direction.

Very nice money
In response to "Geneva teachers" in last week's Sound Off, I don't know about Geneva teachers but Kaneland teachers are having a swell time at our expense. In the contract approved last fall, teachers got 4.86 percent raises this year and will get 6.21 percent next year and 5.6 percent the following year. Those look anything like your pay increases? And when you consider that most of Kaneland's teachers are in the $40,000 to $60,000 range, and many making lots more, that's very nice money.

Quarantine students
I believe that when a school is closed because of concerns about a contagious health problem, all students should be quarantined in their homes to prevent them from possibly spreading the disease to the general public at places like malls and other buildings.

Medicare conspiracy
I'm calling in regard to the article entitled "Get rid of Medicare." I agree that the government should not run the health care system. This person also states we should get rid of the Medicare and the Veterans Administration. If it were not for the veterans, many of whom were injured or disabled in the service of this country, we would not be living in a free country. As his education and history is lacking, he never heard of Hitler, Stalin, Tojo or of Pearl Harbor. He is a product of our underworked, overpaid educators who did not learn or pay attention in the history classes. As to Medicare, it is a product of conspiracy by the drug companies, doctors and lawyers.

Lack of outreach
As an Army Vietnam veteran, the various veterans' groups showed no interest in me. My service was in support, which is 80 percent of all soldiers with the balance being on the front line. My unit was not part of the 1st Cav or the Big Red One but a support unit that the veterans never heard of. Because I had no war stories to tell, after the first contact, there was no follow-up. In the minds of the veteran groups or any other organization, there is a lack of outreach and there is too many inward cliqueishness.

Doesn't matter
I'm calling regarding the story in the Oct. 24 paper, "St. Charles East student faces charges in crash" by Jonathan Bilyk. I think the story is horrible. The story talks about a student that goes to St. Charles East and they were off of school Wednesday through Friday because of all of the kids calling in sick. That has nothing to do with the story. The story, according to this, took place at 9:30 at night. That has nothing to do with the kids being off of school. The story says that his alcohol was .058 and the legal limit is .08. That doesn't matter either. The fact is he has been drinking and had alcohol and marijuana in his system and he caused an accident when he didn't have a valid license and he went away from the scene. What does that have to do with the kids being off of school? I think that Jonathan who wrote the story should do a better job in writing it because it has nothing to do with the kids being off of school.

Lunch ideas
If Geneva teachers are providing lunches for students who forget theirs, those teachers should use their noodles, pun intended. The school my foster children attend has large jars of PB & J and a tin of raisins and a note goes home with every student served, asking for 50 cents. At a Catholic school I worked at, the children in the student's class were asked to share their lunches with the forgetful one and I never heard of a student going hungry. At the school my son teaches at, which has a cafeteria, parents are asked for $3 in emergency money at the start of the year. If it isn't used, it goes back to the parents. Now that's using your noodle.

Only one Fox
I'm calling about the Democrats criticizing Fox News for being an arm of the Republican Party. What about the Democrats' arm? They have CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC,  CBS and NPR. So they have many more spokespeople for them than what the Republicans have. The Republicans only have one, Fox News.

No free lunch
Without tort reform, there can be no real health care reform. Anyone who believes otherwise should remove their rose-colored glasses. There is no free lunch. The current administration has two choices, neither of which is desirable, raise taxes and/or ration services.

Unique decorations
I'm always annoyed to hear people whine about how teachers have to buy things for their classrooms. They don't have to spend an extra dime and many don't. I taught for a decade and if I needed decorations, I'd send a note home with the kids, asking if anyone had something they would like to donate or display. Often I got collections, of coins or buttons or bugs, that were much more unique than anything I could buy or put together myself. I always had much more than I could use and shared with other teachers who did the same thing.

This week, readers Sound Off on topics ranging from teacher salaries to health-care reform.

Geneva teachers
This is in response to the comment titled "Happy now?" about teachers' salaries. I'm assuming it was the contract for the Geneva teachers. There were several misstatements made here. First of all, the raise is not 3 percent a year for three years for almost 10 percent. In reality the first year is a very minimal pay increase, no pay increase the second year and a minimal increase the third year. There was also a reference that these parents need to feed their children. Teachers do the same thing when a student has forgotten their lunch or the parent has not packed them a snack. My daughter is a teacher and she spends upwards of $1,000 each year of her own hard-earned money, stocking her classroom with the nice extras that make her students' learning experience more enriching. She doesn't ask for reimbursement from the district or from her students' parents. She does it because she loves making a difference in her students' lives. My wife and I have raised our children in Geneva and we have been very pleased with how the district puts their emphasis on providing the citizens of Geneva a quality education for their children. We are entrusting our children's education and the future leaders of our country to some of the most qualified educators in the state. I applaud the Geneva School Board for spending our hard-earned money wisely.

No raises for anybody
I'm trying to accept the fact that Social Security will not be increased this coming year but I'm hoping and praying that I don't see that our congressman and senators and all the other people in public office, I hope and pray that they don't end up getting cost-of-living increases. One year we received 1 1/2 percent and they ended up with a 3 percent increase. If we don't get one, they don't get one. They can give up part of theirs to help the older people.

Taking down red ribbons
Does Geneva now have a Parents Supporting Drugs Committee? Well, somebody, some lady, was seen taking down the red ribbons off light posts in downtown Geneva before Red Ribbon Week was up. Could it be she is forming a new group?

Spread good will
It's evident that Obama has always been interested in government and its workings. I feel he has studied the mistakes and policies of past presidents and has put together a plan to change the way government works, especially the corruption that has become rampant during the last eight years. I read where Obama's plan for health care reform is identical to the plan that Nixon tried to introduce in 1971. Ted Kennedy led the critics, saying it was a bad idea. Now, reflecting back, Kennedy said we should have jumped on it, that we missed a good opportunity. I feel people need to relax and have faith in our new president, who seems to be in full control, even under adverse situations. Obama is right on the money about spreading good will around the world and to eliminate nuclear weapons. If a nuclear war were to break out, any life left on earth wouldn't be worth living. All it would take is one mad man to pull the switch.

Enemies list
President Obama, House Speaker Pelosi, Sen. Reid and the rest of the Democratic Congress are starting to act like President Nixon. Nixon had an enemies list and it is exactly what the current administration is forging. The enemies are all the conservative talk show, radio personalities such as Rush, Glen or Sean, Fox News and all the other media that are against the Obama administration for his increased taxes, control of the auto industry and financial institutions and forcing Obama health care on the taxpayers. It is time that Obama starts working on the reason for his Nobel Peace Prize within the United States.

Twisted logic
In last week's Sound Off a proponent of government health care used twisted logic in an attempt to persuade us to be in favor or more government in our lives and economy. The writer imagined that an example of government doing good with our money is the fact that it spends more on medical research than the drug industry. What the person doesn't understand is that success is not measured by the amount of money you can throw at the problem, but it is achieved by results. In the case of medical research, if the government is spending much more on research then why isn't the government developing the life-saving drugs that are now patented by the pharmaceutical companies? Wouldn't it stand to reason that if the government was having success in medical research that we would be spared the cost of expensive prescription drugs sold to us by the drug companies? That is why there is opposition to an expansion of government power in the health care industry. We already have too many examples of the government spending money and getting no positive results. We don't need more.

This idiot
Who is this idiot that thinks we should get rid of the Veterans Administration and Medicare? The people that are getting Medicare and Veterans Administration help have earned this. This isn't something that is just given to us. We have earned it. If this idiot doesn't think so, he better look at what the veterans have done for this country to protect their freedoms.

Untouchable pensions?
Have you noticed that when our local, county or state governments talk about closing their budget shortfalls, they all offer no wage increases, lay-offs or cuts in services. No one will talk about their pensions. Why not? What makes their pensions untouchable? It is time to stop complaining about our government and to do one thing, get out and vote in the primary election in February. If you do not vote in the primary, you let a small group of people decide for you who will run in November. Won't you bet it will be the same candidates who are in office now and the pensions will never change? It is time for new faces in our government.

Insurance costs
This is to all of those hysterical [tea-party protesters] who think that the health care system is just fine. I have an insurance policy for just me, just me. I have a $2,000 deductible and a $3,000 out of pocket and my premium just went from $449 a month to $614 a month, effective Jan. 1. That's a 38 percent increase. So all of you people who think that the Republicans are right and like oh, no, no, no, we can't change the health care system because it's good the way it is, everybody loves their insurance, I've got news for you. This may cause me to have to cancel my insurance and I can't get any because I have pre-existing conditions, so I guess it's OK with you and the Republicans that I die.

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.

No apology needed
I'm responding to "Apologies needed." I don't care how many times Congressman Wilson apologized. The fact is he said it. Obama, being the gracious person he is, accepted the apology. I'm sure he has heard a lot worse in a political gathering where the mentality never rose above first grade. Any remarks that the Democrats might have made were true, I'm sure, and no apologies were in order. The fans of the Bush Administration look pretty silly defending the father-son duo, especially after the train wreck our country has become during their years in office, and yet the arrogant young Bush junior feels free to say Obama doesn't have a clue. Furthermore, this country was racist during the Jimmy Carter presidency and still is somewhat, and the Boston tea party protesters were unAmerican as any real American would agree.

Sorry, Chicago
I'm sorry Chicago didn't get the Olympics. I was able to go to Atlanta when the games were there and it was the best experience of my life. I think Mayor Daley and President Obama did right to try to put the best face on the U.S. proposal but, from what I've read, our international reputation has become so pathetic over the last 10 years, thanks George, that we won't have a chance of getting an Olympics for decades to come.

Unbelievable salaries
I'm calling about the salaries in St. Charles. Since we moved here, we cannot believe the low pay that these employers pay their employees. How they expect a family of three or four to live on this? My husband works two part-time jobs and we carry our own health insurance because nobody wants to hire us full-time. Yes, guess what? We are professionals and we are working for what, $11, $12 an hour? In [one grocery story], the highest you can get paid is $10 and pay union dues. That's nothing. I think everybody should go on strike, all the retail people, any of those other places, just go on strike and see how the managers handle it.

Happy now?
I hope our teachers are happy now. The parents of their students are taking cut after cut and realize the necessity of doing it in order to feed those very children. But do our teachers have to? Hardly. If I recall the numbers correctly, it's more than 3 percent a year for three years, or 10 percent over the term of the contract. Pretty good deal, except for those of us who have to pay those salaries. I haven't seen a raise in four years but I've sure seen pay cuts, benefit cuts, hour cuts. Quite a deal they got for themselves, and our school board just blithely went along.

Boisterous trains
To all train men who roll through our town/city, be advised. You proceeded to become too loud, too rattly, too boisterous, too ratty. I know. Kind of pushy for an out-of-state railroad, huh? Just so you know, you are on our radar and sonar. OK, railroad apologists, have your way. Boring. Disturbing the peace is still a terrible behavior.

Assisted success
There aren't too many people who consider dependence upon government entitlement programs as achieving success. Would you tell someone that you were doing great because your family are on welfare and Medicaid? That is the problem that our president is taking health care reform. He believes that a growing number of people receiving some form of government assistance demonstrates our country's compassion. Condemning people to an addiction to government assistance is not something to celebrate. We should be trying to figure out how to shrink the amount on Medicaid and welfare and how to create an economy that offers enough opportunity for people so they are able to rid themselves of government. An astounding 20 percent of our population is now on Medicaid and our president believes that number needs to go higher. The opposite is true, as are the real solutions to our problems compared to the direction that our president would like to take us.

Poop distinctions
I am not a professional when it comes to identifying poop, but there is no way that deer poop, dog poop or Canada geese poop can be mistaken one for the other. They are all distinctly different.

See you at Scarecrow
Hope to see you all at Scarecrow Fest this weekend. It's going to be one of those wonderfully crisp fall weekends that are perfect for being outside with family and friends. Make a date with the wife, bring the kids and the grandkids. Have a bite to eat and meet new friends and see some of the funniest, scariest and just plain oddest scarecrows ever.