Letters to the Editor

As the primary election draws near, it is important for us to remember that many of our local elected officials will be decided upon this May. As taxpayers, it’s important for all of us to take a look at what has transpired over the past four years and decide if we are satisfied with the direction our elected officials are taking us.

One very important area of concern is in regards to our local youth and drug/violence prevention programs in our county schools.

During the past several years, we have seen our county DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program go from one of the top-rated programs in the state of Nebraska to its current state of non-existence. The current administration at the Dawson County Sheriff’s Office has “dropped the ball” by allowing this successful local program to just disappear.

Don’t believe those who claim that the program is either outdated, too expensive or ineffective. If any of that was true, why would law enforcement agencies like the Gosper County Sheriff’s Office (Elwood) join in with over 220 other communities who have started a new DARE program within the past three years?

In fact, this year alone, millions of school children around the world will benefit from DARE, the highly acclaimed program that gives kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs and violence. In addition, the students also have the opportunity to interact with local law enforcement in a very positive, non-threatening environment.

If you’re still unsure about the effectiveness of the DARE curriculum, please seek out one of the many fifth or sixth grade teachers who have hosted the DARE program in their classroom and ask them for their opinion. Or ask one of the thousands of former DARE students, high school role models, parents, grandparents and family members who have participated in our local program.

Paul Schwarz is the only candidate for the Dawson County Sheriff position who has shown an interest in bringing back a positive law enforcement presence into our local schools. After contacting both of us individually shortly after he announced that he was running for sheriff, Paul asked for our opinions, insight and what it would take to reestablish the DARE program in Dawson County. We have both known Paul Schwarz for a number of years and believe that if he is elected, Paul will step up to the challenge, lead the sheriff’s office forward and reestablish this valuable program in our county.

Please join us by voting on May 11 for Paul Schwarz, Dawson County Sheriff. “A Sheriff of the people, for the people.”

Cheri Ziebell, Cozad, Dawson County DARE Officer 2003-2007

Matt Weiss, Gothenburg, Dawson County DARE Officer 1996-2002, Nebraska DARE Training Staff 1997-2002

It was great to see the enthusiastic reception given to “Ag Fest 2010” held in Dawson and Custer counties. This activity drew more than 758 fourth and fifth graders, their teachers and sponsors. The “Agricultural Community” should appreciate the strong interest school administrators, teachers, and students have in learning more about their industry. Thanks to them for taking time out of school schedules to attend.

Another pat on the back goes to those ag producers, commodity groups, media, agribusinesses, and FFA groups that contributed to and were on hand to tell the amazing story of American agriculture. It is a story of a lifestyle and business that has an ag producer working for 19¢ of every food dollar to produce food for 155 people. These stewards of the environment strive year after trying year to provide each of us with the most abundant, wholesome and safest food supply possible ... and they succeed.

As Extension workers, we appreciate everyone’s cooperation on “Ag Fest 2010”; and believe, that with all the help we received, our goal of educating young people on the impact of Nebraska Agriculture was met.

We applaud others taking on similar challenges and look forward to the next Ag Fest.

Dawson County Extension, Andrea Nisley, Bruce Treffer, Dawn Schroeder

Custer County Extension, Colleen Peterson, Troy Walz, Jessye Goertz

I was wrong. The leading conservative in the Continental Congress—you know, the guy who was giving a speech urging conciliation with the king as the Declaration of Independence was being signed—was named Dickinson, and not whatever I said.

Upon reading the reply to my letter sent in by Mr. Davis, it would appear that he is so busy spouting Goebels, Limbaugh, Palin, etc. propaganda that he is incapable of connecting the dots. I’ll try to make it simple.

How many times have you heard conservatives brag that they are members of the party of Lincoln, and in the next breath, denounce the “tax-and-spend” Democrats? If you’ll take the trouble to read a little history, you’ll find that the party of Lincoln financed the Civil War, bought what the conservatives of the time called Seward’s Folly, built the intercontinental railroad, built the Panama Canal, built the interstate highway system, and spent many hundreds of billions chasing non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. All that stuff took a little spending.

Furthermore, Reagan raised taxes at least six or seven times, and they complain about tax-and-spend Democrats. Seems like they’re mixed up.

When I was a kid, Hitler tortured, we didn’t. When I was a kid, Hitler had a hate-spewing propagandist named Goebels, we had none that I know of.

Now that I’m older, Bush and Cheney joined right in with Hitler and tortured. Now that I’m older, Bush and Cheney joined right in with Hitler and attacked a country under false pretenses (or did somebody finally find those elusive weapons of mass destruction that Bush and Cheney were told Iraq didn’t have).

Now that I’m older, conservatives have a big group of people who spout hate day-in and day-out. They put Goebels to shame (or are there really death panels just waiting to get their hands on me?), yet the conservatives put Hitler-like whiskers on pictures of Obama. Seems to me like they’re mixed up.

How many times have you heard the conservative hate-mongering propagandists use the term “baby killer”? Have you ever heard them use the term “poor people killer”? Seems to me like that is what health care in this country was until a few days ago.

In closing, Mr. Davis doesn’t see what the exceptionalism of my kids has to do with anything. He just wants you to believe all “Libs” are a bunch of losers who are happy to see their kids finish 174th or whatever he said. Mine aren’t losers, in fact, I forgot to mention that my daughter got to wear a yellow sash both at her high school graduation and when she received her masters from Cal State San Bernardino. Yellow sash means straight A’s, and she learned to read. Too bad Mr. Davis didn’t. If he had, he might have learned about the “Peace Party” during the election of 1864. And, if he had just listened in grade school, he could have learned that George Washington had to tell folks he didn’t want to be king.

I was quite interested in the recent article about State Sen. John Wightman’s remarks at a meeting in Gothenburg on April 10. Specifically when he talked about the forthcoming redistricting he stated that “Keeping Dawson County intact is something Wightman said he hopes is accomplished.”

It appears that Sen. Wightman should inform himself about the existing boundaries of his own District 36. Nearly one-third of Dawson County, south of the Platte River, is in District 44 presently represented by Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial and not his own District 36.

Is Sen. Wightman so uninformed that he does not realize that his District 36 does not include all of Dawson County? I think that is very likely based upon my personal attempts as a Dawson Co landowner to deal with him. This speaks poorly of him, but I believe it to be very representative of his lack of interest and ability to truly serve those with interests in his district. He is simply not good.

When Sen. Wightman failed to work with me and basically deceived me for nearly two years, I started working with Sen. Christensen. I found him to be very accessible, communicative, willing to listen and understand my concerns, and take legislative action in a timely and constructive manner to get the problem that had adversely affected me—and potentially all Nebraska landowners—corrected by legislation.

Sen. Wightman is a total opposite. He was inaccessible, not communicative, failed to actually listen and understand my concerns. However, he behaved in such a way as to effectively deceive me to believe that he might actually do something and by doing so delayed my ability to cause the necessary change to occur. But, he never did, and finally simply stopped responding to my communications. However, Sen. Christensen quickly and effectively took care of the matter. His action benefits all landowners in the state.

I suggest it is time that Sen. Wightman be retired from his legislative duties. He is doing a very poor job for his constituents and seems to be primarily feeding his own ego and sense of self-importance rather than actually constructively representing District 36. The voters of District 36 could do this in the November 2010 election at which time he is up for re-election.

I hope that a good honest and motivated candidate will come forward to oppose Sen. Wightman and that the District 36 voters will elect that person. As an absentee landowner I cannot vote of course, but I am certainly ready to provide campaign contributions and volunteer effort for a good candidate. Anybody but Wightman would be better from my viewpoint. While I cannot vote, my property interests still justify my need to see that the area has a decent representative in the Nebraska State Senate. John Wightman is not such a person.