What's on your mind?: Christianity a way, balanced budget?
Balanced budget?
Recent reports show that Wisconsin will face a $1.8 billion deficit in the next two-year budget period. Scott Walker and the Republicans claim to be surprised, concluding that tax collections were not as high as estimated. Of course, when you cut taxes, tax collections will be lower. But this was all part of Walker's greater plan.
Walker and state Republicans cut spending drastically and then claimed to have balanced the budget. They found a "surplus" which they "returned to the taxpayers," most of which went to the wealthy. Now, they find a deficit again. After the election, we'll find out their "solution." It will not be raising taxes on those who can most afford it, but cutting spending for those who need it most. Education funding will be brutally slashed. Badger Care will be gutted, even as Walker continues to refuse federal Medicaid money. When the state budget is again "balanced" and a "surplus" is identified, this process will be repeated.
David Henning
Sheboygan
No one system
When big corporations "partner" with Washington muscle to plan our lives, individual liberty and creativity become the first casualties. While Washington was partnering with the usual cash cows, the banking and health care industries, Bill Gates and his ambitious foundation were partnering with Washington to take over of our entire K-12 educational system.
The fact that taxpayers will foot the massive bill for Common Core hardware and software is not lost on the Silicon Valley moguls now orbiting Washington in ever tightening circles. We should not adopt a centralized school system designed to generate compliant, politically correct little technocrats when we really need more feisty, independent thinking, little Glenn Grothmans. A vibrant, independent country needs a variety of independent educational systems.
Art DeJong
Sheboygan
Real issues
It's been a bad month so far for the so-called professional sports of football and basketball. It seems basketball, for some wealthy owners, is too black and thus not as rich a gold mine as it could be if more season ticket holders were affluent whites.
And for the NFL, that struggling corporation that is after all, a registered non-profit, images were caught showing how violence on the field sometimes comes home with the players. It's not unlike the returning soldiers we send to war and then expect to gently melt back into our population after their services are no longer needed. We are, as a country, now fully comparable to a dysfunctional family. Real issues are not even discussed, much less dealt with.
The only issue that unites us is outside threats against us. Let one of our own be decapitated by a group of nut-jobs and we rally to start yet another war. Yet our government is aware that our "friend and ally," Saudi Arabia, has had 113 public beheadings in the last 21 months. And their treatment of women is primeval. But, hey, they aren't Americans, so who cares? Seems like a good topic for discussion, but unfortunately there is no time — the kickoff starts at noon.
Mark Briese
Sheboygan
Find The Way
Some say Christianity is a Way, not a religion. Not a system of dogmas and rituals, it is rather a Way of living with each other. Feed the hungry, house the homeless, comfort the sorrowful, heal the physically and spiritually wounded, visit the lonely and imprisoned, care for widows and orphans. Nor is it about a future heaven and hell, but of living God's compassionate love right here on earth. Some argue for damnation and God's vengeance, words that could be understood as a sign of inner wounds.
The Bible and the Qu'ran tell us to love with kindness and mercy. Jesus said, "You know the Way to the place I am going." We won't reach that place using the road of self-righteousness and divisiveness.
Genevieve Beenen
Sheboygan
Another shooting
Many of us haven't heard of a 20-year-old white kid in Salt Lake City, Utah, who was killed by a black police officer on Aug. 11 of this year. This happened two days after Michael Brown was killed in Missouri. His name was Dillon Taylor and as Dillon was leaving a convenience store, police officers received a report of a man with a gun. The officers in the area responded and saw Dillon coming out of the store. Dillon matched the description of the person on the polices report.
Dillon did not hear the police when they asked him to lay down on the ground because Dillon had his earphones on. He reached into his pocket for a cell phone when the officer thought he was reaching for a gun. He was then shot and killed. He had no gun, he did not rob the store, not did he assault the officer.
The police chief said that it would be wholly inappropriate to take the most vital evidence that they had (a body video on the officer) and put it out to the public prior to the officer having due process. We haven't heard anything about protests or looting from the media about this incident. There was very little protesting of it.
Norm Veldboom
Oostburg
Use common sense
The recent tragic event of a nine-year-old girl accidentaly shooting the person instructing her on the use of an Uzi automatic weapon has the liberal Second Amendment haters crying for more gun control. Yet the lack of plain common sense on the part of the parents and the victim go unmentioned. It is fortunate there are not too many people who do not see this, at least let us hope there aren't.
Young people should be instructed in the proper safety habits and correct use of firearms, when used for sport target shooting and hunting. If the intent was personal protection, nine years old is too young, and an Uzi is like using a sledgehammer to drive a thumb tack. By the way, I have never owned a firearm in my life. I have no problem with those who do.
Jack Wirtz
Sheboygan
Join the panel
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