Free Press –
Dear Friends,
Good morning. Whenever I hear about a state legislature or the congress being unable or unwilling to address problems, I think about term limits. Can you imagine 30-year-old dilemmas like immigration, nicotine, mass transit, social security, and health care still going unresolved if the 50 state legislatures and congress had term limits?
I’ll get to term limits in a moment.
But first, here’s a thought about the recently discovered time
capsule at the St. Luke’s
Last week,
the President of St. Luke’s Quakertown Hospital announced that the time
capsule, which had been buried to celebrate the new Quakertown Community
Hospital on
In that Free Press, there were several advertisements, which caught my attention. The first was the Quakertown National Bank, which was celebrating its 51st birthday. Today, the bank is 130 years old. In those days, banks were open Saturday nights to accommodate the local farmers. The second ad displayed a brand new Chevrolet for sale…just $550…at Johnson and Biehn Motors.
Nawrocki says that he’s preparing a time capsule of his own. Stay tuned.
Did you
read that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to reduce traffic
congestion and pollution in
Unfortunately, Bloomberg needs the state legislature to OK the initiative in order to receive federal environmental funds. But the New York legislature refused to vote on the measure…just to teach the Mayor a lesson.
Here in Pennsylvania, Governor Rendell received similar treatment from the state legislature. A bill that would have barred smokers from lighting up in Pennsylvania’s restaurants, bars and casinos stalled. Hopefully, it may be reintroduced in the fall. There’s not a legislator that doesn’t realize that smoking kills. But the game that’s played in legislatures everywhere has one goal…make the opposition party look bad. And because legislators usually remain in office last until the grim reaper claims them, useful legislation seldom sees the light of day.
I claim that the only way to introduce urgency among legislators is to mandate term limits. Unfortunately, only the legislators themselves have the power to initiate term limits. Who do you think will be the first state or federal legislator to introduce it? Dream on.
Item.
A reader,
objecting to my criticism of President Bush, sent me an angry email. The writer
is a Bush supporter and believes that his record has made
I don’t.
“If something [bad] happens,” the writer concluded, “I will not sleep until every man, woman, and child in this country knows that it was the irresponsibility of the Democratic party that caused this, and you may be singing a different tune, Mr. Bowtie.”
I hope that he feels better!
My letter writing friend won’t be happy with a new report that claims that liberalism is back in the mainstream. According to The Week (July 13), liberalism has returned to the forefront of American attitudes, according to the Gallup poll and the Pew Research Center.
“On every critical issue, America leans to the left,” the article concluded. “Sixty-two percent of us oppose overturning Roe v. Wade. Stem cells? Sixty-one percent of us support using them for research. Gun control? Sixty percent want more of it. Sixty-nine percent of Americans think Washington should take care of those who can’t help themselves. Two thirds want the government to guarantee health insurance for all citizens.
“Gay rights, working moms, interracial marriage- all of which were radical notions a generation ago- are now not even controversial,” The Week added. “Even the percentage of people who identify themselves as Republicans dropped from 29 percent in 2005 to 25 percent last year. Thanks to the Iraq war and the partisan excesses of the Bush administration, the conservative era is over. The political center has moved to the left.”
Personally, I like the unannounced, presidential candidacy of Michael Bloomberg, the former Republican. Bloomberg has become an independent. He claims that both the Democratic and Republican Parties have lost touch with the American people. Bloomberg’s right.
The grandfather of American conservatism was not Ronald Reagan but Barry Goldwater. It was Goldwater who believed that governments should stay out of our wallets and out of our bedrooms. Believe it or not, Goldwater, the conservative, was a pro-choice politician who believed that gays should be able to serve in the military. Can you imagine what he must be thinking about the GOP today?
I must be a Goldwater Republican.
Last, Mighty Betsy and I received a nice surprise from a former Free Press employee. Dottie Yoder managed the classified department for many years and was a valued employee. Today she works for a sister newspaper in Fort Washington.
Dottie must have read about my difficulties in finding correct herbs for cooking. She brought a miniature herb garden to our house. Thanks Dottie. She joins the army of Good Samaritans who watch over me.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith