Degree of Disease

Editorials

Written by Don Ratzlaff Tuesday, 10 February 2009 13:54

We’re learning the hard way as a nation: Never underestimate the grip of greed. Reports that executives of some of the mega-banks receiving billions of dollars of taxpayer bailout money are still spending it on lavish luxuries are revolting and infuriating, but should they really surprise us? Greed got us into this mess, and it’s bound to keep us in it for some time.

We have a right to be angry at the bank executives, but we also should take a hard look at ourselves. The desire to live more lavishly than we can afford to, to leverage our future with debt, to live for immediate gratification rather than with the long view, to define our success by value of our material possessions..... We can criticize their degree of excess, but we...

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Letters

Letter to the Editor

Written by Hillsboro Free Press Wednesday, 11 April 2007 07:53

Dog owners, take care of your animals

 

We often hear complaints about all the stray cats in town. However, my beef is with the dog owners.

I really wish the dog owners who keep their dogs tethered up or even outside all day and night would have a little consideration for their neighbors.

Many of the dogs are outside for more than eight hours at a time with no food or water and they’re able to get tangled up around things they can’t free themselves from.

It may not bother the dog owners, but not everyone cares to listen to your dogs bark all day and night. It’s not the dogs’ fault.

Mary Pankratz

Hillsboro

A stimulus for our local economy

Partly Nonsense

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 27 January 2009 14:17

We can’t do much about the bailout insanity going on in Washing­ton. Handing out billions with no oversight is just plain crazy. The mess is already made, so why compound it with throwing money at it without any assurance of it working—and it appears that it hasn’t so far.

We can’t control what is done on the national scene but we can control what is done locally.

I mentioned that I would be putting forth a stimulus package for Marion County and here is how it looks. These words shouldn’t be said out loud but I am doing it anyway.

If we wish to preserve our way of life in these parts there is only one answer: We must all make a pledge to buy everything possible from our local merchants. When there are no local merchants we...

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Local interest

Editorials

Written by Don Ratzlaff Tuesday, 03 February 2009 13:51

It’s good to see the level of interest people have in local government, based on the number of people who have filed for city and school offices for the April election. In a few cases, the situation appears dire with a lack of candidates on file. But at least in most instances, enough people are still willing to take on a thankless job in the name of public service so that each position can be filled.

The ideal would be to have at least two candidates for every position. The competition would prompt more conversation between candidates and the public and keep the candidates on their toes.

Local government is the most dynamic level. It’s the best place to make a real difference. —DR