Letters to the Editor

A winning campaign strategy: My opponent straps his dog to the top of his car. In school he bullied a boy who may have been a homosexual. His wife engages in elitist activities like riding horses. He thinks women should be pregnant and kept in binders, or pay for their own birth control prescriptions. He started a business, became very wealthy and put his money in “secret” off-shore accounts. He put people out of work and then their spouses died.

He wanted General Motors to go into bankruptcy without fascist government control. How could he expect to win Ohio without buying off auto unions, who would put those taxpayer dollars into his campaign like they did for me? He thinks the 47% of wage earners who pay no income taxes should take on the burden of helping the other half who aren’t paying their fair share. He doesn’t like my plan of pushing every citizen possible into the food stamp program and getting them permanent disability after their 99 weeks of unemployment run out.

He doesn’t believe we should be shutting down our coal plants so that “Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” He doesn’t think we should be placing moratoriums on drilling for our own oil and gas (like I do) then buying it from foreign countries with money borrowed from China.

He believes illegal immigrants should have to go through the legal process to come here to work and become citizens. He opposes my theft of $716 billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare. The past four years I have told you “...we as a people will get there.” I never explained where “there” is, but since we discovered things are much “worse than we thought”, I can report it is very far away. However, you can take comfort in the fact that our new slogan is “Forward”. Yes, Forward - that is where we need to go.

A losing campaign strategy: I think Roe vs. Wade is unconstitutional on a federal level. Abortion is a 10th Amendment issue. As governor of Massachusetts, I wanted more roles in my administration filled by women. I was supplied with binders (you know, the books with rings) containing the resumés of prospects. I don’t know why people thought I had women tied up in my closet.

My business took the risk of injecting capital into failing businesses in an attempt to save them. We were only 80% successful. My opponent misrepresented the 20% we couldn’t save. Those who lost jobs would have lost them even sooner, had we done nothing. Somehow they found out about my “secret” bank accounts. I guess they must have read my financial records.

I wanted to create an environment where every American would have the chance to experience the pride and self-satisfaction that comes with knowing at the end of the day, they did their part as a productive member of our society. What the heck was I thinking?

Nov. 16-22 is not just the week before that great eating holiday known as Thanksgiving, but it is National Farm-City Week when we celebrate the important partnership between farm and urban residents in providing the nation with a bounty of food, fiber, fuel and a growing list of other products.

It’s a time for friendly but serious conversation between farmers and urban folks. Most people are now more than three generations removed from the farm—grandpa and grandma no longer live on the farm and host Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner.

Urbanites no longer get first hand experience playing with a bucket calf or “walking beans.” Urban folks hear in the media that farmers are “making” them overweight and that their meat supply comes from “factory farms.” If the recent political election taught us anything, it should have made us recognize that few things are “as they seem.”

Our children’s elementary teacher used to say, “I won’t believe everything I hear about you if you don’t believe everything you hear about me.” It is only when we get to know each other that we understand what truly happens on the job, in the office, on the farms.

Food is the one thing that unites us—we all need it and most of us love it. Everyone eats to live and some of us live to eat. Modern technology has come to farming just as it has come to medical, construction, media and all other facets of life. Grandpa and grandma’s family farm is still there and it has become even bigger and better—and even more fun to visit.

National Farm City Week is a good time to start the conversation about why we as Americans—due to modern technology, combined with old fashioned family work ethics, love of the land, and ethical humane animal care, have the most abundant, cleanest, safest, most efficient and yes, percentage wise, the cheapest food in the world.

We eat well because of the American farmer. Eating well gives us the opportunity to excel in our careers, spices up our social life and stabilizes our family.

However, farmers do not work alone to provide the good life. We owe our convenient packaging and efficient delivery system to urban dwellers. We thank our grocers, restaurant owners, gas station managers, and our clothing manufactures for delivering our food, fuel and fiber. We appreciate our bankers and insurance people for protecting all of us with sound planning.

One out of three people in Nebraska work in some way in the food and fiber industry. You do not have to live on a farm to be involved in agriculture. If you eat or wear clothing—you are involved with farming.

We are all united in this effort to feed, fuel, and cloth the world. Let us celebrate this week and every week those blessings.

Jo Anderson

Farm Bureau Ag Promotion Committee member, District 7

It never fails to amaze me, the people who say that Bob Kerrey is not a Nebraskan because he went to New York and served as a college president.

Many people from Nebraska have left for a no more honorable reason and never came back to Nebraska, but we claim them as Nebraskans, such as Robert Taylor, Clayton Yeutter, Henry Fonda, Willa Cather, Marlon Brando, Mari Sandoz, Fred Astaire, Johnny Carson and many others.

None of these were awarded the congressional medal of honor or gave part of their physical self for their country, or served as a very popular governor or popular senator who worked across the aisle.

Neither did Bob Kerrey attempt to take something that did not belong to him, by adverse possession.

The unofficial motto of the United States Postal Service (USPS), “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” is derived from a quote by Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian.

However, of all the impediments to mail delivery envisioned, Herodotus never could have imagined the enormous financial obstacles facing the Postal Service today.

Despite the importance of postal service in rural communities, USPS faces significant short- and long-term challenges. New technology has decreased the volume of mail, and USPS does not have the flexibility to adjust to a declining market. As a result, USPS missed a $5.5 billion retiree health care payment on August 1 and defaulted on a $5.6 billion obligation on September 30.

In the coming months, Congress may consider passing a short-term measure so USPS can pay its bills, but ultimately the Postal Service needs robust reforms to address its long-term solvency. These reforms could include allowing for advertisement sales on postal vehicles, and moving to cluster box delivery in both rural and urban communities.

Without reform, USPS’ debt will balloon to nearly $100 billion by 2016, and taxpayers will be stuck with the bill.

Some support giving taxpayer dollars to USPS while others have called for closing or consolidating more rural post offices. Neither of these approaches would resolve USPS’ structural problems, and focusing cuts on rural post offices would run counter to the Postal Service’s mission to serve all Americans.

According to the Postal Regulatory Commission, closing all of the 10,000 smallest post offices in the country only would save seven-tenths of 1% of the USPS’ operating budget.

To prevent rural post office closures, I have urged the postmaster general and the House leadership to consider the impact on communities, jobs, and urgent mail delivery. To this end, I have sponsored an amendment to the House postal reform legislation (H.R. 2309) which would cap rural post office closures at no more than 5% of total closures in any given year, and ensure USPS is taking public opinion into consideration, like those views expressed at more than 30 meetings held throughout the state over the past year.

The Postal Service also is considering reduced retail hours at 13,000 post offices nationwide, including many in Nebraska’s Third District. While preferable to closures, implementation of this proposal should not threaten rural service.

Fortunately, USPS is conducting an evaluation process of the proposed reduced hours over the next two years. The evaluation will include a customer survey mailed to affected zip codes and a public meeting. No changes will be made until after the evaluation process is complete.

I encourage all residents who may be impacted by these changes to complete the USPS survey. Doing so will allow the Postal Service to determine the best path forward for individuals and businesses in every community.

The Postal Service is facing hundreds of billions of dollars of debt over the next decade, and difficult decisions will have to be made to save this service for millions of Americans who depend on it. Whatever shape postal reform ultimately takes, I will continue to work to prevent cuts in service disproportionately aimed at rural communities to ensure the Postal Service upholds its original mission to serve all Americans.