‘Change’ has come but ‘hope’ is gone

Change has come to America. We have a president and Congress that are going to solve our overspending and overtaxing with more of the same. If we follow Obama’s lead, we will accumulate more debt in the next 10 years than the previous 220 years. The president himself says that our debt is unsustainable.

With taxes and debt already at high levels, the president wishes to saddle us with increased energy costs. He says that if his cap-and-trade bill is approved, energy costs to consumers “will necessarily skyrocket.”

He wants this to combat global warming, which many scientists say is not a problem. Even if we shackle our industry with this bill, other nations will not comply. More companies will close here and move to China, Mexico and India.

Those nations are hoping we will adopt this ridiculous proposal. Obama knows the result of his actions: He’s including $4.2 billion to assist the newly created unemployed that will result from cap and trade legislation.

We now own General Motors. The federal government received 60 percent, the union 17.5 percent while stockholders were wiped out. Many UAW workers that backed Obama's candidacy are now joining the ranks of the unemployed.

The president now says we must have a government run health care plan approved by August. Why the hurry? He knows the more people learn of his plans, the less support there will be for them.

When leadership does the opposite of what is required to remedy a problem, you must wonder if they really want that problem fixed. It seems to me that social engineering is taking precedent over reviving the economy. “Change” has come to America, but “hope” is leaving America, unless we change course and do it quickly.

Mike Sturm, Ashland



Many misinformed on ‘carbon tax’

It is heartening to see the “carbon tax” issue finally get front-page coverage (“Legislation would hike AEP bills,” July 14), but there still seems to be a lot of misinformation concerning it.

It is the biggest single tax increase since the creation of the income tax in 1913. Various “think tanks” have used their influence to “villainize” and marginalize any climate scientists pr researcher who disagrees with the “global warming” hot air that is in vogue. The number of scientists who disagree with the current global warming scenario is increasing, and the media, by and large, has ignored the issue because it won’t stand up to serious scientific scrutiny.

Congress doesn’t want open debate on this topic because a handful of states will bear a wildly disproportionate share of this tax burden: Heavy coal-burning states including Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia.

The cap-and-trade scheme being pushed by Reps. Waxman and Markey is vulnerable to the same kind of corruption as the “derivatives markets” and “supreme mortgages” that brought down Wall Street and our economy.

The “carbon tax” is about more government revenue, not about the environment. By their own admission, government officials state that electric bills will triple and quadruple, while there will be little effect on the environment because India will not participate.

The “carbon tax” proposal is a scheme to create a huge pool of money for Wall Street to gamble with and for the government to keep the wars going in the middle East so we can “secure” more fossil fuels.

We need more meaningful debate on this topic. We can’t allow incompetent government officials and bike-ridng, tofu-eating Marxists to sneak this monstrosity through in the dead of night.

Ronald Compton, Ashland



Declaration’s words still hold true today

“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

“That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect that safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invaribly the same object ... it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security ...””

Those words were written when we declared our independence from Britain. They hold true today as they did then.

As others have done, I swore an oath to protect these words, but now I like many others watch this great nation fall apart, as the men and women we have voted into power to run our government have forgotten these words our forefathers wrote and died for, nor are they doing the jobs they promised to do when they took office.

My question is this: When are we as Americans — we, the people — going to stand up and say, “Enough!”?

Doug Raybourn, Sergeant, U.S. Army (ret.), Worthington



1979 Blazer class plans reunion

The Paul G. Blazer High School class of 1979 is having its 30-year reunion on July 24-25. Friday night will be at the Ashland Elk's Lodge at 7 p.m. Saturday night will be at the Ashland Plaza Hotel at 7 p.m. Both nights will be casual dress with hors d’oeuvres, cash bars and DJ's. The cost is $10 per person on Friday and $25 per person on Saturday. There is also a golf scramble scheduled for Saturday morning.

A reunion Website has been created at www.classcreator.com/Ashland-KY-Paul-G-Blazer-1979. All classmates are encouraged to register at this site or contact Susan Wilson at (817) 372-9347.

Susan Wilson, Reunion organizer, Colleyville, Tex.