Letters to the Editor Policy

Reasonable Accommodations?

On a recent visit home to Susquehanna my friend, who is a quadriplegic, had to park against traffic on West Main St. so he could exit his lift van. While he was there, a police officer gave him a ticket because of the way he parked.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was written to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. I think parking against traffic on a straight stretch of West Main St. sounds reasonable to me.

My question to the city council and police force is, do you want the disabled community coming to Susquehanna to make your town come into compliance with the ADA? I am quite sure that your answer is no, because if we do, it will not be pretty for the town or its taxpayers.

Sincerely,

Matt Edwards

Oil City, PA

Fair Policies Needed

A majority of the farmers in the United States who produce our food are being forced to go out of business. Most prices that farmers are receiving are currently about one half of their costs to produce food.

As an example, dairy farmers in the Northeast and Midwest must have between $0.30 and $0.35 per pound of their milk to pay expenses and have a small amount to live on. For a period of time, farmers received a fair living price under a parity plan. Unfortunately, in a political decision, it was discontinued in 1981. Since that time, “free trade” and regressive agricultural policies have steadily decimated farms, and we are now a food deficit nation, depending on food imports often of questionable quality.

Our food system is almost broken, becoming as serious as our country’s financial meltdown. With fair farm policies, we farmers could be getting fair prices that would not need to raise prices for food in the grocery store. There are numerous examples proving that fair prices to farmers do not bring higher prices for consumers. They can and sometimes do bring lower consumer prices.

We all face a food emergency as more farmers face bankruptcy. European farmers can speak from thousands of years’ experience on the importance of family farm agriculture. Consistently they have warned us in the US as follows: “Any time a country neglects its family farm base and allows it to become financially bankrupt, the entire economy of that country will soon collapse. It then may take generations to rebuild the farm economy and then that of the country.”

As farmers, we are now only about one percent of the US population. Therefore, we have almost no voice to expose our demise or to change it. Our urban friends are vital as a voice and an advocate for us. Bailing out the financial giants will not solve the financial crisis in this country. An emergency stimulus package is necessary to save farmers and workers to avoid a severe food crisis. Farmer income dollars turn over or multiply three to seven times in the local economy. This economic stimulus can have a significant impact on our national economy. We farmers cannot produce food, and we cannot buy goods and services when we cannot survive.

For more information contact: Tina Carlin (570) 833-4592; Brenda Cochran (814) 367-2788; John Kinsman (608) 986-3815.

Sincerely,

Gerald and Tina Carlin

Meshoppen, PA

Protect Our Families

The majority of Americans are still fervently opposed to abortion. But our government, instead of legislating some birth control as in China, is poised to mandate the ultimate scheme of promoting abortion on demand, with tax dollars, and for minors without parental consent.

Yes, outrageous, but that is what the “Freedom of Choice Act” will do if President Obama signs it into law, satisfying many secret supporters. Hopefully, not! During the campaign, Obama said, “I believe marriage is sacred.” In the highly acceptable traditional meaning of marriage, sacredness also obviously includes children and, as science keeps telling us, it is from the moment of conception that the body and soul of a human person comes into existence.

Let us pray for our future president, Barack Obama, that he chooses what is right in spite of the inconvenience that babies impose upon social scientists and their abortion advocates.

Pray, above all, that our congressmen and senators will protect the constitutional rights of marriage and our families, help save us from the ravages of immorality.

May God bless America.

Sincerely,

John Mann

Susquehanna, PA

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