There is a thief among us. Steeling hundreds of thousands of dollars from each and every one of us. The dust fairy! The bugger.

The wind blows tons and tons of modified stone dust away each and every time a vehicle drives over a gravel road. We call them dirt roads here in PA.

However, it is very hard to prevent and is a miserable nuisance to our homes, gardens, cars, trucks and everything else. 

Anyone that lives on a dirt road surely has seen what I am talking about. Most of the townships treat the roads with calcium chloride, which absorbs moisture from the air and keeps the surface moist enough to not allow the fine dust to blow away. Some treat busy roads frequently and during holidays and dry spells to prevent the dust from covering party tents or blowing in their windows. It does cost money to treat the roads and in our township we have 49 miles to care for. However, we do try to control it. I am saying this because today, it was sunny and hot and as I was cutting grass, every car that went by covered me in dust. Lots of dust. It seems almost funny until I consider the loss. The loss of dirt that we apply each year to fill pot holes and pipe crossings just gets blown away, right in front of our eyes.

So, anyone who can relate to this, please come to our meetings each month, look me up and we can try to figure out some way to keep the thief away.

This is a catch 22, spend it here or spend it there? You need to decide; no cop can stop this thief.

Sincerely,

Peter Seman

Thompson, Pa.

Those who fought in the Vietnam War did not lose that war, politics lost the war.  It meant nothing that 58,227 died in combat and over one million plus died because they were poisoned with herbicides. Does our government care? No.

We give billions of dollars to Countries who hate us and not a dime to our Vietnam veterans who need health care and compensation. There are veterans who cannot work because they are sick, many sell their homes to pay medical bills or take out 2nd and 3rd mortgages.  Is this right?  No.  Does Congress care? No.  Is there accountability?  No.  Vietnam Veterans who are infected with Agent Orange are dying at a rate of approximately 380 a week.  Does our government care? No.  

Since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975 our government forgot those veterans.  Americans would spit on us, call us baby killers, push us aside at airports and bus stations. What kind of America did we live in back then? There was no respect for our men and women in uniform. The American people have not earned the right to say "Welcome Home", only we who served have that right to include our loved ones.

It took Admiral Zumwalt's comprehensive report to our Congress to pass the Agent Orange Act of 1991 to care for all Vietnam vets infected with Agent Orange.  In 2002, the VA took away those benefits unless the Vet was boots on ground. Most Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force were left out to dry with their benefits all taken away.  These military members were getting just as sick as those who served in-country.  Legislative Bills were introduced over several years only to fail, because of money. A Veterans life is not worth the money to care for them, just let them die, a non-caring Congress.  There are two Bills in legislation (again). House Bill HR-969 and Senate Bill S.681.

Americans, if you care, write and call your members of Congress and Senate to pass those Bills to care for our Vietnam veterans.  

If you do not care, then hang your head in Shame.

Sincerely,

John Bury, US Navy retired, Vietnam Veteran

Media, Pa.

I find I must do something most readers of The Transcript have the sense not to do:  respond to something written by Bob Scroggins.

Ironically, before Mr. Scroggins wrote his letter of July 29th, I had been online making the facetious suggestion that Citizen Trump's ideal running mate would be Ann Coulter, for her extreme level of nastiness.  But what I suggested satirically, Scroggins offered seriously!   And it shocked me.  Clearly, extreme resentment lies at the core of Scroggins' political thinking; and I would repeat my earlier cautionary note that nothing good can come of such negative emotion.

(I hope Death Camps for Liberals aren't on his wish list.)

As for Coulter, she has shamefully made a career of spewing the ugliest hatred toward Liberals in a series of strawman books, venting such spleen as appeals to the angry old mossbacks and haters among us.  (Deprived of the social acceptability of bigotry against Blacks and gays, they've found they can sublimate it all against Liberals, who made bigotry so taboo to begin with.  The monsters!)  But Coulter has made a strategic goof:  once she has literally, and I mean LITERALLY, demonized Liberals, she has nowhere to go from there.  She has hit a low even she cannot dig beneath.  A low that Scroggins feels comfortable inhabiting with her.

I'd like to present Mr, Scroggins with the following challenge:  I state with complete confidence that Donald Trump will not be the Republican nominee (let alone President).  If I am wrong, in the event of such utter shame I will commit seppuku.  (Relax, folks, it cannot happen.)  But if I'm right, Scroggins will cease writing letters to The Transcript, blessing us all with his silence.

How about it, Bobbo?  My valuable life against your valueless pen?  Are you game?  Or are you just another combover?

Sincerely,

Stephen Van Eck

Rushville, PA