Taxing units compound homeowners’ stress

Taxation affects real people in real ways. Our tax system is built on the same flaw as tithing.

Yes, the richest man does pay more, but a man with a $1 million income has $900,000 left to live on in a tithe-style system. The man with a $10,000 income has only $9,000 to live on. The problem is a gallon of gas costs the same for both. I don’t want to raise anybody’s taxes, but if you have decided public agencies need to spend more, then you will have to get it from the people whose lifestyle won’t change because of a “mere” increase now and then.

We need to do what other states such as Michigan do, and cap people’s property tax based on their ability to pay. Would forcing more people onto welfare be cheaper? Each time a government cash register rings, another middle class person loses his house: It’s not a wonderful life!

From the Social Security office to the assessor’s office and every other agency that wields the power of life and death over us through our finances, their actions have serious consequences on peoples’ lives. It’s a big mistake to ignore that.

DOUGLAS D. RODENBECK Fort Wayne

Help in healing at homicide sites

On Jan. 7 a number of us gathered to remember Aliahna Lemmon in a prayer service. This service and others like it are led by members of the Peace and Justice Commission of Allen County and are referred to as Heal The Land Services since the hope is to bring some spirit of healing to the place of the homicide. We invite the neighbors, who have received secondary trauma from the violence committed near their home, to join us.

Please consider joining us either in thought or in person as you feel called to remember homicide victims and their neighbors. We usually meet at the site of the homicide after two weeks on Saturday at 12:15 p.m.

For further information or to be placed on our email notification list, contact us at jedwind@netzero.com.

STEPHEN R. KING Fort Wayne

Victims’ vigil drenched in irony

Ironic, is it not, that the “Too Many Victims” vigil to remember shooting victims consisted of many people and organizations who were against Sheriff Ken Fries’ “Metro Squad,” labeling it racist because it targeted the southeast side of Fort Wayne, where, ironically, 95 percent of the shootings occur?

GREGORY J. CUMMINGS Fort Wayne

New EPA standards good for environment

Every day mercury and other toxic pollutants fall from the Indiana sky and damage the brains of our infants and children, and it doesn’t get much attention because we can’t “see” it.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized rules restricting mercury and air toxins from power plants.

It’s time to open our eyes to the dangers of mercury. When fetuses are exposed to high concentrations of mercury in the womb, their brains may develop abnormally, impairing learning ability and reducing IQ.

As many as one in 10 U.S. women of childbearing age has a mercury level high enough to put their developing children at risk, according to an EPA study.

Indiana ranks fourth in the nation in mercury emitted from coal-fired plants, the biggest source of mercury in our state. The best thing we can do to protect our children from mercury is to find cleaner sources of energy. We applaud the new EPA standards that will cut 90 percent of the mercury from coal plants and cut other toxic emissions. Retiring or cleaning up older coal-fired power plants, switching to cleaner energy sources and conserving electricity will reduce mercury emissions in Indiana. As seen in neighboring states, mercury can be reduced significantly without threatening our electricity supply and reliability, if we have the will to do it.

JODI PERRAS Improving Kids’ Environment, Indianapolis JESSE KHARBANDA Hoosier Environmental Council, Indianapolis DAVID MAIDENBERG Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter CHRYSTAL RATCLIFFE Indianapolis NAACP JOHN BLAIR Valley Watch, Evansville RICHARD HILL Save the Valley, Madison JIM SWEENEY Porter County Chapter, Izaak Walton League of America

Santorum answer shows his hypocrisy

In a recent Republican debate, moderator David Gregory noted that the United States has lived with a nuclear Soviet Union and a nuclear North Korea. He then asked Rick Santorum: “Why is it we cannot live with a nuclear Iran?” Santorum’s response? Iran is different because it is a theocracy.

Just so we are all on the same page, a theocracy is a form of government in which the official policy is to be governed by divine guidance. There is no doubt that this concept applies to the government of Iran, but Santorum has stated time and time again that it is his Christian beliefs that will inform all of his policymaking if elected president, that it will be the rule of God (his God) that guides him in that role.

Santorum is a theocrat; his administration, like Iran’s, would be a theocracy. The only difference between Santorum’s administration and Iran’s is that Iran’s theocracy is based on Islam and Santorum’s would be based on Christianity.

This alone, the fact that Santorum cannot even recognize his own hypocrisy, disqualifies him from our presidency.

The crazy years are upon us.

RANDY L. ANDERSON Fort Wayne

Many in area helped spread Christmas joy

Thanks to the generous efforts of Fort Wayne residents, thousands of hurting children worldwide had the opportunity to experience the joy of Christmas. Fort Wayne area residents joined Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project of its kind, to pack 29,993 shoe boxes with toys, school supplies and necessity items. These gift-filled boxes made their way into the hands of needy children in 100 receiving countries.

On behalf of our community, I would like to thank the volunteers at local collection sites and everyone who packed an Operation Christmas Child box. For many of the children who received these boxes, the simple shoe box was the first gift they have ever received.

Although the Fort Wayne drop-off location is closed until November, gifts are received throughout the year at Samaritan’s Purse, 801 Bamboo Road, Boone, N.C. 28607. If you would like to get involved year-round in Operation Christmas Child, go to samaritanspurse.org/occ or call (937) 374-0761.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in this project. A simple gift, packed with love, can communicate hope and transform the lives of children worldwide!

BONNIE FREEMAN Great Lakes regional director Operation Christmas Child

‘This administration’ has cause to celebrate

In response to Tom Heiny’s Jan. 11 letter concerning why “this administration would design a celebration affair to commemorate the end of the war in Iraq”: Would Heiny prefer that we continue losing and maiming troops and pouring billions more taxpayers dollars into a war that should not have been started in the first place?

“This administration” has brought our brave troops home, and “this administration” has eliminated Osama bin Laden, leader of the greatest threat to our country. What’s not to celebrate?

Certainly we should, and do, mourn the loss of so many young lives, and so many permanently injured, as well as the thousands of innocent Iraqi people who were killed and injured.

Let’s give credit where credit is due. Going to war in Iraq: George W. Bush administration. Ending the war in Iraq: “this administration.”

JOAN DAVIS Fort Wayne

Republicans alienate working-class voters

Why doesn’t the Republican hierarchy just wear a sign around their neck saying, “We don’t want any working people to vote for us, ever!”? It seems as though they go out of their way to alienate and antagonize every working person possible, certainly every union member.

Surveys have shown that at least half of the working people are pretty conservative and vote Republican, while other surveys of workers have shown that more than 50 percent of them would like to have a union where they work. And don’t forget, no employer has ever been unionized that didn’t deserve it. At the same time, any new workplace being unionized today is truly a miracle considering the hurdles and roadblocks put in their way.

It can be argued that the rise of the middle class, the very heart and soul of our economy, coincides with the rise of the unionized working class. But over the past three or four decades, the middle class has been decimated by our government’s facilitating the export of millions of good-paying union manufacturing jobs and an all-out assault on unions. The workers, unionized or not, don’t forget, and they vote, but apparently the Republicans don’t want them voting for them. Too bad.

KEN SELKING Decatur

Require drivers to turn on lights

Please explain why there is a law regarding everyone wearing seatbelts when the only one who would be hurt is the person not wearing them, but on days of poor visibility, drivers can drive without lights and cause numerous injuries.

Jan. 12 was a good example. Most of the vehicles had their lights on, but there were the few, not considerate of other drivers, who could cause accidents involving many people.

Does this make any sense: A law about seatbelts but not about lights?

IOLENE DENTON Rochester