Disability awareness is everyone’s job
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month and the perfect time to celebrate all the contributions that people with disabilities make to our community, and to criticize some local employers who simply won’t disable the label.
People with disabilities remain the single largest untapped labor resource in the country. Nearly 65 percent of such people wanting to work are either underemployed or not employed at all, according to the American Community Survey data provided by Cornell University’s online resource for U.S. disability statistics. Locally, a whopping 71 percent (446 of the total 630 people served) of people signed up through Vocational Rehabilitation programs during the last year are still looking for jobs. However, statistics show that people in the workplace with disabilities prove to be more loyal to their employers, which reduces turnover and improves efficiency.
The economy is an issue, but it’s the collective attitudes and ignorance toward people with disabilities that speak louder than any voice. Even before the economy tanked, the unemployment/underemployment rate of people with disabilities was embarrassingly low. I challenge Fort Wayne employers to shed the conservative copycat ideologies. It’s bad enough that people with disabilities have to fight those barriers with individuals on a daily basis; we could stand to get a break from you.
TONY BELTON Public relations director Easter Seals Arc
Newspaper pushing big-spending agenda
The continuing tax-and-spend crusade by The Journal Gazette is getting more than a little nauseating. First, it ran a series of articles about the EACS district’s referendum. Now, it has a full page (Oct. 24) opposing the state property tax cap measure. I guess the mystery writer at the paper just doesn’t get it – people are getting a little tired of seeing more and more of their funds being siphoned away by various governmental units. These are often people who are not getting increases in pay and need this money to pay bills. I really did not read that full-page spread. I usually use the editorial page to start the fire in my fireplace.
WILLIAM COOK Leo-Cedarville
Tax caps needed to restrain spending
On Tuesday, voters have an opportunity to make permanent the Indiana property tax caps that were enacted by our legislature. Approval of this constitutional amendment means a future legislature can’t change this tax protection.
The Journal Gazette editorial board has campaigned against this property tax relief for Hoosiers from day one, as its default position is always for more and higher taxes.
A case in point I well remember was 10-15 years ago when the newspaper editorialized and criticized the city of Fort Wayne when it didn’t levy the maximum tax as allowed by state law. Its position was that the home-owning taxpayers should not be allowed to keep a few extra dollars in their pocket to spend as they wish.
The Journal Gazette position favors bigger government at all levels and ever-increasing taxes and tax rates. My position is that the size of government should be constrained, and they should learn to restrain their growth.
JAMES C. CAMPBELL Angola
GOP votes support job-killing actions
On Sept. 28, U.S. Senate Republicans, with the backing of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, blocked a vote on a bill designed to repeal tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs overseas, then import products.
This is a personal slap in the face to anyone who is worried about his or her job being outsourced or has had it outsourced.
The Chamber’s anti-American jobs agenda serves not only the profit-seeking of Wall Street CEOs in the United States, but also works to send jobs overseas to companies that have been found to be involved in funding the Chamber’s millions of dollars of attack ads.
The Chamber is spending $75 million to promote candidates who oppose new rules to discourage U.S. firms from shipping jobs overseas, want to repeal the minimum wage and weaken workplace safety.
This is payback for the donations that overseas businesses such as the leading Indian IT firms and Middle Eastern oil companies are funneling to groups like the Chamber to pay for ads attacking the Democrats who stood up for American jobs. At the same time, the Chamber continues to withhold information on who is financing its millions of dollars of attack ads.
We are at a time when millions of Americans are unemployed due to no fault of their own. Remember to hold the Republican politicians who take these illegal foreign donations accountable when you vote Tuesday.
HERB CRAVEN Fort Wayne
No point politicizing miners’ rescue
By now we all know the thrilling story of the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners. Surely no one would politicize such an event. Right? Not quite.
Chris Matthews began the “Let Me Finish” segment of his “Hardball” program very well, and then he seemed to go wild. “What a story of faith, hope and charity, and yes, community,” he began, but then came the diatribe against conservatives. “That last word, community, drives those on the right crazy – community. Theirs is the popular notion of every man for himself, grab all you can, screw the masses, cash out the government, go it alone, the whole cowboy catechism.”
Matthews must have crawled out of a hole deeper than the 33 miners. What kind of a church does he attend that he has never heard the word “community?” It was conservatives who started the rescue missions in the inner cities. It was conservatives who started thousands of parochial and independent Christian schools. Who started the church-sponsored hospitals in our great land? Can’t we just rejoice that the miners were saved and save the politics for another time and topic? Can’t we just think about things that are “true, good, right, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report (Philippians 4:8),” and save the politics for the politicians?
On the other hand, maybe there is a politician who fits the above adjectives. I wonder who that might be?
WAYNE E. SMITH Auburn
School starting times leave kids at risk
Why are we sending our children to school in the dark?
With the Oct. 20 assault on the schoolgirl, is it time to address the school district starting time? Should we repeal daylight saving time?
Why do we expose our children to the danger of assault and traffic hazards?
SUE HARSHBARGER Fort Wayne
Wage war to halt Mexico drug cartels
After reading “Attack kills 13 at teen’s party” (Oct. 24), I have to wonder about this country helping other countries by war.
I understand there really has to be a direct threat to the U.S., or, what a lot of Americans believe. There’s money to be made, lots of it, for those who get these wars going.
I was wondering about Mexico’s drug cartels and all the violence against each other, including children. Aren’t drugs a way to harm the U.S.? Is there no money to be made in a direct war against cartels? Is money already being made by powerful people in the United States?
I know there’s been help by the FBI, but can’t we do better by Mexican children at birthday parties? Yes, these families are a part of what we should destroy, but I know American soldiers would be looking out for the innocent and protecting them. Am I a dreamer about what the U.S. could really do to help? Even when we’ve moved to war wrongly, don’t we try to help heal and strengthen a country in the end?
I don’t understand why drug wars and genocide are not a reason to march to war. Is there a noble war?
ANNA DEKAN Woodburn
