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October 24, 2012

In Your View

Anonymous The Independent The Daily Independent Wed Oct 24, 2012, 06:00 AM EDT

ASHLAND — Yikes! Efficiency is contagious!

It is as I feared. It will be remembered that last year I reported on a call I made to city government to request trash be picked up from my curb. The next morning, I prepared to go to city hall to beg, threaten, stand in line and be frustrated to get them to do what I asked. It is my right as an American to be dissatisfied with government, and I looked forward to it with considerable zest.

To my horror, as I got in my car, I found the trash had been magically and efficiently picked up before I had risen from my bed. I immediately corresponded with The Independent to point out if the city’s efforts to do what we pay them to do, quickly and efficiently, were to catch on it might spread to state or federal government, undermining the entire edifice in which we live, our very expectations as an American that all government is lazy and corrupt.

We would be left with absolutely nothing to complain about!

I now find that this noxious weed of efficient government has, indeed, spread to the state. I wrote the Department of Highways to complain about the traffic light at U.S. 23 and Ky. 5. It gets stuck, and people run the left turn light in frustration.

To my horror, not only did the Department of Highways dispatch a crew in a timely fashion, they even gave me the courtesy of a telephone call to inform me what steps were being taken!

How am I supposed to maintain my posture of dissatisfaction in the face of such policies? Must I become a Pittsburgh Pirates fan?

J. Stewart Schneider, Ashland

Wondering why dislike for Obama

On Sunday, I generally join some other men at a local restaurant to discuss whatever comes up. Recently, one of them said: “Obama wants to bring our whole system down, so he can replace it with a European system.”

“Until this moment,” I told him, “I had not realized that you are insane.”

Another man told me: “Obama is an anti-colonialist.” Where did he get that? Someone said it was so.

A lie told often enough may come to be regarded as the truth. Obama is being accused of being against British colonialism. A number of my ancestors were that.

Then, the same two fellows attempted to belittle Obama’s intellectual capacity. They are saying that of a man who has degrees from Columbia University and Harvard.

Is it because they (and many of your letter writers) can’t stand it that a black man has superior credentials? I wonder.

Father Andrew L.J. James, Grayson

Wanting to vote for Huckabee

I wonder what would happen if every newspaper in the U.S. from now until Election Day would carry the headline: Write-in Huckabee/McCain. It only takes a spark to start a flame. These desperate times call for desperate measures.

Penny Kirk, Catlettburg

EDITOR’S NOTE: Under Kentucky law, write-in votes are counted only if the person is a declared write-in candidate, Mr. Huckabee is not a declared candidate.

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