A message to the Superintendent
(See Debbie Burdick letter in My View)
You should have expected this after you closed Desert Arroyo on the same day you received confirmation of the bond money. You can disregard the will of the people (whom you are supposed to serve) for only so long without eventually incurring some type of retribution.
For a small fraction of that $13 million you could have kept Desert Arroyo open – not that this is the only reason why the district faces a law suit, but it may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Renovating Cactus Shadows after closing Desert Arroyo was just a slap in the face to parents. The laws of physics teach us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction so you should have been anticipating this law suit.
Money that could have been spent on practical expenditures (sufficient text books for the student population, raising teacher’s salaries, keeping Desert Arroyo open, etc.) is now being wasted on legal fees because you did not consider the will of the parents. Don’t try to cast blame for this situation back onto the parents – we are the ones who love our children and have their best interests at heart. I’m not a part of this law suit but I must admit I am gratified to finally see a group of people who have become so fed up with the district’s indifference toward parents that they decided to do whatever they could to put a stop to it.
By the way, the thinly cloaked bribe about using “local contractors” is an insult to our intelligence and integrity. How about using the most qualified contractors? Most parents are sick of seeing kick-backs and undeserved contracts awarded simply because of connections and not because of proper qualifications. Also, in regard to your correspondence below, if you think all parents were thrilled about your capital projects then it is clear to me you have not been listening to what parents have been saying. I’ve heard numerous parents (and even teachers) question why CCUSD is spending money on renovating Desert Arroyo – a school that is now closed, despite parental pleas that it should remain open. Why are you replacing skylights, water fountains, flooring, signs, fire alarms, adding fencing, upgrading lighting, upgrading the security system, renovating the restrooms and paving the parking lot of a school that you closed?! It defies logic … unless there is something you’re not telling us – again.
Sincerely,
Kyle Durham |
Cave Creek
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What has America become?
Has America become the land of the special interest and home of the double standard?
Let’s see: If we lie to the Congress it’s a felony and if the Congress lies to us it’s just politics. If we dislike a black person, we’re racist and if a black person dislikes whites it’s his First Amendment right. The government spends millions to rehabilitate criminals and does almost nothing for the victims. In public schools you can teach that homosexuality is OK but you’d better not use the word “God” in the process. You can kill an unborn child, but it’s wrong to execute a mass murderer.
We don’t burn books in America – we now rewrite them. We got rid of the communist and socialist threat by renaming adherents “progressives.” We are unable to close our border with Mexico, but have no problem protecting the 38th parallel in Korea. If you protest against President Obama’s policies you’re a terrorist, but if you burned an American flag or George Bush in effigy it was your First Amendment right.
You can have pornography on TV or the Internet, but you’d better not put a Nativity scene in a public park during Christmas. We have eliminated all criminals in America – they are now called sick people. We can use a human fetus for medical research, but it’s wrong to use an animal.
We take money from those who work hard for it and give it to those who don’t want to work. We all support the Constitution, but only when it supports our political ideology. We still have freedom of speech, but only if we are being politically correct. Parenting has been replaced with Ritalin and video games. The land of opportunity is now the land of handouts. The similarity between Hurricane Katrina and the gulf oil spill is that neither president did anything to help.
And how do we handle a major crisis today? The government appoints a committee to determine who’s at fault, then threatens them, passes a law, raises our taxes, and tells us the problem is solved so incumbents can get back to their reelection campaigns.
What has happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Ken Huber | Tawas City, Michigan
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A war against a terrible dictator
I don’t keep up with world news, but someone told me Obama has us in a war against a terrible dictator who is killing his own people and who poses an immediate threat to the USA. I say it is about time we took on North Korea and I applaud Obama for doing so. The dictator there has starved to death even more people than Stalin did in the 1930s in the Ukraine. (I know Stalin actually caused the death of more people, but I though I would pacify the American Left by claiming the guy in N. Korea was worse).
Oh, so it is not N. Korea Obama is attacking. Never mind. He deserves credit for finally going after the Allah Akbar boys in Iran. I never thought Obama, with his deep family roots in Islam, would ever go after the “Brothers.” In fact, at first I thought he was establishing a No Fly Zone over Gaza. I know that all his overtures to the Arab masses play right into the Salafi Muslims’ chant of Allahu Akbar wa itbakh al-Yahud (Allah is great and death to the Jews).
I see I am misinformed again! It is neither Iran nor N. Korea we are attacking. It is Lybia of all places. Never mind. I am writing this letter on Friday, March 25, before lunch. And Obama said we would wind up this campaign by midnight today. I refer of course to the war, not to his re-election campaign which will go on for at least a decade after he is thrown out of office in 2012.
None of this should detract from the Greatness of America’s first mini Caliph. I predict that his face will in the future appear on the New Series $100,000,000 bank note. No make that the $500,000,000,000 – the $100,000,000 bill would only buy a watermelon when he is through.
Mickey Gibson | Carefree
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Gas wars
For those under the age of fifty, a gas war is not what has gone on in the Middle East during the last decade; nor the political flatulence that emanates from Washington D.C. every day. Gas wars occurred in the 1950s and early 1960s when free market competitors actually battled one another for customer loyalty and the dollars that sustained their business, lowering the asking price and improving service.
When cleaning all of your autos windows, checking tire pressure, oil levels and lowering prices was not enough, service stations offered premiums as incentive to patronize the business. Dinner ware, glass ware, calendars and free maps were favorite offerings. All of these overhead costs remained affordable with gasoline at 18.9 cents per gallon due to one factor – domestically produced crude oil. Wells pumped in Texas, California, off the Gulf Coast and in Oklahoma, oil was plentiful and cheap.
The 1970s brought reduced domestic production and a dramatic reversal with the Arab Oil Embargo, soaring prices and limited supply. Enter wild-eyed, hysterical environmentalists with a strict anti-drilling agenda fearful of harming any living creature during exploration, extraction, transportation or use of petroleum products, and U.S. production grinds nearly to a halt.
With gasoline prices racing toward $4 a gallon the Obama administration fails to recognize or ignores the fact that while Green technologies show promise, the world still runs on oil. Our diminished capacity leaves us reliant upon suppliers, who hate us, for the energy that fuels our economy and national security.
The U.S. Geological Survey reveals that in total our oil shale, off shore and underground fields give the U.S. a greater oil resource than Saudia Arabia. How does energy independence, thousands of jobs, $1.50 a gallon gas and a free calendar sound?
Randy Edwards | Cave Creek
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2011 budget
Let me see if I understand what is presently going on in Washington with a budget that should have been passed in 2010. The blame game is still going on fast and furious. There is a lot of rhetoric and mud slinging as usual and feigned outrage by some senators because no agreement is being reached.
From my perspective, this is what I see as the message being sent to all of us taxpayers: Pay the ransom (allow us to continue massive government spending) or we stop paying the military. Pay the ransom (allow us to continue massive government spending) or we won't mail you your IRS refund check. Pay the ransom (allow us to continue massive government spending) or we will ruin the tourists' vacations who are going to DC for the cherry blossom festival. Pay the ransom (allow us to continue massive government spending) or we will close the National Parks and ruin family vacations.
Whichever way we look at this, they are holding the taxpayers hostages!! The worst part is that they are furthering the destruction of our financial system by spending money we don't have.
How clear is that??? Is there any other way of putting it so that all senators whether Democrats or Republicans understand what we the voters (with common sense) are telling them???
Elisa Zanella | Maricopa County taxpayer
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Cave Creek “as it used to be”
People seem to be concerned about cave Creek “as it used to be” so the following might clarify the “used to be” somewhat. This is a part of the account of the town I wrote in about 2002, when the changes had already been underway for several years.
“The Fourth of July parade was another spontaneous production. Anyone who wanted to join the parade could do so, dressed any way they liked. There were horses, Jeeps, Indians, cowboys, 1890 type madams, Harold Gavagan’s old Model T truck and a plain bunch of marchers. There were very few spectators because everyone was in the parade.
It started at the intersection of Spur Cross and Grapevine Road and from there it proceeded up Cave Creek Rd. to Harold’s Corral. There was plenty of beer drinking on the way there, and it was likely to continue most of the day and evening at Harold’s. Harold figured a neat way of celebrating – he put some huge cakes of ice in the middle of the floor between the front door and the bar.
I think the original idea was for someone to guess when the ice would all melt and get a prize, but what happened was that several guys took to grabbing the patrons, including the women, and sitting them on the ice, to the merriment and wet backsides of all. When everyone in the bar had been seated, the whole group waited by the front door, and the next unsuspecting entrant would be seated as the rest had been. I am not sure how this related to our country’s independence, but we sure had fun! There were no numbers on anyone’s back, no prizes or awards – just an old Western-style good time.”
Those days are now gone, but we still remember them with fondness and regret that they will never come again.
Very truly yours,
Ralph G. Smith | Cave Creek
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President Pearce reacts to SB 1070 court victory
PHOENIX, State Capitol – Senate President Russell Pearce has received the go-ahead to intervene in a Justice Department lawsuit challenging SB 1070. Pearce is the architect and author of the tough illegal immigration law.
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton allowed the intervention in an order released late yesterday. This follows emergency legislation signed into law in February, authorizing the Legislature to participate in court proceedings to defend SB 1070.
“It’s the right decision. I have been fighting this battle for many years now, and I need to be at the table to help stop this assault by the Obama administration and their attack on the State of Arizona. This administration has failed to protect Arizonans. Now, Arizona will have another voice in the battle, to fully implement SB 1070,” says Pres. Pearce.
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Election results
America has experienced a wonderful “burst of freedom” in the 2010 elections when it voted to oust many liberal, state and federal candidates. This may have been Americas last chance to end evil Marxist Socialism, which is Obama’s promise of “hope and change” for America. If Obama’s agenda were to succeed it would destroy our liberty and freedoms for many, many generations to come. America must not let this happen.
I believe the Tea Party movement was a great influence that brought about this amazing victory. But, I also believe that God intervened to save this nation in which He had a crucial role in founding, winning the Revolutionary War, writing the Constitution and many other ways. God’s words of wisdom are still very applicable yet for today. King Solomon, the wisest king of Israel wrote in Proverbs 17:7 “Excellent speech is not becoming to a fool, much less lying lips to a prince.” But these people will never change and they must also be fired as happened to many liberals in the 2010 election.
When Americans realized that the future of their children now and for many generations to come was in real jeopardy, they acted by voting for the conservative candidates that gave them the best last hope of getting America back to what the founders of our U.S.
Constitution intended. Our founders provided a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Americans must pray that Almighty God will continue to protect America from all enemies: foreign and domestic. God bless our America, with its liberty and freedoms that we love, so it can be passed on to future generations.
James Roehrborn | Alexandria, Minnesota
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Peace and fairness in the Middle East
Dear American, in all my years I have only seen crises solved well when the two sides sit down and with respect talk to each other. That does not seem to be happening in the Middle East with the Palestinians trying to form a state and get it recognized by the U.N. They left negotiations about six months ago and even with Israel saying they would like to talk more, the Palestinians are trying an "end run." Success will not come from this venture.
Sincerely,
William D. Lawrence, MD | Phoenix
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