Pharos Tribune

I agree with Mr. Delp on the fact that the economy will be the biggest factor in our local Senate race between Linda Klinck and Randy Head.

Governor Daniels is promoting job growth for Indiana. But at what cost? And where are the jobs going?

Most of the jobs, state funding, grant funding, and infustructure projects are going to Indiana's entitlement communities, that have not had to bear the brunt of the new tax cuts.... for example Indianapolis, Ft.Wayne, South Bend, Evansville and Kokomo, to name a few. These communities can in turn afford to bring forward the necessary incentive packages to prospective business in form of competitive tax abatements, financial incentives ect.

Logansport and smaller communities cannot afford to compete with our budgets being slashed at the state level to the tune of more that two Million dollars....especially in comparison to Kokomo's mandated cuts of two hundred thousand dollars.

You see where this is going? Even-though I can respect the financial savvy of Governor Daniels. But, at the end of the day, it has become painfully clear to small town Indiana that his economic strategy is the same as G.W. Bushes policies. "Give more at the top and hope it trickles down to the rest of us". Only in Daniel's case, he has only succeeded in making rich businesses wealthy, Large communities Larger, and competitive communities stronger.

So, where does that leave us? Daniels is a business man. He believes in the survival of the fittest. He believes in consolidation of communities. By consolidating and absorbing our smaller less productive communities into our larger more productive cities, he believes it will strengthen our viability in the market. And in turn,he has invested our capitol to expand in the strong markets. In theory, it's very smart. But, remember this is our town we're talking about, not a multi-conglomerate corporation.

So, this leads us back to the issue of our local economy and the question of "What questions to ask the candidates?"

1. Do you think Logansport/district 18 can become competitive? And how?
2. What do you think of the Indiana main-street program?
3. What is your vision for Logansport and district 18?

These are simple questions...albeit, all trick questions, but good questions nonetheless.

We need a Senator that understands the fundamentals of our local economy, that has worked locally with our community, that has state level experience, and has a proven track record in increasing the quality of life in the area. We need legislators that will fight hard for the survival of the communities in district 18, instead of being content with preserving the status quo.

I've been watching all the so-called economic experts and listening to what they have to say. Many are saying that we have reached a point that is equal to that of the Great Depression. The only difference is that jobless rate is only at 6%, but I think it is higher, because the rate is derived from reports from those on unemployment benefits, and does not include those that no longer receive unemployment benefits. The colapse of the housing industry was a big blow and the the down fall of the american auto industry has caused a huge rippling effect on all industries that support them. The instability of these 2 industries have finally caused the colapse of some of our large financial institutions.
Now we a the taxpayers, thanks to our federal government are on the hook for the larges bail out of the financial sector of all time. Some are saying its $500 billion, others are saying it will be more like trillions. Either way we are going to pay for this.
How to keep this from happening, well I'm no economist, but I have my theories.
1. We cannot continue to pay CEO's of large corporate companies very large compensations. This only encourages greed and degredation of corporate america.
2. We cannot let the government be the oversight of not only corporate american, the financial industry, and government itself. This only breeds corruption and distrust.
3. We have to relieve the tax burden of the middle class, and we have to relieve taxing business. Government at all levels need to be smaller with government at the local level being the where taxes need to be spent the most.
4. We need to get out of the Middle East.
5. We need to develope our energy resourse, so we are not dependent on foreign oil.
6. We need to look at at our healthcare system and find ways to make it more affordable but yet profitable.
7. We need to put more emphisis on education of our youth. Making education affordable for all.
These are just a few things that we need to look at to bring this great nation back and make it respectable again in the world community. The foundation up on which this country was build is still strong. It has only weakened because our government has allowed greed from Wall Street and Corporate American to rule. This next election is our most important election in decades. No matter what party you vote for, those that we vote into office this time will have monumental problems to solve. The people we elect will need to work together and not against each other. The "R's" and "D's" from their signature blocks need to be dropped and the wall that keeps them from going across the aisle needs to be knocked downed. Working together will be the only way to solve todays problems.

James Delp
jdelp02@verizon.net

Times are hard for everyone, unless you are rich. I'm not rich but I do work and I do make a decent living. I consider myself somewhat lucky. I have a job and I've done a great job of paying down my debt over the past few years. There is a saying of what goes up must come down. Well the housing and auto markets have been up for many years now. The housing industry flooded the market with new housing, while the auto industry ignored the cry for more economical and fuel efficient cars. So both industies fell and fell hard. When they fell they caused a huge rippling affect, that has reach deep into our economy. The financial sector allowed this growth and encouraged it. They gave mortgages to people who had no business in buying a house outside their means. Corporate american and Wall Street encouraged this, all the while CEO's were taking big compensations then leaving to let others hold the bad debt. Our government has allowed this by not keeping up with current regulations and allowing oversight to disappear.

Now the I've heard that we are now experiencing the same symptoms that our parents and grandparents experienced during the Great Depression. The only difference is that the unemployment rate is only 6% opposed to 25% during the Great Depression. I think that 6% number is rather low and there are more people that unemployed then the government leads on. People who no longer receive unemployment benefits who are still unemployed are not being counted. With companies moving more jobs off shore or just eliminating them to satisfy corporate greed of Wall Street, I really think the unemployment rate is closer to double digits.

How do we begin to fix these problems. I don't know. I'm not an economist. I do know that we the taxpayers are going to be on the hook for the $500 billion plus bailout of the financial industry. I just hope that it isn't used to bailout CEO's and stockholders. The bail out needs to be used to keep people from loosing homes, retirement funds, IRA's, and 401K's.

These problems aren't going to be fixed overnight, since they took years to create. Until we get politicians elected that will represent the people instead of the interest of lobbist, special interest groups and political action committees, then there will always be a lack of oversight of the financial community.

James Delp

It is not right that our retirees and the poor are the ones being hurt the most by fiscal policies in Washington. The sad part is that not only are retirees and the poor being punished, but so are the middle-class. The only ones not hurting are the rich. I'm not sure what the President is going to do. He has set by while his rich friends have cleaned up the past eight years. Now he frames his bailout of their companies in the view that he is helping us. It's a terrible thing to say, but I don't think the President cares one bit about the poor or the retired. Nothing I can see indicates that the economy is going to get better anytime soon. Including I think it may get worse, depending on events. While the government denies we are in a recession, I believe we have been in one for more than a year. I think it may take another year before we see any signs of pulling out of the downturn.
Gordon Southern

I know that Dave Parnell made a HUGE impact on my daughter!! She interviewed him after the presentation for LCTV for a feature she's going to be doing. Seeing firsthand what his drug use did to him, right there in front of her face, his face blown off, made a HUGE impression on her. She talked about it extensively that evening.

So while I do understand what you're saying about life lessons being left up to us parents, and school/class time being taken, and money being spent, I also like to see that some of these folks actually do make an impression on the kids. I saw it last year as well w/the football player that came and talked to the kids about abstinence. One of my daughters friends really got hit between the eyeballs w/that presentation.

Margo

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."

~Edmund Burke~

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Quote:
"guess my opinion here is that the school corporations should stick to educating our children in the academic fundamentals, and leave the life skills to the parents."

This would be a great idea if you could count on ALL parents to do this. In some cases I am sure the parents are doing drugs too.

Quote:
"Motivational speakers are basically in it for the money. There may be some who really think they make a difference in young peoples' lives....but the reality is that they don't. A lifetime can't be changed in an hour. Anyone who thinks it can, is just fooling themselves"

This is a broad statement. It should read Some motivational speakers are in it for the money. People such as Deborah Moss and David Parnell are certainly not in it for the money. I don't think Deborah has ever been paid to do what she does.

Also, just so you know (I know because our church helped) area churches funded many of these events. It was $500 per school and in some cases the students held fundraisers to pay the bill and/or local churches paid, such was the case at Caston where Pastor Terri White's Twelve Mile church paid the bill.

I am surprised that someone would question the value of this and see it as "taking up valuable time." If this saves even one person/family from going through meth addiction it is certainly worth the "waste" of $500 and an hour of precious time.