E-mail 
Print | DISCUSS |
|
The selection of Mitch Daniels as president of Purdue University is somewhat incredible as well as amusing. Daniels, in another one of his routine humble acts, claimed he thought there were many others who would have been a better choice for the job.
I think he is right about that. I would say right here in Indiana at least 100,000 or more would have been a far better choice. The problem for these people was that they weren’t the ones that had appointed eight members to the board of trustees.
So now Daniels, in another one of his routine humble acts, claims education has always been a top priority of his. Yet on his becoming governor he wasted no time in declaring war on our schoolteachers in this state. He immediately stripped the teachers of collective bargaining rights. While governor, he has cut millions of dollars in public school funding. There were also issues about job security and job protection, and not in the teachers’ favor.
We can all understand there is a limit on how much can be spent on education. And, yes, there is a limit on how much can be paid in teachers’ salaries and benefits. However, a person is only fooling himself or herself to think that we are going to get the best schoolteachers in the world here and pay them fast-food factory wages.
Purdue has a simple retirement policy. At age 65 a person must retire. That’s something most people could easily understand. As we have all since learned, Purdue seems to have several different retirement policies. It’s just a matter of which one they choose to go by.
Here in Fort Wayne they retire a guy because he is going to be 65 years old and replace him with someone who is 64. Daniels is 63 and is getting a five-year contract.
Supposedly, one of the reasons Daniels was picked for the job was that he has a celebrity status about him. Well, so does Mike Tyson. His age is against him. He ain’t in his 60s yet.
Curtis J. Ransom
Spencerville
I would like to thank the Fort Wayne Street Department for their aid. My husband and I own several rental properties in Fort Wayne and our home is located in the Brierwood Hills neighborhood. We were very worried about the tree and debris removal around the properties. The street department seemed to be everywhere. In the rental areas, streets were cleared and the debris disappeared. As small-business owners, this means a great deal to us.
At our home, we had a large tree split apart. We were able to cut up a great deal of the tree ourselves but thought we would have difficulty locating a tree service. When the Fort Wayne Street Department showed up and completed the job, we could not have been more thankful. It was a great relief as my husband and I both work full-time as well as maintaining our rentals. There is only so much money and time to go around. The men who showed up were professional and dedicated to completing the entire task at hand. I want to thank John, Jason, Lee, Roger and Cory for helping us. We deeply appreciate their hard work, good will and humor.
Our best to you.
Brian and Marcy Adams
President Obama’s lawyers, in defending the constitutionality of ObamaScare, said that if the law was not found legal under the commerce clause it still could be found legal because Congress has the authority to tax. The lawyers said that the law is a form of tax. This was their argument. Roberts did not create this issue. He would not approve it under the commerce clause, but he could not deny that Congress can levy a tax. President Obama used this reason to have the law approved.
For President Obama, now, to deny that it is a tax, removes the reason it was passed. Perhaps it should be retried. Either President Obama’s lawyers or President Obama doesn’t know the true nature of ObamaScare. As Pelosi said, we really don’t know what it is until we pass it.
It seems that even though it is passed, we still don’t know what it is.
Paul Reszel
Comment on this story