Letters to the Editor 11-15-2000
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Commissioner Says Thanks - Ballot Parallax - Enough Of The Election - School ID Tags - Close Call
Commissioner Says Thanks
Editor, Times-Union:Thank you to all who placed your trust in me to serve another term as your county commissioner.
I will continue to represent you with conservative values. If you have comments or need help on an issue, please feel free to contact me.
Brad Jackson
Northern District County Commissioner
Syracuse
Ballot Parallax
Editor, Times-Union:Your Saturday editorial dealing with the presidential election was misleading. However, your description of what should happen was correct. Both sides should allow recounts and then abide by the results. The Democrats should discourage individuals from bringing lawsuits and the Republicans should withdraw their lawsuit.
CNN did an excellent job of presenting facts without putting any spin on the results. Analyses show that in Palm Beach County, there was indeed a blip in both Buchanan voting and in number of ballots thrown out due to double voting for the president. Comparison with the same rates for many other Florida counties, both Democratic and Republican, show this.
You wrote that the Democrats think "Only people who wanted to vote for Gore were confused." You then suggest it follows that people voting for Bush might also be confused. It does not follow. Bush was the first candidate named on the ballot and it difficult to see how someone who wanted to vote for the first name would mistakenly punch the second hole.
I recently moved from an adjacent county where all voting was done by machines. For the first time in many years, I voted by punch card. I was not confused although I was quite careful to make sure the holes were lining up as I turned the selection pages. I doubt few would vote incorrectly using the Kosciusko County ballot. While I doubt I would mistakenly have voted for Buchanan on the Palm Beach County ballot, I saw the ballot on CNN showing where there could be confusion if you looked at the ballot at an angle and if there was a slight misalignment of the ballot with the selection card. No one has so indicated, but I suspect short people might have made more mistakes than tall people because of the angle of view. This is a phenomenon known as parallax and occurs whenever two different levels are involved in aligning something.
Interestingly, the person in the Chicago area who is in charge of ballots indicated that they only use the butterfly ballot when they have offices with large numbers of candidates where the voter votes for multiple people. This type of ballot has never been used for presidential elections in Illinois.
I also found it a bit strange that the Bush camp picked an arrogant spokesman such as Jim Baker III while the Gore camp picked a politician from Chicago named Daly to oversee possibilities of mistakes and irregularities in voting. This especially seemed odd when both teams have people in their midst who would be trusted by the general public and who would sound more conciliatory when they spoke.
At least we can ask that he who is without sin should cast the first stone. That way, no one will have to worry about being hit with stones.
Jim Streator
Claypool
via e-mail
Enough Of The Election
Editor, Times-Union:Hi, my name is Kara Turner. I live in Lafayette, Ind. I am 11 years old. My birthday is Nov. 15. I would like to have a nice birthday and not have to listen to all of this election stuff. What I think about Bush and Gore is childish. I felt that they should have accepted election results. Mr. Gore asked for a recount in Florida and said he would go with that final count. So he lied to the country. So who would want a president who lies to us? Thanks for listening.
Kara Turner
Lafayette
School ID Tags
Editor, Times-Union:As some of you may know from Tim McKinley's letter to the editor on Nov. 9, Warsaw Community High School has apparently decided to enforce a strict policy of wearing ID nametags.
When directly asked about the purpose of these new regulations, administrators were evasive and defensive, with comments about safety and nametags being a catalyst to get to know one another. It only takes a minimum of deductive reasoning to find a major cause of this change in policy. I personally believe that this started on this very same editorial page in the spring.
A former WCHS student, Micah LeMasters, wrote a letter explaining the inefficiency of our school's "high-tech" security system. His cousin, a student from Kokomo, had a day off of school and came to visit his relative during lunch. Micah then explained in his letter how his cousin wore an "illegal" black trench coat, never wore proper visitor identification and walked right in front of (and conversed with) administrators and our full-time police officer. As a direct result, the administration didn't look too well in the public forum. So, to ensure that none of those horrible teenagers ever come into our school and eat lunch with their friends again, we now wear nametags, so that any of those aforementioned unidentified teen visitors can be dealt with properly instead.
In all honesty, wearing a plastic ID tag around my neck isn't going to make me feel any safer about my learning environment. Especially when this is just a failsafe so that the school can make sure no one ever does that again and puts it in the newspaper, thus making them the "bad guys" in public opinion. In fact, I'm much more worried about the disgruntled kid wearing a nametag than the unidentified visitor coming in to have lunch with his friend.
Also, since I'm only 16 and do not yet pay my own taxes, you should be more outraged at this waste of your money than I am. I have only heard of the aforementioned instance of a student from another school entering ours, and that wastes your hard-earned money. There is a myriad of better uses for money. From buying simple supplies like chalk and staplers to science equipment, there are uses for your money that could actually help us learn. For example, as a freshman, I went to a school outside of Cleveland, Ohio, that had about half the student body of Warsaw. Their guidance department comprised of four counselors, two secretaries and a number of student helpers. Warsaw's guidance department comprises four counselors, two secretaries and a number of student helpers. If WCHS has twice the number of students, that means we're not getting as much personal attention as elsewhere, which is just another use for your tax money.
Maybe, someday, someone will see the light. High school is about preparation for the future, not a struggle to look good in the community. Maybe, someday, people won't need to write to the editor and we can just voice our opinion in school and be heard. Maybe, someday ... but with my luck, it'll be after I graduate.
Thank you for your time.
Craig Davison
Warsaw
via e-mail
Close Call
Editor, Times-Union:You saw the sorrowful semi accident on your Nov. 10th front page.
Albert G. and Paula K. would be buried in our local cemetery now for over two weeks, but thanks to the Lord and my 15-20 second delay stepping on my gas pedal, me with the green light for 15-20 seconds, our car, my second Mercury Marquis, would have looked like your yesterday's semi accident photo.
We were waiting on the stop light at the Anchorage Road and Lake City Highway (U.S. 30) intersection. The light turned green, a short pause, then all of a sudden a semi driving at least 50-55 mph passed on his red light just right in front of me. The Lord saved both of us.
We can have the answer to all of these speeding problems, only if a couple of states and our local officials would take their vacation and go to Germany.
My wife's hometown, Traisa, Germany, for 25 or more years, has not had a police department of their own. Their traffic lights all have a special camera that takes a complete photo of all the "speeders," showing a perfect photo of the back side of the vehicles, the license plate number, the time of the speeding and the speed number.
Why can't we get the same German-style, German-made photo cameras and install them in Warsaw?
I would think that the increase in collection of fines in six months would pay for the needed cameras and also pay for their "vacation cost."
Albert G. Smith
Warsaw
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- Commissioner Says Thanks - Ballot Parallax - Enough Of The Election - School ID Tags - Close Call
Commissioner Says Thanks
Editor, Times-Union:Thank you to all who placed your trust in me to serve another term as your county commissioner.
I will continue to represent you with conservative values. If you have comments or need help on an issue, please feel free to contact me.
Brad Jackson
Northern District County Commissioner
Syracuse
Ballot Parallax
Editor, Times-Union:Your Saturday editorial dealing with the presidential election was misleading. However, your description of what should happen was correct. Both sides should allow recounts and then abide by the results. The Democrats should discourage individuals from bringing lawsuits and the Republicans should withdraw their lawsuit.
CNN did an excellent job of presenting facts without putting any spin on the results. Analyses show that in Palm Beach County, there was indeed a blip in both Buchanan voting and in number of ballots thrown out due to double voting for the president. Comparison with the same rates for many other Florida counties, both Democratic and Republican, show this.
You wrote that the Democrats think "Only people who wanted to vote for Gore were confused." You then suggest it follows that people voting for Bush might also be confused. It does not follow. Bush was the first candidate named on the ballot and it difficult to see how someone who wanted to vote for the first name would mistakenly punch the second hole.
I recently moved from an adjacent county where all voting was done by machines. For the first time in many years, I voted by punch card. I was not confused although I was quite careful to make sure the holes were lining up as I turned the selection pages. I doubt few would vote incorrectly using the Kosciusko County ballot. While I doubt I would mistakenly have voted for Buchanan on the Palm Beach County ballot, I saw the ballot on CNN showing where there could be confusion if you looked at the ballot at an angle and if there was a slight misalignment of the ballot with the selection card. No one has so indicated, but I suspect short people might have made more mistakes than tall people because of the angle of view. This is a phenomenon known as parallax and occurs whenever two different levels are involved in aligning something.
Interestingly, the person in the Chicago area who is in charge of ballots indicated that they only use the butterfly ballot when they have offices with large numbers of candidates where the voter votes for multiple people. This type of ballot has never been used for presidential elections in Illinois.
I also found it a bit strange that the Bush camp picked an arrogant spokesman such as Jim Baker III while the Gore camp picked a politician from Chicago named Daly to oversee possibilities of mistakes and irregularities in voting. This especially seemed odd when both teams have people in their midst who would be trusted by the general public and who would sound more conciliatory when they spoke.
At least we can ask that he who is without sin should cast the first stone. That way, no one will have to worry about being hit with stones.
Jim Streator
Claypool
via e-mail
Enough Of The Election
Editor, Times-Union:Hi, my name is Kara Turner. I live in Lafayette, Ind. I am 11 years old. My birthday is Nov. 15. I would like to have a nice birthday and not have to listen to all of this election stuff. What I think about Bush and Gore is childish. I felt that they should have accepted election results. Mr. Gore asked for a recount in Florida and said he would go with that final count. So he lied to the country. So who would want a president who lies to us? Thanks for listening.
Kara Turner
Lafayette
School ID Tags
Editor, Times-Union:As some of you may know from Tim McKinley's letter to the editor on Nov. 9, Warsaw Community High School has apparently decided to enforce a strict policy of wearing ID nametags.
When directly asked about the purpose of these new regulations, administrators were evasive and defensive, with comments about safety and nametags being a catalyst to get to know one another. It only takes a minimum of deductive reasoning to find a major cause of this change in policy. I personally believe that this started on this very same editorial page in the spring.
A former WCHS student, Micah LeMasters, wrote a letter explaining the inefficiency of our school's "high-tech" security system. His cousin, a student from Kokomo, had a day off of school and came to visit his relative during lunch. Micah then explained in his letter how his cousin wore an "illegal" black trench coat, never wore proper visitor identification and walked right in front of (and conversed with) administrators and our full-time police officer. As a direct result, the administration didn't look too well in the public forum. So, to ensure that none of those horrible teenagers ever come into our school and eat lunch with their friends again, we now wear nametags, so that any of those aforementioned unidentified teen visitors can be dealt with properly instead.
In all honesty, wearing a plastic ID tag around my neck isn't going to make me feel any safer about my learning environment. Especially when this is just a failsafe so that the school can make sure no one ever does that again and puts it in the newspaper, thus making them the "bad guys" in public opinion. In fact, I'm much more worried about the disgruntled kid wearing a nametag than the unidentified visitor coming in to have lunch with his friend.
Also, since I'm only 16 and do not yet pay my own taxes, you should be more outraged at this waste of your money than I am. I have only heard of the aforementioned instance of a student from another school entering ours, and that wastes your hard-earned money. There is a myriad of better uses for money. From buying simple supplies like chalk and staplers to science equipment, there are uses for your money that could actually help us learn. For example, as a freshman, I went to a school outside of Cleveland, Ohio, that had about half the student body of Warsaw. Their guidance department comprised of four counselors, two secretaries and a number of student helpers. Warsaw's guidance department comprises four counselors, two secretaries and a number of student helpers. If WCHS has twice the number of students, that means we're not getting as much personal attention as elsewhere, which is just another use for your tax money.
Maybe, someday, someone will see the light. High school is about preparation for the future, not a struggle to look good in the community. Maybe, someday, people won't need to write to the editor and we can just voice our opinion in school and be heard. Maybe, someday ... but with my luck, it'll be after I graduate.
Thank you for your time.
Craig Davison
Warsaw
via e-mail
Close Call
Editor, Times-Union:You saw the sorrowful semi accident on your Nov. 10th front page.
Albert G. and Paula K. would be buried in our local cemetery now for over two weeks, but thanks to the Lord and my 15-20 second delay stepping on my gas pedal, me with the green light for 15-20 seconds, our car, my second Mercury Marquis, would have looked like your yesterday's semi accident photo.
We were waiting on the stop light at the Anchorage Road and Lake City Highway (U.S. 30) intersection. The light turned green, a short pause, then all of a sudden a semi driving at least 50-55 mph passed on his red light just right in front of me. The Lord saved both of us.
We can have the answer to all of these speeding problems, only if a couple of states and our local officials would take their vacation and go to Germany.
My wife's hometown, Traisa, Germany, for 25 or more years, has not had a police department of their own. Their traffic lights all have a special camera that takes a complete photo of all the "speeders," showing a perfect photo of the back side of the vehicles, the license plate number, the time of the speeding and the speed number.
Why can't we get the same German-style, German-made photo cameras and install them in Warsaw?
I would think that the increase in collection of fines in six months would pay for the needed cameras and also pay for their "vacation cost."
Albert G. Smith
Warsaw
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