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FILLMORE COUNTY JOURNAL
Monday, November 26, 2012
The FCJ reaches over 12,000 households each week.
C ommentary Right outside your door By Eric Leitzen By the time you read this, you’ll most likely be nursing distended tummies following Thanksgiving… and isn’t it great? It’s a tradition that stretches back longer than there have even been Eric Leitzen traditions to speak of: lots of food, fun, and frolic, all simply to say “hey, it’s pretty great to be alive.” After the last few years, I’m sure plenty of people could use the simple and small comfort that comes from a little pumpkin pie and cozy sense of being. No doubt, it’s been a pretty crazy time; some of you reading can probably vouch for that more than I can. In a way, I was pretty lucky: sure, I graduated into a quagmire of uncertainty, insolvency and general bad-feeling… but I still have broad shoulders and a strong back. I can be on my feet for hours at a time, toting barges, lifting bales, et cetera, and I understand that I’m at the bottom of the totem pole, here. A different time, a different place, I would have been able to start off as a teacher in some homey little Midwestern burg, but I can at least accept that times are tough and I have to grit my teeth a little. When you’re born into a crisis, so to speak, it’s easier to adapt than someone who saw their good times and good feeling vanish in a puff of smoke. So, I’ve managed to stave if off for a few paragraphs, but here comes the post-Thanksgiving buzzkill and Holiday downer that you see trotted out every year: in this time of giving thanks, remember to be thankful for what you have, and take a moment to consider those who
are less fortunate. You’ve heard it. I’ve heard it, anyone who has been to a kindergarten pageant has heard it. It’s an easy issue to throw out there so you can seem sincere and somewhat justify your consumption of a metric ton of green bean casserole, and that’s the problem: it is easy. Too easy. And, therefore, easy to dismiss. “Sure,” you can say, “let’s all take a moment to bow our heads and think about those starving in (insert nation/continent/principality here).” That’s too easy. It’s too easy to think about someone who’s far away in a strange land with a strange language and strange customs. It’s too easy to think, in our small-town Midwestern sensibilities, of the huddled masses pushing shopping carts in New York City. That’s a thousand miles away, probably a different race, possibly a different religion. In a word: alien to us. Instead of paying lip service to some vaguely defined problem which exists anywhere from half a world to several worlds away, let’s use the prevailing spirit of the day to breathe some new life into this tired, tired old chestnut of guilt and admonishment. Jobs. When you hear that word, what do you think of now? Probably all the overheated rhetoric in Washington about this plan and that cliff and this doom or gloom. Instead of moving it far away and making it alien, bring it to Minnesota, bring it to Wisconsin, bring it to Iowa. Think to yourself of the people you know looking for work, or who are working jobs that don’t pay enough or are so far below their training that it’s almost laughable. Think to yourself how many “for sale” signs you see on your street or in town, during your morning commute… and try to remember now many fewer signs you saw ten years ago. Think of
Letter about ...RushfordPeterson Referendum To the Editor, We are writing to inform people about the upcoming referendum for Rushford-Peterson residents on Wednesday, December 19 from 11–8 pm in the Rushford-Peterson High School lobby. The request is for $15 million to build a new EC-5 building and refurbish the R-P elementary. The “Vote Yes” Committee requests support for this initiative for many reasons. •Today’s low construction costs and interest rates make it a prudent time to build. •This can also be a boom to the local economy as local businesses will be asked to bid on the construction project. •Long term, the District will need to invest $10-12 million into the existing R-P High School building and $1.7 mil-
lion into the Middle School facility. Investments in these buildings will only act as a temporary solution because the buildings’ age will continue to present new problems. Some of the advantages of a new EC-5 facility will include: •Better air quality; •Safer Location (current location is located on main highway); •Use of 21st century education spaces, while maximizing the use of technology; •Lower maintenance, utility and transportation costs; •Major improvement in green space for our younger children; •One step closer to the long term plan of having the high school, middle school, and elementary school all on one site. •The last investment in R-P facilities was 43 years ago! Most
trying to live on twenty-nine dollars a week for food, like those on government assistance are given. This isn’t a problem far away and out of sight, this is a problem right here, right next door, maybe right in your own home. When I drive to work every night at one in the morning, a job where I use my college degree for unskilled labor, I pass countless houses…nice houses, some with nice cars out front. And I look at my car with half the bumper missing and the taped up window and my rental home and the thousands of dollars in student loans that my wife and I have to pay back… and I often wonder about those people in their nice houses. I wonder if they know just how good they have it to be sleeping peacefully on little patch of Earth that is all theirs. I wonder if they give thanks and, more importantly, if they will realize exactly how good they have it right now, how lucky they were to be able to afford those houses and cars. I know it’s easy to let my heart bleed here and weep for the children and the poor wretches of the world, and wish I had more I could do, or give. But I can write this, and have you read it, and maybe the next time you gas up or buy a pair of pants and the cashier asks if you could donate a dollar, you think a little of that cute little girl down the street and how her parents are having trouble keeping her fed, and you give that dollar. Lord knows I love a Whopper now and then, but it really wouldn’t kill me to cut back on the onion rings and help out someone in need. I’m lucky, I can still afford a Whopper if I want one, and I can afford to give thanks for what I have by helping someone else.
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districts pass a referendum every 10 years. •The local businesses and economy will benefit from a strong school district. •The tax impact for the majority of residents with homesteads in our district will be less than or equal to the cost of a bottle of soda per day. Please attend one of the two informational meetings for the public, November 26, 2012, from 4:30 to 6:30 pm at the Middle School in Peterson, or December 10, 2012, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm in the Elementary Cafeteria. You can also visit our website at www.voteyesr-p.org. Our kids deserve better, our community deserves better. Please come out and vote YES. Robin Honken Rushford-Peterson Vote Yes Committee
Letter about tax reform To the Editor, FIX IT RIGHT. I have been an appliance repairman for 40 years. My natural inclination is to fix things. As I look at the state of national affairs today, nothing seems to be working right. One hardly knows where to begin the repair. May I suggest tax reform? The income tax discourages investment and productivity. It penalizes exporters who must add the cost of taxes into the price of everything they export. People with high incomes are leaving the United States in droves to avoid income taxes. Working people have up to 25 percent of their income confiscated before they even get their paychecks. The IRS intrudes into our private affairs. We waste hundreds of billions of dollars and millions of hours every year, in compliance costs. People who are not entitled defraud the system for undeserved refunds. Hundreds of billions in revenue from the underground economy and tax cheating is left on the table. The FairTax changes everything. Because it is a tax on consumption, it sidesteps that entire list of evils associated with the income tax. The FairTax however goes beyond mere reform. Sometimes when I am called upon to repair an appliance, the cost exceeds the value of the unit in question. That’s what’s happening with the income tax today. The income tax cannot be repaired. It must be replaced. Of all the plans being discussed on Capitol Hill, only the FairTax can bring the kind of fundamental and comprehensive change that will allow for a permanent fix. David Boone Houston, MN
Correction
On the front page of the November 19, 2012, edition of the Fillmore County Journal, the caption under the photo should have read: Several members of the Empty Bowls Committee. Pictured from left to right: Marietta Dennstedt, Maureen Gervais, Ann Johannessen, Jeff Milne, Carol Beastrom, Kay Himlie, and JoAnne Runkel. Seated is Diana Sattler.
Government this week • Monday, Nov. 26, Chatfield City Council, Chatfield City Hall, 7:00 p.m. • Monday, Nov. 26, Rushford City Council, Rushford City Hall, 6:30 p.m. • Monday, Nov. 26, Spring Valley City Council, Spring Valley City Hall, 6:00 p.m. • Tuesday, Nov. 27, Fillmore County Commissioners, Courthouse, 9am. • Tuesday, Nov. 27, Fillmore Central School Board, 6:30pm. Schedule subject to change.
Letter about presidential election To the Editor, Well, it seems that catchy slogans and childish slanders have won over the United States again. We should all be very concerned about this country’s future. Given our current financial status, one would think Republicans and Democrats alike could put their egos aside and think about what’s best for our future; more importantly, the next generations to come. President Obama runs a campaign very well, if only he could run our country likewise. As I watched election night, most main stream news stations made the call that the President would be re-elected. Live feeds across the country showed people cheering and shedding tears of joy as if their savior had come. But it seemed they failed to realize it was their “savior” who increased the national debt by forty-four percent, the unemployment rate by ten percent, and college tuition by twenty-five percent. That list goes on. It’s fairly common to point the finger at the Bush administration, which may be a contributor, but the fact is, under our current President, our economy is spiralling out of control. I am very aware that people are strong in their beliefs, which is a good thing. However, as responsible, informed voters, we need to look at the big picture. Is re-electing someone who shares the same views as you on petty issues worth driving this country off the fiscal cliff? Next time around I encourage you to elect a president who will take strides forward, not backward, to secure the future of the United States of America. Ben Peterson Chatfield, MN
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