Open Forum

Scene: President Bush's poll numbers are about as shaky as Colin Powell's chances of a second term as secretary of state.

Worried about his re-election bid... that's wrong. Worried about his election bid, he contacts Ambassador Bremmer in Iraq. He tells Bremmer that he has to find the weapons of mass destruction. His war in Iraq depends upon his finding them. Ambassador Bremmer is to go out into the streets and ask everyone he sees if they know anything about the WMD. Bremmer bumps into Mr. Chalabi and asks him if he knows where the WMD are. "Search me!" he responds.

They did. The rest is history.

Michael Ward

Brainerd

Poppy Day helped by businesses

The Brainerd American Auxiliary would like to thank the businesses in Brainerd and Baxter who allowed our post and Auxiliary members to offer our poppies to the public on Poppy Day, May 14.

Without their permission, we would not have been able to acquire the funds needed to continue the programs we have to help our veterans and their families.

We'd also like to thank all others who gave of their time and monetary gifts. We appreciate their willingness to help year after year.

Yvonne Beebe

Poppy Chairman

Mahle to be missed

I am so sorry to hear of Kevin Mahle, fire chief, resigning from the fire department. Mr. Mahle has done an outstanding job as chief and will be hard to replace. I thank Mayor James Wallin for questioning the problems of the fire department. I think it should be dwelled on more to find out what the internal problems are and to Kevin Mahle, his wife and family, I wish you much success and happiness. You have done a fine job and we will miss you.

Sandy Johnson

Baxter

Not impressed with Bush's theory

I was reading some of my fellow Christians' reasons why we should support the president in his war. It made me do some thinking and set me to do some Bible reading. I found the verse that I thought applied. I will try to quote it correctly (What man, if he wants to build a tower, doesn't set down and estimate the cost, lest he build the foundation and then doesn't have the funds to complete it and everyone who sees it ridicules him.) Well, the calculations on the cost of this war don't seem to have been made yet and we are well into it. I'm afraid that if I were hiring someone to manage a business that the example that has been shown in this, would make me look somewhere other than Yale for my candidates. The president's theory that piling up huge national debt so that the infrastructure of the country deteriorates to a point that it appears that the only way to have infrastructure is to privatize, doesn't impress me as sane.

Jesse Nix

Emily

Crime deterrent?

I recently applied for my gun permit in my usual manner, but was informed my $8 photo wasn't needed, and the fact I had served my country in the army wasn't good enough anymore. Instead I will have to attend a "gun safety" class with a cost of $50 to $100, and furthermore there is a fee of $75. If I don't get the application in by May 28, it will cost more. Does someone out there think this will reduce crime? Or is this just another way to bleed veterans and retirees out of more revenue? If they want to stop pawn shops from selling guns why don't they pass a law to stop that, the way they stopped private people from selling them? Suddenly the National Rifle Association sounds like a very worthwhile investment.

Can someone tell me who is responsible for enacting this legislation, so I can be sure not to vote for them next election?

Jerry Hanson

Brainerd

Time for a change

Our Declaration of Independence states that our government is instituted among men to secure our right to, or of, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That their just powers are derived from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it; and to institute new government.

It goes on to say that this process should not be undertaken for light usurpations or abuses; but when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism; it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

A few abuses quickly come to mind. To name a few; the right to life (the unborn), unfair and unjust taxes, favoring the rich and wealthy corporations; laws written and enacted into law by unelected judicial appointees, the list of grievances could go on and on.

I ask you, my fellow Americans, in the spirit of our declaration, would our founding fathers and patriots of their time still recognize the country they founded in the principles and values they believed and fought and died for.

I think I know what their answer would be. Here it is. When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands...

Dale J. Bauer

Brainerd

Bush's blueprint

The Bush Administration appears to be following a blueprint for U.S. global domination that was written by a conservative think tank named the Project For The New American Century. The report, "Rebuilding America's Defenses," was drawn up for Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Jeb Bush and Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby. It was presented in September of 2000.

The report advocated going to war in Iraq. In the first paragraph of its Key Findings it reads, "Today, the United States has an unprecedented strategic opportunity. It faces no immediate great-power challenge; it is blessed with wealthy, powerful and democratic allies in every part of the world; it is in the midst of the longest economic expansion in its history; and its political and economic principles are almost universally embraced." The following 75 pages of the report build on these assumptions.

Since this was written, George Bush II took office. After going to war in Iraq those Key Findings fundamentally changed. As Homer Simpson would say, " Stupid irony"!

Neil Hunt

Fifty Lakes