June 30, 2009

6/28/09 Letters to the Editor

Am I biased, or what?

It seems as though I am getting aggravated more often as of late.

Are aging, diet, lack of physical exertion, bad attitude all possible factors to blame?

I am older and eat well and put in a fair amount of labor.

Some will agree that my attitude does vary somewhat depending on who I am facing.

Truthfully, I don’t think any of these factors are solely to blame.

I think my problem is that I am paying too much attention to what is going on within our government and our country.

There were times when I was with the majority and just left everything up to those in charge.

Now, I lose sleep over national issues. I also write letters, make phone calls, bellyache a lot and kick trees.

Who would have thought that the president of the U.S. would wield so much inexperienced clout and get by with it so easily in such a short time?

Now, our Congress, populated by so many different faces with such various backgrounds of education, religion and even culture, has split itself into two camps of serious sharply opposing philosophies.

One, the majority group, is moving at breakneck speed to put into place every unproven idea offered by our possibly illegitimate presidential office holder before the wakening calls come forth, and they, hopefully, will come.

The other group is trying to reorganize while whistling “Dixie” and wondering how and why they let this happen.

The how is easier than the why in this case.

“How” was done by not sticking to conservative and America first ideals and allowing McCain to run because he had pretty well joined the other side in many of its philosophical views.

Maybe the why was that they were embarrassed from listening to and sort of believing all Bush-bashers while also forgetting their roots but remembering the polls.

The best of the poor Republican campaign was run by local backers rather than by the nominee, McCain, and his aides.

I think McCain was a genuine hero and is an experienced office holder who would not flinch at a political face off, but he has reneged on the last part.

He and his aides were out done by a slick con man with no business experience, no military experience, no legitimate birth certificate nor open college or law school records — still not revealed — no financial tuition records but who belonged to a church full of hate and had a wife who did not love America and its white majority.

No officials worried at all about these delinquencies, and none of these facts were focused on by the Republican nominee as “it didn’t seem like fair play to talk that way about an elected U.S. senator campaigning for the presidency.”

What a cop-out!

Sen. McCain stomped on the hearts of many Americans when he took that “gentlemanly” route.

Didn’t he know that this guy and his machine are a real and eminent danger to the America as it has been known?

I had the feeling that McCain believed he had lost the race and was turning nice for future consideration.

Maybe that is unfair, but something surely went haywire along the way.

I hope my faith in Defense Secretary Gates is well placed. I believe it is.

He stands out and away from the “dead-end kids” of Obama’s cabinet along with Biden, Pelosi, Reid, Franks, and Dodd — a lineup the existence of which frightens me but none of our earthly enemies.

Most Hollywood “statesmen” love them and their credos.

Pray that our constitution be honored by its strict continuance.

Sometimes soon, I must change from this discouraged and angry thinking and return to a love and forgiveness mode.

Things may not ever be as bad as they seem.

Wait a minute. Isn’t that the thought that got us into this predicament?

Well, I won’t go overboard like McCain did, but will try to handle things more tactfully, yet forever forcefully.

Monte Swatzell

Cleburne

Fraud in Texas elections

Rio Vista has had five elections within the last five years to settle the liquor issue.

Pamela west is right, this election has nothing to do with liquor, it has to do with her hatred for Brenda Hall.

The Johnson County elections administrator and four clerks have the task of controlling 79,000 plus registred voters within the county.

Each one of these has to be placed in the correct senate, congressional, county commissioner, school and city district.

Every two years each active registered voter is sent a new voter ID card.

About 12,000 of these are returned because the voter has moved and not changed his or her address with the voter office.

This is no small task when they are running elections at the same time.

I have worked elections for the past 25 years.

I have worked for the county clerk and worked with the last three elections administrators.

Yes, there have been mistakes made but never on purpose or to be fraudulent.

During the elections these people work 12 to 16 hours a day to insure elections are secure and fair.

To satisfy Pamela West’s ego the five elections have cost the tax payers of Johnson County almost $25,000.

Ms. West thinks she is winning, but she is driving everyone to drink, and Ms. Hall is selling the liquor. Guess who wins at this game?

I voted against alcohol in Cleburne, and I lost but I didn’t bring a lawsuit against Judge Harmon.

Why don’t they stop this jealousness and give the taxpayers a break or start paying for these elections themselves?

Earl Pierce

Cleburne

Two sides to the geocaching controversy

We wish to thank you and your staff for doing several informative articles on the pros and cons of geocaching in our historic cemeteries in Johnson County.

There are always two sides to each story, and we appreciate you for printing both sides.

As you know, myself and the executive board members of the Johnson County Cemetery Association do strongly oppose the use of our endangered, old cemeteries being used for scavenger hunts.

We have no objection to anyone playing this kind of game as long as they do not use our ancestors’ burial sites for their entertainment. I wish, however, they would bury their items near an elderly person’s front yard and perhaps ask if they could mow the person’s lawn or mend a screen door, window, or make sure the homeowner has cool air or warm heat. Maybe just take time to talk for a few minutes.

Perhaps hide the geocaches along our riverbanks and remove the old tires that have been thrown into the water by uncaring persons harming our drinking water.

The people who contacted me after the articles were reported in the Cleburne Times-Review were very upset that anyone would play trivial games in our old cemeteries.

When we started our endeavor to maintain these historic old cemeteries some 23 years ago, we could not find many of them because of many, many years of neglect.

We had to rely on elderly people to help us find them.

We were too late for some of them; their history is gone forever.

Is there any wonder why we do not appreciate someone playing games in the cemeteries we have retrieved from scrub trees, briars, weeds, grassburrs, hogs, vandalism, etc., to regain their rightful place to honor the memories or our ancestors.

It is our undertanding the practice of using our historic cemeteries will be removed from geocaching by laws in the near future.

For that we thank you. We are grateful.

Thank you to all of your readers who saw the articles in the Times-Review and called me with their opinions.

And again, a special thank you to the editors and Matt Smith, who did research and great articles.

Doris Lanfear, president

Johnson County

Cemetery Association

Thanks for the flip flops, peanut butter

We want to thank all the residents of Cleburne, businesses, schools and churches responsible for helping us with our class project, Flip Flops and Peanut Butter.

Thank you United Presbyterian Church, College Heights Baptist, Eastern Heights Church, TEAM School, Smith Middle School, Wheat Middle School, Coleman Elementary, Kroger, First United Methodist Church, Gerard Elementary, Cleburne Bible Church, Bethel Temple, Nolan River Baptist Church, Johnson County Juvenile Services, First Baptist Church, Agape Church and Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Thanks to you we have collected hundreds of pairs of flip flops and jars of peanut butter for children this summer.

The donations were presented to Operation Blessing for distribution over the summer months. We are all proud of our community.

Luanna Ward’s

Leadership Class

Cleburne ISD

Phoenix Campus