Our Readers' Views

Date: 11-05-2007 Posted by: Anabolic Info TeamUnited States

Legislators refuse to move on building a sports arena

Do you really think the legislators in Dover are going to approve funding for a sports complex to be used by mostly African-American Delaware State University? DSU will never be on par with the University of Delaware when it comes to athletics or anything else.

Legislators are perfectly happy with the 5,000-seat Carpenter Center being the largest arena in the state. Every state besides Delaware has a sports complex that seats more than 5,000 people. Most of these are in the state's largest city, capital or on college campuses.

DSU's sports program has given Delaware national exposure in the past 10 years, and the thanks they'll get for it is continuing to play in a high school gym.

A new complex could also hold March Madness tournament games, exhibition games by the Flyers and Sixers, championship ice skating, wrestling and so on.

Dwayne Bell, Wilmington

Families expect taxpayers to subsidize education costs

Just days after the latest money grab was defeated in the Brandywine School District, these grasping parasites are trying to wear us down by sneaking in yet another referendum on the heels of the last one. When are they going to learn that "no" means "no"?

I am disgusted by the sense of entitlement of people who have too many children or own no property, yet expect the rest of us to subsidize their bloated families. It should be the law that referenda can be held no more frequently than every two years, and that only property owners can vote in them.

Neither my husband nor I attended public schools. Although we have paid heavy taxes all of our working lives, we have no children in the school system. Our parents scraped by, working hard to pay for our educations themselves, while still paying income and property taxes.

These taxes are an especially cruel burden on older folks trying to live on fixed incomes, and now deserve a break from legalized thievery. I urge everyone who resents multiple attempts to pick our pockets to defeat this referendum on June 4.

Sharon Desmond Griffin, Wilmington

Black bishops are sadly opposed to hate-crime law

I read that American black bishops, at their annual national meeting, will oppose gay hate crime legislation pending in Congress. The pending bill would add gay-motivated physical attacks to other protected minority groups.

If blacks or Jews are attacked or murdered, under present law this constitutes a hate crime. Higher penalties are accessed.

Black religious leaders oppose this extension of justice to gays. So much for empathy. They have the mistaken notion that passage of this bill will somehow prevent them from preaching gay hate from their pulpits. Hate crime legislation is not tied to freedom of speech. It simply targets vicious attacks on minorities based solely on their minority status.

How sad that religious institutions, which are supposed to be bastions of love and tolerance, still thrive on preaching hate. Although possibly inspired by "Christian" rhetoric, only those who physically attack gays would be charged.

William A. Stoddart, Wilmington

Outside interests shouldn't prevent protecting children

The reactionary group TFP has financed a full-page ad of disingenuous legal arguments and outright lies in The News Journal. Why is this radical group of outsiders telling Delaware's Legislature to protect child molesters rather than children?

By passing the Child Victims Act, S.B. 29, Delaware will become the most inhospitable state for sexual predators. Let's not let this special-interest lobby get in the way of this critical effort to expose predators and those who enabled sexual abuse. Delaware's children deserve better than that.

Nelson Lamb, Wilmington

Dieticians don't have all answers about nutrition

Delawareans are about to lose an important right to freely discuss the role of foods and nutrients in optimal personal health. House Bill 38, which recently passed in the House and is now in a Senate committee, is titled the Dietician/Nutritionist Licensure Act. It would be more appropriately titled the Dietician Monopoly Act.

If this becomes law, it would have a chilling effect on availability of alternative nutritional information that is not endorsed by the Licensed Dietician/Nutritionist Board.

Under the guise of protecting the public from fraud, H.B. 38 could prevent advocates from explaining such topics as macrobiotics, vegetarianism and raw foods. It could even prevent the owner of a local gym from discussing sports nutrition with bodybuilding clients.

Delaware's dieticians lost much of their credibility during the decades they recommended high trans fat margarines, while natural foods stores banned these unhealthy spreads from their shelves.

Please contact your state senator and ask for a no vote on H.B. 38.

Bob Kleszics, President, Harvest Market, Hockessin

Beware when government gets involved in insurance

My spouse and I can sympathize with a letter regarding insurance for small businesses. My spouse retired after 28 years with the Newark Police Department and turned his part-time construction interest into a full- time business. We were forced to provide our own health insurance as a sole proprietor and spouse, and pay large premiums with very high deductibles.

Premiums are raised not only on an annual basis, but aas you enter a higher age group. Therefore, sometimes rates are raised twice a year.

After reading News Journal articles regarding insurance companies, lobbyists and Delaware Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn, we too were hopeful that the exposure would help curb insurance costs. However, we may see just the opposite. A group health plan for small Delaware businesses would be great, but don't be surprised if $700-plus per month or more is what government considers affordable premiums.

Just look at what happened when Delaware purportedly tried to lower the cost of worker compensation. Instead of reining in outrageous premiums to insurance companies, the possibility of lowered premiums for larger businesses will now affect smaller businesses and sole proprietors, with the blessing of local trade associations.

Many of these contractors, who are supplementing retirement, will be out of work because they cannot afford the additional expense.

When the government claims to be helping where insurance companies are involved, it seems to be the premium payers who suffer. After all, insurance companies are very generous campaign contributors.

L.D. Geesaman, Fair Hill, Md.

Brandywine should make better use of money it has

I am writing in response to the threats by the Brandywine School district to cut textbooks, teachers and schools because its referendum didn't pass. The district's willingness to cut necessary items for education instead of looking at sports or non-academic areas tells where its priorities lie. Perhaps if the money and time used to promote referendums was used more wisely along with the money received in the previous referendums, it wouldn't be in this position.

Perhaps if it offered the education children deserve, it wouldn't have the high exit rate it is experiencing.

The Brandywine School district offers inferior education. The fact that it is still contemplating full-day kindergarten shows how out of touch it is.

As a parent with four school-age children who went to the district's schools until they became intolerable, I voted no. I will continue to vote no.

Maria Dempsey, Wilmington

Community college leader seeks unusual tax authority

Congratulations to those in the Delaware House and Senate for attempting to give one of their own, Delaware Technical & Community College President Orlando George, the authority to supercede the citizens of Delaware and levy taxes. What the politicians want to do is anoint George as a monarch. I guess if you are a politician, nothing is impossible.

Thomas Koval, Bear

Rather apologize for past, work for future harmony

Those who seek an apology for the period of slavery may be looking for something disguised as sorrow, an action that has no persons to hold accountable or direct victims to whom to apologize. I agree this was a horrible period for our country, to enslave people of any race. Why feel entitled to anything other than a future of understanding and vigilance?

To keep these past events alive, we perpetuate the race division rather than accept it as history and work together as one people. We should place our endeavors and good intentions into our communities, starting with children. Let's teach them to respect all people and work for a better future of harmony.