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Letters to the Editor

Smoking and politics

EDITOR: As a former smoker I find a correlation between quitting this habit and abandoning other harmful habits. Oddly, one of the most difficult things for me to get over was the fact of not smoking itself. For 16 years I was openly known as a “smoker” and fell into the category of folks who could be identified as having the same “addiction.” You hang around similar folk for support. At age 16 it was easy to sneak smokes from your folks. In college, my mother would send me cartons of cigarettes, it was rude to refuse a request for a smoke knowing the one asking may be going ...

Wealth and taxes

EDITOR: The top 10% of income earners pay 76% of all income taxes. Most billionaire income is unearned and is not taxed or is taxed at a lower rate. Wealth is not taxed. If you could spend $10 million every year, it would take you 100 years to spend a billion dollars. There are several hundred billionaires in the United States. A second billion and a third adds nothing to their quality of life. Much of their wealth is used to influence elected officials and, as in the case of Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, members of the Supreme Court. Elon Musk has donated $75 million to ...

Let’s not go back

EDITOR: As a young child during the 1960s, I observed all the effort youth were making at the time to make our country a better place for everyone, civil rights for people of color, expansion of voting rights, equal treatment of our Native Americans, and women’s equality were just a few areas where much of this effort took place. Many changes occurred as a result of these efforts, but the cost was high; assassinations, civil unrest and riots in the streets and the killing of four college students in Ohio by our own National Guard. Let’s not go back. The “Children of the 60s” ...

Political Letters

Letters to the editor pertaining to the November General Election will not be accepted after 4 p.m. on Tuesday, October 22.

Political signs

EDITOR: Last night a number of yard signs were stolen in our neighborhood. The yard signs were on private property and happened to support the Harris/Walz campaign. I can only assume that the thieves were Trump supporters and were attempting to suppress any visible signs of Harris support. The theft seems to illustrate an intolerance to opposing views and an attempt to silence the opposition. This is exactly why we support the Harris ticket. A democracy encourages open dialogue, mutual respect, and allowing diversity of opinions. Because one may disagree with another politically does ...

Veteran millage

EDITOR: The millage is for the purpose of funding, equipping, staffing, maintaining and operating a County Department of Veterans Affairs to provide relief, support, and assistance services to all qualified veterans, their eligible spouses and families. The proposed millage for 1/10 of 1 percent is for 5 years. If your home has a taxable value of $100,000 the cost to you will be $10 a year. That’s a very small amount to pay for all the veterans have given to us. Delta County has had one VSO officer for years and he is very busy and needs help. The older our veteran population gets, ...