Readers
Patience is a casualty when everything’s lost
Re: the March 14 article, “Suit says state tardy in processing jobless claims”:
I also had to wait months before getting my unemployment check.
I called the Governor’s Office for help, as bills were due. And who would pay to get my car if it were repossessed? I couldn’t!
After several calls to the Governor’s Office, I received a call from unemployment stating I would get a check that Friday.
I didn’t, so I called the governor again and finally received a check the following Friday. I am sure there are quite a few people this has happened to.
I guess I was lucky to only have to wait two months. As your article said, others have lost everything.
Sharon Malin
Passionate plea to save public schools’ fine arts
In this rocky economy, spending must be cut in areas that are “not as important.” This is understood, but fine arts should not be completely cut from any school.
I am a sophomore in the advanced dance and advanced drama programs at University High School, which shares a campus and electives with Rincon High.
Fine arts are my passion and are important to those of us who will pursue jobs in the field.
Fine arts aren’t only fun, but also help to relieve the stresses of the long school day, teach valuable lessons and help students “break out of their shell.”
If it weren’t for the drama and dance programs, I would have a hard time getting up in the morning.
Some people feel passionately for the arts and would be lost and depressed without these programs.
Drama helps me get away from my problems at home and stresses of school. It is the program where I can be myself and let loose of all my insecurities.
Drama kids work extremely hard, just as hard as the students in economics or any other primarily academic elective.
We learn to put ourselves in other people’s shoes, which helps us understand different cultures and beliefs.
We learn how to build confidence and fight for what we believe in. We learn public speaking, annunciation, confidence, responsibility to meet deadlines, time management, organization, and so much more, all of which will help us get and keep jobs.
We not only act, but also learn how to interact with others, use tools to build our sets, repair rips in costumes, clean our workspace, and so many more tasks that are necessary to surviving in the real world.
Fine arts is what I live for, and if it weren’t for the public schools providing these programs, I would not be able to – under any circumstance – afford private lessons and classes to make the dreams I have had since I was a child come true.
Please reconsider pulling fine arts programs from schools, it is my life, it is my passion, it is all that that I live for and strive to be.
Carly Stewart
Drug demand, not gun owners, fuel violence
You talk about Americans subsidizing gun violence in Mexico. It is not gun owners, but the brainless idiots who buy the drugs smuggled in by the cartels.
You say the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms estimates 90 percent of the guns used in crimes come from the U.S. And if you believe that, I have this bridge across the Hudson River I can get you a good deal on.
You talk about semiautomatic “assault weapons.” Obviously, you have no idea of the definition of an assault rifle.
To broaden your education a bit, an assault rifle is capable of automatic fire. You cannot walk into a gun store and buy one, and that law has been in effect since 1933!
You speak of grenades, but I have never seen a live grenade for sale except to the military.
The rate of desertion in the Mexican army is quite high, and if a soldier can take his real assault rifle with him, he can get a good bit of money for it from the drug dealers, enough to disappear.
The cartels also have machine guns and rocket launchers, but they sure as hell didn’t get them from this side of the border.
As for those “sniper rifles,” any hunting rifle with a scope can be called a sniper rifle.
Instead of coming up with more laws, which the criminals will ignore, how about finally putting in a stronger law enforcement presence on the border? Or is that too difficult for you to understand?
And while we are on that, how about the Mexican government doing more to stop the drugs and illegal people coming this way instead of being paid off by the cartels?
No money, no drugs. As for Eric Holder, a sleazier politician and enemy of the Constitution would be hard to find, though the president’s appointed tax cheats would come close.
John F. Sukey
retired military
Paper pulls picket pins, rides off into sunset
It’s a sad day when a venerable old newspaper like the Citizen has to pull its picket pins.
It’s the Citizen’s last and best hurrah.
Michael J. Beisch