Press-Republican

Opinion

December 9, 2009

Speakout: Dec. 10, 2009

SPEAKOUT RULES

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Benefits
A great story line would be: Let the American people know what kind of benefits the House, Senate, etc. are getting from and are paid for by the American taxpayer. What are their deductibles, co-payments or doctors they may choose. Let's see what they are getting, then maybe we will see why there is so much confusion in Washington (everyday ).

Priorities
As American citizens, we need to set our priorities. We face problems such as nuclear North Korea, looming war with Iran and a president who dithers on troops for Afghanistan. The real and most serious problem, though, is corruption within our own government. We are being lied to about the high-profile issues in the news today. Worry about our government officials and their plans for us first. The other problems are only secondary.

Offenders
Wow, once again the state of Vermont is bragging about being the safest state. Duh, your criminals are over here signing up for Social Services, and if you check criminaljustice.ny.us, you'll see that your sex offenders are living at the Beacon, Lakeside, Pioneer and Stonehelm. It's one thing to advertise your "position" because you refuse to punish, (restorative justice), but it's another to call it treatment. The real term is "let someone else deal with it."

Impugn
Impugn —verb (used with object)

1. to challenge as false (another's statements, motives, etc.); cast doubt upon. 2. Archaic. to assail (a person) by words or arguments; vilify. 3. Obsolete. to attack (a person). The Press-Republican says: "What we will welcome are interesting observations on life's array of experiences, so long as they don't impugn a particular person, group or institution."

Veterans
Gee, the Libs seem to rewrite history every time they speak about the war(s). They forget that Dems also voted for war (when it was popular in the polls to do so, then they all seemed to have done a JFK — John F. Kerry, that is.) They were for the war before they were against it. The Dems, the people who sent our troops to war and hijacked their funding in order to try and slip such pork and bills like amnesty for some 20 to 30 million illegal aliens.

Bridge
Please locate the new Lake Champlain bridge at Cumberland Head, as has been proposed many times in the past. The ferry service located there could be transferred to Crown Point. It would be a better fit for the population size and number of travelers between the two sides of the lake. It would be more responsible fiscally as many more people would be served at this location. It would be more responsible environmentally as there are multiple soot-producing ferries chugging along 24 hours a day to get the large numbers of travelers across the lake.

Thankful
Thankful for: heating bill because I'm warm, snug clothes because I have food, government complaints because I have freedom of speech, sore muscles because I have worked, morning alarm because I am employed, turkey cleanup because I have friends and family, mowing, plowing and shoveling because I have a home, parking spot far away because I am capable of walking.

Facts
In response to the person who called another an uneducated person, you need to arm yourself with facts. The Champlain Bridge in Montreal, which spans the St. Lawrence, is 24,318 feet long (4.6 miles) per wikipedia.org. Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana is 23.87 miles. I highly doubt the distance from Cumberland Head to Grand Isle (6,000-7,000 feet) is undoable or unsafe to span. Even the widest span of 12 miles is doable if there were funds for it. Who's the uneducated moron now?

Pledge
For the Beekmantown parent who doesn't want his/her kiddie saying the Pledge of Allegiance, how about we all pledge a few bucks and get them moved to a country where they'll feel more comfortable — like, maybe, Iran.

Respect
At Seton Catholic, our students respect God and country and, most importantly, one another.

Span
To the person that said certain places were too wide on Lake Champlain to support a bridge, I guess then they shouldn't have built the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel system or the Golden Gate bridge or many other bridges that span greater distances.

Bridge
A post stated that another commentor was ignorant for saying the lake should be bridged nearer Ticonderoga, that there are no other places narrow enough to put a bridge crossing Lake Champlain. This seems incorrect to me; there are several other places where a bridge could be built now, and the width of the lake is no longer the factor it was. Eighty years ago, the engineering would have been impossible. I think there have been a few changes in that field since then. The geology in the lake bed is also better understood now.

Hikers
Instead of raising hunting license fees and making people buy license plates we don't need, why doesn't the state make hikers buy a hiking pass for maybe 10 bucks or so once a year. I think it's only fair since the state spends money on building and maintenance of these trails. I have written to our wonderful senator and assemblywoman but got no response.

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