The subject is roses
The Gardeners of the Bluffton/Pandora area will hold its February meeting on the topic of roses. The meeting is from 6:30 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 14, in the lower level of the Bluffton Public Library. Click for details.
By Fred Steiner | Mon, Sep 6, 2010
Editor,
I disagree with Wendy Chappell-Dick and think the progressives are going to ruin this country. Progressives believe that the government must be involved in all levels of reform. The existing constitution is outdated and must be made into a dynamic evolving instrument for social change, using scientific knowledge and the development of administrative bureaucracy.
This means big government, which means higher taxes and more intrusion into our lives. Our Founding Fathers developed this constitution and it has made America great. We have in the last 100 years tried to change it so we can become just another country, such as England or France. Maybe they want us to be like Greece or Spain, so far in debt they will be in trouble for years.
I am very, very proud of America and when Obama apologized for America, I wondered why he would apologize for the greatest country in the world. What we have has never been duplicated. We keep trying to lower ourselves down to other countries but this country just always comes back. When needed we always find a President that brings us higher rather than lower and usually this President is a God fearing person.
With Obama and his bunch we are in debt by trillions, more now with more spending in the works. When President Bush left office, Obama had a 9.5 trillion National debt. Now, 20 months later we are at 13.3 trillion and still spending. Unemployment was 9.5% when President Bush left. Now with Obama it is 10.6%.
Wendy’s progressive friends want to tax and have the federal government run our lives. President Reagan said that the best thing that government can do is get out of the way. I believe this is true.
I do want to say one thing about Wendy. She wrote the letter and put down what she believed. She had the strength and courage to sign her name as did Mike Zimmerman and I will sign this letter. Shame on you people for being anonymous. If you believe it, sign the letter. If you cannot sign the letter, don’t write it, because it means nothing if you are ashamed to put your name on it.
Way to go Wendy.
Thank you,
Bob Amstutz
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Editor,
I owe Wendy an apology because I sidetracked her letter. I am responsible for myself and I will stand behind what I say. If I make an untrue statement I will apologize. I just don’t care what others think about my opinion and I thank those that are praying for my soul although I don’t need the pity, I don’t care for that. Thank God this is America and we still, for now, have this freedom. Our freedom also gives the right to not sign. We all need to be responsible to ourselves. A lot has been said about signing and not signing; let’s get back to the first two letters that were written. The letter by Wendy with the Democrats and the one with anonymous with Conservatives. This upcoming election is so important that we cannot argue about wither to sign or not sign. Let’s discuss the election instead.
Bob Amstutz
How did this get from a great letter full of good insights on how the progressives are ruining the country--which is quite obvious--to a little bickering session about whether to sign a name or not.I'm quite conservative and you don't show this by signing your name--live it!
Proud to sign my name.
This series of comments all began with an effort to encourage people to get out and VOTE! One should give a little bit of thought to whom, what and why they were voting. Freedom is not Free. Please consider the longer term impact your vote may have on the future generations. How much of a burden should they live with, after all there will be fewer of them to pay for what we do today. The illegals and deadbeats within our society will not be held accountable to pay for the government burden, only the legal law abiding citizens.
Here is the thing about why I sign my name. I was raised and schooled to take ownership and responsibility for the things I say and do. Where would this nation be if our founding fathers had not signed their names to the Declaration of Independence? They risked everything including their life to show the world what they believed, and were willing to fight and die for it.
There is some merit in having the meaning of the words mean more than who authored them. But, I think that is a week excuse. If not signing one's name is so important, then why do people pay so much attention to what our leaders and commentary news people say. Why sign your name to legal documents or your paycheck? Why not just have all the news, thought and commentary printed and read by a faceless computer generated voice with no name. Then we would never know who wrote or said what, and we would be forced to only pay attention to what was written or said. A good place to begin replacing real people with faceless computer people might be in our enlightened higher education institutions, progressive places of worship, and all levels of government.
The current logic being stated in this and past topics signed anonymously really comes down to a lack of courage. Yes, you have that right not to sign. I have more respect for a signed statement than one not signed, even if I disagree with it. Should someone present me with a document requiring me to do something, I’d just ignore it, if it was not signed. But if you think otherwise, please send me the $100.00 you owe me in cash only. After all you've stated that your signature is worthless, or at least not required.
Mike Zimmerman
Talk about taking something way out of context, not to mention refusing to listen to what is being said. A public forum of thoughts and idea is not a legal contract. We have many famous quotes used in our society that the author is unknown or annonymous. Their value is not lessened by not knowing the author. We are not politicians, or members of the government. We do not hold public office, we are merely citizens with an opinion. We live out our beliefs and values in our everyday lives. Someone not signing their name to an opinion on a public forum does not make them worthless or devalued. I ask you to read all the comments again and keep in mind that you and Bob have been the only two that have named called and been disrespectful to others. Not much of a value system in my mind and certainly not a way to cause people to value your opinion.
I do not believe I have called anybody names. I have an opinion. I believe in responsibility for my actions.
Bob Amstutz
Lisen up people. For Some of us signing our name is a reflection to the way we were raised. If your are a mature adult and feel good about who you are then sign your name. But, if you are a wimp and are afraid of revealing how you feel about issues, then by all means do not sign, it's OK. You might grow up some day. Go hug a tree on a very cold day and see how warm and fuzzy it makes you feel. That is how I relate to the empty words most liberals belive in. There may come a day when this nation is completely broke, in every way. So be careful how you vote. Some of us want to work hard at making sure the USA is still here many generations from now. That's why moderate conservative people make good citizens.
So what you are saying is that my mother, whom you may or may not know, who may or may not have taught bible school at your church, who may or may not have cared for your family member when they were very ill at the local hospital or nursing home, who may or may not have taught your child or yourself at school.........IS NOTHING WITHOUT A NAME???
Are you saying that a person is not smart enough to voice their thoughts because they won't state their name?
To be a MATURE GROWN UP, then you need to respect the opinions of others NO MATTER WHO THEY SHALL BE~with names or without names.
You have shown the IMMATURITY of your comments and degrading anothers by saying "go hug a tree"??? What is that? Are you grouping those people into the same catagories that you feel isn't good enough? I take a bow to your highness..........Shall I kiss your feet??? Get real man!
Yes, I agree, be careful how you vote! But, when all you hear are lies and put-downs in the commercials and comments by those who really haven't a clue, then it is extremely difficult to vote. Besides, your vote may be the incorrect vote as you seem to only care "who says what is correct" and doesn't seem to open your wee little mind and consider the "little guy" to have the better answer.
As for voting, VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE AND YOU CAN'T BE WRONG! Even if Mr. So and So says you are!
I pity you for feeling like this. I bet you have many friends to your face and many more of those who are talking behind your back as to how snooty you truly are.
I am extremely thankful that I personnaly don't know you!!
Respect the decisions of those who chose to not add a name for they have their reasons and they are not wrong for chosing to take that path.
Your comments would have had much more weight had you not put down the very person who is standing next to you in the bank, grocery store, doctor's office.........Gee, who am I????
So, does having a name really make your life better? Or does having a name make your life more bitter????
Well, since I do not know any person or family named anonamous I'd say that No I'm not commenting on them. Since I do not who you are or your Mama is, I may not be commenting to you. But if the shoe fits, I'd say where it.
I never made a comment on anyone's inteligence.
I never stated that I did not respect the opions of others.
You are taking my comment out of it's complete setting. Read the entire thought and think about it.
I am a little guy, and I do care about how I vote, and I have voted at every opportunity I have had for more than four decades.
I respect their right to remain anonamous, and I have voluntarily served my counry to ensure you have that freedom. I still think that by not signing one's name it shows a lack of courage.
I seem to be Ok with the number of people who know be by my name. I do not have an identity problem. God knows who I'm am and that's really all that matters. Can we move on now?
First, I am not a wimp by any stretch of the imagination and everyone who knows me knows I am not affraid to stand up for what I believe in. I am a "grown up" and a productive member of society just as I am sure you are. And for the record I am not a liberal anything, I am proud to be a Christian Conservative-very conservative. I was simply stating that people have their reasons for not signing their name and it does not make them a coward. Sometimes it means that they are trying not to cause any fall out to members of their family in the community. Your comments prove that people in this community judge people on the surface without knowing or caring why they do something the way they do. This forum should allow people to express opinions and ideas in an open fashion without regard to who says it and it time for the name calling to stop. I was raised to have respect for others, you sir are not being respectful.
That is pretty big of yourself to think that my comment was ment just for you. Sorry I hurt your little feelings.
I have not called anybody names. I believe we have a responsibility to stand up and be counted. If you want to stand behind anonymous it seems to me a little wimpy, but be my guest.
Bob Amstutz
Bob,
I wanted to sign my name to this letter because I am proud of what I said and will stand behind it. If you know someone that believes in these things, it could be me. I purposely left my name off for several reasons as I have seen how prejudice works in small communities. I have lived in a few places where I would sign my name as I know it would be met with much less prejudice than in this forum.
If you know who I am, then you know my history, you know how I was raised amd how I currently run my life. Some will write off my comments because of my name, some will be more attracted because of the same, I want my words to stand on their own without prejudice.
I also have kids that go to school here and a relative that is involved in politics in Bluffton. I don't want my comments to generate prejudice when you or others view them.
When I read Wendy's comments, I knew where she was coming from because I know her. I instantly wrote them off because of how I think of her views, but her comments challenged me to do my own research as I must say, like many of us, I have been frustrated walking into the voting booth only knowing half of the names and only what a quarter of them stood for. I hope that my comments have been enlightening to some and challenging to others, just as I Wendy's has to me.
The worst thing that can happen to our country is an uninformed electorate, that is one thing I do not want any of us to be.
What exactly does signing my name do for you anyway?
I guess I just do not get it. My political view is 180 degrees from Wendy's, but I hold no prejudice against her. I consider her a friend. She and I have not talked politics, but I am sure she knows where I stand because I do not hide my name. It is not right or wrong it is a belief in where we stand as a country and where our country is going. I am conservative and want my fellow conservatives to stand up as the liberals do. If we do not stand behind our beliefs, what good will they do.
Bob Amstutz
Amen the fact that you "just don't get it", you can't think past your own thoughts. We stand up for what we believe in by the way we vote, the way we do our job, the way we live our lives and the way we raise our children. It is not dependent on whether or not you know our name or if you know what we are doing. We certainly don't encourage change or persuade people to our "point of view" by being critical or disrespectful.
1. Changes to the Constitution in the past 100 years are an attempt to devalue the greatness of the United States of America. Silly amendments. Women’s suffrage, what a joke! Why do women need the right to vote? I mean, we let ‘em drive a car, shouldn’t that be enough?
2. The United States of America is the greatest country in the world, thus is perfect. No apologies needed. Seems simple enough. England. France. What do they know about running a country? They don’t have near the history like the good ole' U.S.A. That whole Magna Carta thing was overrated anyway. All other countries are lower than the U.S, and we’re not talking about elevation.
3. People know which presidents or more God fearing than others. I wonder if they know Thomas Jefferson was believed to be an atheist.
4. When referring to former republican presidents, you are to insert the title of President prior to his name. If the party affiliation is different, title of President is not warranted.
5. The unemployment rate increasing by 1.6% (10.6 – 9.5) is a more alarming issue than the increase from a 4% rate to 9.5% when the beloved President Bush was in office. Ancient history.
6. If you don’t sign your name on such replies, you should be ashamed. For it’s not the content that is important, it’s knowing who is on ‘my side’ and who isn’t. How can we blacklist if we don't have names!?
1. There is a way to change the constitution through the amendment process as you so well pointed out. I agree with this change process as it is very difficult and therefore becomes more meaningful when it happens. I don't like the word precedent though. This is a word that a lot of Lawyers use to sight bad and inaccurate interpretations of the law from past judgments. This is the type of change I think we can all disagree with. No single judge should be able to influence how we live because of his or her view of the world. That is what the constitution is for.
2. America is the greatest country in the history of the world because it was built on the premise that all men and women should be free. It is not that we make mistakes, but we are the only country in the history of the world that will send our military out to free people from despots and them let them rule themselves. (Unless you are a conspiracy theorist)
3. President's faith is a personal thing, but I would rather have one that doesn't think he is a god.
4. I'm guessing you are talking to the wrong crowd here. Even our worst presidents deserve the title that they have earned, no matter how hard it is for me to pronounce it. (President F.D. Roosevelt, President L.B. Johnson, President Carter, President Obama, etc, etc.)
5. What was the employment rate before the Dems took Congress back in 2006?
6. I'm definitely not on your side when it comes to politics, but care enough for your soul to pray for you that one of these days your eyes will be opened and realize we do live in the freest country in the history of the World, and that is a good thing.
unemployment rate
2005 5.1%
2006 4.6
Bob Amstutz
Shame on you for bashing people for not "signing" their name to a comment. People like you only want to see who says what so you know who you are talking about when you gossip around town about people. There are many reasons a person would not sign their name and it is their right to be "anonymous". You don't need to know who said something for it to be valuable or not valuable, the content can certainly stand on its own and often who said it stands in the way of what is said. Stop being so critical and understand that people do have reasons for doing things a certain way and they are not just trying to drive you crazy trying to figure out who to talk about.
Congratulations to all who have commented on the comment about signing your name. You have shown me how petty this town is. Why don't you worry about the subject matter instead of names? I read all the "messages" and there are points to both sides. This just goes to show why our country is in its current state. If we can't get along on a public website, how can we expect any government to do its job correctly? Get over yourselves and work together, you'd get more done!
You go Anonymous!! Let 'em have it. Signed......Anonymous(other)