Letters policy



The News Courier encourages letters to the editor. Submissions should be no more than 400 words and should include a name, address and telephone number for verification. Submissions that do not meet requirements are subject to editing. Send letters by noon on Thursdays to P.O. Box 670, Athens, Ala., 35613, or e-mail to kelly@athensnews-courier.com.



Seniors must be heard

Dear Editor:

Obama wants to penalize senior citizens' Medicare by reducing its benefits by $500 billion to help pay for health care for illegal aliens who are costing the taxpayers billions of dollars in educational costs, unpaid health care bills, and law enforcement costs. Interestingly, there is no requirement, in the health care legislation, to be a citizen to qualify for the proposed government health care plan.

The multi billion dollar cash for clunkers incentive to trade in a one year old car for a new one, that gets two miles per gallon more, is contrary to the goal of the clean air proposal.

It penalizes taxpayers like myself who have a 14 year old car that gets 29 miles per gallon that can't be turned in, but my taxes will pay the cash payment to those who do. The clean air and energy bill will also heavily penalize our citizens and billions are needlessly spent for special earmarks.

Congresses spending spree will penalize generations to come and destroy our nation! They gave themselves another pay raise this year while their constituents were losing their jobs and homes. We have worked too hard, and bled on the battlefield, to develop and protect this great nation and don't want it all jeopardized. We must replace self-centered Congressional members who don't understand the term "balanced budget", or the necessity to enforce our federal immigration laws.

We need people in Washington that read what they are voting on, don’t spend what we don't have, and listen to the taxpayers on Main Street, U.S.A., not the people on K Street in Washington."

Every taxpaying citizen needs to make sure that his family and friends, nationwide, are making members of Congress aware of our intent to stop the spending spree through our vote next year. Don't stop speaking up and writing our president, and all our senators, and representatives regarding our very serious concerns on these matters. We must be heard over the administration's Acorn, Moveon.org, and SEIU, well financed, intimidating, voices.

Sincerely,

Quentin D. Anderson Sr.

Athens



Humor column was subjective

Dear Editor:

Kelly Kazek's News Courier column about Chuck Norris and Roy Moore seems a bit subjective. It is disappointing to think that she has such little regard for these gentlemen, even assuming that she really knows that chucknorrisfacts.com is a spoof. Rather than print such condemning remarks, even in jest, that can mislead readers, I would like to encourage her to check the real facts first.

For the 2010 gubernatorial race, Mr. Moore has garnered financial support from every county in Alabama, and every state in this country. This broad support indicates that there are many who would like to see a person with more conservative fiscal, ethical, and social values as head of our state government. So, it should not be surprising that Mr. Moore has the support of such people as Chuck Norris, who has previously declared his conservative and Christian values. These are well documented on his official Web site, chucknorris.com. Moreover, how does being friends with someone who lives in another state automatically tag them as an intruder into Alabama politics?

The biggest issue that I have with your column is your “concern” that Judge Moore broke the law when he refused to remove the Ten Commandments monument from the lobby of the supreme-court building.

That is a common fallacy that the media would like for people to believe. In actuality, the law was broken when U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled on a non-existent law, since the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment specifies that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.

Therefore, there can be no federal or state law prohibiting any individual or state official from acknowledging God. Mr. Moore merely defied this illegal ruling, which is a far cry from “breaking the law.” Unfortunately, the sitting state Attorney General Bill Pryor actually supported Thompson’s opinion, when he should have been protecting Moore’s stance, and had the case dismissed. Furthermore, since Roy Moore took an oath to uphold the Constitution, not only did he not break the law, he fought a battle to uphold the law that cost him his job. Because of that, I’m sure he sleeps better at night than does Bill Pryor (who miraculously thereafter got appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit).

If you intend to write any future columns that defame Alabama patriots, you may want to check your facts first.

Sincerely,

Mike Wahl

Athens





E-Verify is not the answer

Dear Editor:

In a recent letter to the editor, Quentin Anderson suggested the E-Verify program would help alleviate the problem we have with illegal aliens in our community. Soon after, the city of Decatur passed an ordinance requiring all employers/business owners wishing to do contract work for that city to comply with the E-Verify method of ascertaining certain information, including, but not limited to, citizenship status, on all of their employees. Then the city of Huntsville passed a similar ordinance. I am not sure if our city councilmen in Athens have played copycat by adopting such an ordinance.

I am opposed to E-Verify and here is why — our federal government is constitutionally obligated to protect our borders from foreign invasion, yet it has made little, if any, effort to uphold its duty to American citizens. Our government allows aliens to enter this country illegally then grants them Social Security benefits, access to free public education, access to free health care and other (American) taxpayer funded programs, then expects private business owners to ferret out the criminals for the purpose of denying them employment. Excuse me? My constitution doesn’t say that private citizens are to be punished with outrageous requirements such as E-Verify when our own government refuses to uphold its constitutional obligations.

Our government is telling us that it is okay for our elected government officials to grant numerous taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens, but private citizens may not offer employment to these same people.

The burden of ferreting out illegal aliens should not be placed on already over regulated private businesses. All businesses are already forced to act as tax withholding agents for state and federal governments with no remuneration. The bookkeeping involved in determining and withholding taxes on all employees is complicated and time consuming. Now some government officials (and some private citizens) want to further burden business owners with even more regulations.

Identifying illegal aliens is the responsibility of government agencies, not private citizens. Our public schools are funded in part by federal tax dollars making teachers employees of the government. Why not require all public school teachers to run verification checks on all their students, then report all non-U.S. citizens to immigration authorities?

Punishing private citizens for the sins of our government is unconstitutional. Recognize the responsible entities and demand they fulfill their obligations.

Sincerely,

Bob Farrell

Athens