Voices From The Readers

Voices From The Readers
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Senior Week Not
Worthy Of Accepting
Editor:

In regard to last week’s editorial, “With June Best To Remember ‘This Too Shall Pass’,” yes, ‘this too shall pass’ is quite true regarding the month of June and Senior Week.

Yes, it’s disturbing to walk down the street and see trash, bent car mirrors, dented vehicles, garbage cans tipped over and broken glass and beer cans all over public and private property. And it is definitely horrifying seeing those kids running into traffic wherever and whenever it suits them without a thought for their own safety.

But I don’t understand why your editorial takes an “oh well, ho-hum” attitude. Oh well, it’ll soon be over. Ho-hum, that’s how it is in June. Yes, disturbing, horrifying and unsettling, but how about ridiculous, outrageous and unnecessary?

The “families” are coming into town now and that’s great, but why do we put up with “hell night” for three weeks prior to July? Why not make Senior Week one week? That way we can cut down on all the issues three weeks bring by 66%. Imagine two thirds less crime, drugs, alcohol, accidents, injuries and arrests, wouldn’t that be great? Imagine two thirds less garbage, destruction of property, disrespect and chaos, wouldn’t that be great?

Imagine two thirds less drunken, stoned, loud, obnoxious, foulmouthed, disorderly kids running around loose on the beaches, Boardwalk, streets, buses, cabs and restaurants ruining things for the other kids. Now wouldn’t that be great? Let my kids out when these hoodlums are roaming? Not in this lifetime, not in June.

There are plenty of families here in June and I can just imagine some of the memories they are bringing home. Let’s do these families and the rest of us a big favor and curtail this destructive wave to a seven-day assault and be done with it. We don’t have to take the good with the bad if we don’t choose to. How about a Senior Weekend? Ahh, I can only dream.

Leon Douglas
Ocean City

Election Move Commended
Editor:

It was refreshing to see something that hasn’t happened at the OC Council Chambers in almost two years — a compromise.

The compromise actually started a few weeks ago when Council members Cymek, Knight and Martin changed their position on merging the municipal and national elections. But this week it was determined by the the city attorney that there would be a lot of "red tape" in making the combined ballot a reality this November. That’s when the idea was discussed of simply changing the municipal election to the date of the national election, but with different polling areas. At that point, Council President Jim Hall and Councilmember Pillas compromised their stance of keeping the separate election dates and voted with Council members Cymek, Knight, and Martin to have both elections at the same time. A very responsible move by all five council members and definitely was the consensus of the citizens in the crowd that night.

It was disappointing, however, to see Joe Hall not vote for this change, especially since he has always been the one council member pushing for a merged election. He was unwilling to compromise his opinion of having one ballot in favor of having one date with two different ballots. Fortunately, though, his vote was not needed. Hopefully, the decision that the five members made will have the positive result that is desired: more people voting in the municipal election.

Rich Drake
Ocean City

Wake Up, Folks
Editor:

When are we as a nation going to wake up and see what is really going on in this country? There are so many who are totally ignorant of the facts or just plain complacent and naive that it’s frightening.

How many of you know anything about the Muslim Brotherhood, which is infiltrating our country at all levels? Are you aware that President Obama has appointed several to key positions in our government, one being Homeland Security? What do you know about the Muslim Brotherhood and Sharia Law? For information, I suggest you contact Mark Stevenson at "The No Sharia Law in America Project. It will curl your hair.

What do you know about the U.S. land policies involving Agenda 21 and Plan Maryland? Check it out at HotAir.com entitled "Quit Worrying About Urban Sprawl".

Are you aware that there are over 55 Communists in our government?

And what about the DOJ, which refuses to control our borders, allowing our enemies to easily cross over.

Rome is burning, folks, and we need a leader who will tackle the many problems that we have. For starters, we need to get money out of politics, improve the job market, simplify the tax code, fix the problems with the entitlement programs, have term limits for Congress, stop fighting frivolous wars, and rethink our foreign policy which gives billions of dollars to undeserving governments. And we need to stop spending money like drunken sailors, increasing our national debt to unsustainable portions.

To those of you who have recently sent letters to the editor extolling President Obama and criticizing those with opposite views from yours, I suggest you get your heads out of the sand and start facing reality. The President is not who you think he is. Do a background check on him and see what types of people he associates with, such as George Soros, an evil man.

Look at all the things he said when he was running for office in 2008 which he has not followed through on. For one, he was going to have transparency in government and Nancy Pelosi was going to "clean the swamp". Almost four years later, we have a government full of corruption and no transparency and the swamp is overflowing. If you want some facts check out Judicial Watch at [email protected]. This organization is the government’s watch dog.

Don’t swallow everything that is fed to you through the news media, Twitter, Facebook and blogs. When you get a negative email about those on the opposite side of the fence from you, check to see if it’s true. You’ll be surprised to find out that much of what you are being told is false.

Please, I beg everyone to pay attention to what is happening. If you don’t, I fear that we will become Venezuela North not the freedom loving Republic to which we were founded.

Ann Lutz
Ocean Pines

Tired Of OP Ripoffs
Editor
(The following was addressed to members of the Ocean Pines Association Board and General Manager.)

The OPA is becoming more worrisome, alienating its members. I am among a multitude that no longer patronizes the Yacht Club because of past experience with poor service and inconsistent quality. I am also among the many members that no longer purchase pool passes because our favorite pool was enclosed.

Up until today’s attempted rip off, I continued to purchase a Beach Club parking pass. It was announced last year that a new procedure was going to be implemented to gain entrance to parking; the passes would be swiped through a machine. It was subsequently announced the new procedure would not be implemented until this year. Because of the vacillation, as usual, I discarded my pass at the end of the season.

Today I went to the Administration Building to purchase my annual Beach Club parking pass and was advised that last year’s pass was supposed to be retained and it was so marked. Therefore, this year, I would have to pay the regular $160 fee, plus a $40 penalty. I can take it or leave it. No way, what an insult. So for the first time in 14 years and into the future, I will no longer purchase a Beach Club parking pass.

There are some pretty good alternatives. I can go to the beach and park at the Ocean City inlet without having to wait in line for a vacant parking space. It will not cost anywhere near $200 for the season.

A number of years ago, I purchased for a onetime fee of only $10 a Golden Age Lifetime free pass to all of our national parks. That is still available today to any senior citizen. I can go to the beach in Assateague with a car full of guests, it costs nothing, and I don’t have to wait in line for a vacant parking space. My seasonal cost for gasoline will be substantially less than $200 for the season.

If you keep biting the hand that feeds you, how can you expect us to support the board and general manager?

Norman Katz
Ocean Pines

No To Taxing, Spending
Editor:

While local and state officials are preparing to increase taxes and plan more spending, the Worcester County Tea Party is working to accommodate its expanding membership of disgruntled taxpayers, which is now growing beyond the capacity of its meeting space.

 State Del. Pat McDonough forewarned local residents about impending local and state tax hikes during a Tea Party meeting held at the Ocean Pines Community Center last month. McDonough echoed earlier admonition aired by fellow Delegate Mike McDermott who briefed the crowd the previous month. Both delegates are concerned about the measure of increasing taxes to keep up with future spending plans. They said tax hikes are mainstay items on the state and local political agenda for 2012-2013, which the Worcester County Tea Party strongly opposes.

“After six doomsday O’Malley budgets, Maryland is now on the AAA watch list. Some 58,000 private sector jobs have been lost since January 2008. Twenty four new taxes, and tax increases, and fee increases since 2007 costing Marylanders $2.4 billion,” said McDonough. “New toll taxes are totally unnecessary and unneeded. And guess what’s coming, a sales tax increase and a gas tax. They are even trying to do a gas tax hike in the special session planned for July 9.”

  McDonough bashed Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley’s free hand in holding special sessions stating the constitution prohibits government from holding special sessions except for extraordinary circumstances.

  “So once again in Maryland, just as tax and spend big government politicians disobey the constitution and the law at the federal level, they disobey the law constantly in the state of Maryland,” he said. “I will never vote for a budget that guarantees a tax increase, yet as I pointed out, we have had a tax increase every year.”

Reporting on a recently adopted Worcester County Budget, Kellee Kennett briefed the crowd with more news of increasing property taxes for residents that was revealed at a recent meeting of the Worcester County Commissioners. “The state has cut back the funding to the county. They have eliminated grants and money for programs that they have established that we have to implement. They’ve also mandated that the teacher’s retirement fund be picked up by the counties, and it’s going to be an incremental phase in process. So we are going to get hit with several millions of dollars’ worth of funds like that to pick up on the county level,” said Kennett. “So, based on that, and the fact that everybody wants more money to spend county wide, they are going to increase our property taxes.”

Kennett then reported that as part of the newly adopted county budget, a 2-percent pay increase is planned for county employees across the board with the focus of these raises to be allocated toward teachers. Kennett noted that the average starting salary for a teacher is currently $42,000 per year. “I got the feeling that the commissioners feel as though they’re responsible to the county employees, not to this room full of people who are their constituents who voted them in, and that was a little disheartening for me,” she said.

Grant Helvey, Worcester County Tea Party Chairman, then informed the crowd that individual property rights are being systematically eliminated in Worcester County. In addition to the Worcester County Comprehensive Plan that supports several programs of the county acquiring individual property rights, a new state plan called Plan Maryland will continue the process, but with control at the state rather than the county level.

Plan Maryland is consistent with United Nations Agenda 21, which has been exposed and is being rejected by various jurisdictions throughout the United States. To further illustrate his point, Helvey explained that of Worcester County’s approximate 394,000 acres of land, 62 percent of the area has already had individual property rights taken over by federal, state and local governments. Additionally, numerous continuing government programs are in place with one aim — the removal of individual property rights from Worcester County land owners. As part of its county budget, Helvey pointed out that Worcester County is now asking the state for $1.5 million dollars annually to continue purchasing property rights while the state government already owns about 37,000 acres of forest land in the county.

The public is also invited to attend the next regular monthly meeting of the Worcester County Tea Party on Friday, July 20 at 6:15 p.m. at the Ocean Pines Community Center.

Dave Toth
(The writer handles news and media affairs for the Worcester County Tea Party.)