February 8, 2012 Edition
Serving Belle Plaine and Surrounding Communities for Over 131 Years
Below are the most recent letters to the editor published in the Belle Plaine Herald.
Letters to the Editor
952-873-2261
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“Letter to the Editor”
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Dear Editor:
The government spends so much money on useless projects and departments that it’s hard to single out the one that’s the most damaging.
I would pick the Department of Education. I have some experience here because I have four children and 15 grandchildren. When I was on the school board in Jordan, we had a strike by the union. I took one of my children out of public school and sent him to St. John the Baptist in Jordan. He went for two grades - 5 & 6. He learned how to read proficiently. He learned discipline. He was graded fairly. No one was given A’s & B’s as in the public school where 50-60% are on the A honor roll. In the public school, no one fails. I asked the high school principal about this, but received no good answer. The one redeeming thing about sports is that children learn to win and also to lose. They get an opportunity to fail.
In the public school, the pupils graduate from high school, go to college and many who received good grades in high school can’t pass the entrance test and have to take remedial high school courses at the parents’ expense. If they don’t do this, they drop out and try to get a job equipped with very few skills.
When the local people ran the schools, it was much better. It not only cost less, but pupils were held to a standard, and if they didn’t meet the standard, they failed. I failed geometry in high school. I learned a lesson.
Local control is the best. It costs less and accomplishes more. After all, what good government department do you know of that operates efficiently. Close the Department of Education, save the tax payers billions, and the children learn more.
R.V. (Dick) Lucas
Jordan
Dear Editor:
Republican Representative John Kline held a rare town hall meeting in Shakopee January 30. The audience was, he said “too well educated” as they asked him questions he either couldn’t answer or wasn’t able to twist into a prepared talking point. I asked him if he supported the Keystone XL pipeline proposed by a foreign corporation to be built through the center of the U.S. from Alberta, Canada to Houston, Texas using the power of eminent domain across U.S. citizens’ private land. [It is despicable that crude oil pipelines have been granted the power of eminent domain to seize easements through private property without the owner’s permission because the pipelines serve only private interests and are not regulated as a public utility. To grant a foreign corporation this power over private land in the U.S. is outrageous.] I noted that the purpose of the Keystone XL pipeline was to convey crude oil to refineries in Texas to sell to foreign countries. I also noted this would only raise the competition for oil and result in higher costs for us (five of the six Texas refineries to receive the diluted tar are foreign companies located in a tax-free “Foreign Trade Zone” where oil may be exported to international buyers without paying U.S. taxes). I noted that two large refineries in Rosemount, Minnesota - the Koch brother’s refinery, and the Marathon Refinery, receive piped crude from Alberta through Koch’s MinnCan pipeline, (also built using the power of eminent domain).
A rupture in the Keystone XL pipeline could contaminate the Ogallala (sole source) aquifer, the nation’s largest aquifer and source of drinking water for 2 million people. NASA’s top climate scientist says that fully developing the tar sands in Canada would mean “essentially game over” for the climate. So Americans assume the risks, see higher fuel costs and global warming is accelerated. Kline suggested the pipeline would bring jobs. But, almost all pipeline jobs will be temporary and the U.S. State Department estimated that the pipeline would only create 5,000 to 6,000 jobs and if they rely mainly on Canadian crews as they have with the Keystone Phase 1 pipeline, only 11% of those would be U.S. Jobs - lower paid temporary jobs. Kline said he “didn’t see it that way”. Perhaps Kline only sees the oil campaign money.
Allen Frechette
Shakopee