Open Forum

Mark your calendar! You are invited!

Citizen Appreciation Day, July 9, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. is a time for the council and mayor to say thank you to the people of Brainerd, for living, investing and believing in our city. City hall is the site of the main event. There will be council people to greet you, staff to hear your comments, food to enjoy, a suggestions box for your questions and advice. All other city buildings are ready and staff there will give tours, as requested. Perhaps you have never been through our Public Utilities buildings? Now is an opportunity. Printed material containing interesting and helpful information will be available at City Hall.

Between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m. there will be staff recognition - help us to say thank you to staff who give their talent and dedication all year long. They are the best!

There are no strings - no catch to this event. This is a celebration of the people. Please join us for visiting and friendship. Neighbors from other communities are also invited. All are welcome!

Mary Koep

MARY KOEP is a Brainerd City Council member.

Car price tag is to high

I can't speak for all the unpatriotic people that buy foreign products instead of American-made. Maybe it's because people got tired of or couldn't afford any more to pay thousands of dollars more for executive pay and bonuses, health care for retirees and endless other perks that foreign companies don't add into their price. On a recent drive through an American car dealership lot there were new cars and trucks listed for up to $50,000. I know we're never going to be able to buy another new American made car for $2,000 like our first Chevy. But I think a $50,000 price tag is a possible reason to abandon them.

Julie Pawlak

Hackensack

Every word has meaning

The founders of our nation knew what they were doing when they wrote the Declaration of Independence. They carefully placed every word, sentence, and paragraph to convey their exact meaning. The reason that they could write so powerful a document is when they left their original countries all of these rights were in the hands of the ruling class and the general population had no rights whatsoever. They had first hand experience of what life was like under that form of government and didn't like it.

After writing our Declaration of Independence they, then, started our Bill of Rights with what they thought was most important. They felt that most important was freedom of speech, then the right to keep and bear arms and so on.

Now we have Larry, Curly and Moe (a.k.a. Obama, Pelosi, and Biden) in the upper echelon of our government and they think they could do a better job of ruling if they were not hampered with a bunch of antiquated laws that were put in over 200 years ago.

Already they have taken over, from free enterprise, some banks and a couple of major auto companies. They don't like the First Amendment, and they fear the second. Obama is complaining that Fox News and the conservative talk shows don't like him and should be quieted. He held a news program in the White House where dissenting opinions or questions were not allowed. His loyal Obamaites say we must not criticize, give him time. Time for what? Obama ran on the promise of change. Are we supposed to wait for him to change us from citizens to subjects before we defend ourselves? Thank you.

Clyde DeBolt

Backus

Health care reform ideas

I don't understand how anyone can be against the availability of government provided health care for all. Scare tactics seem to be based on the false assumption that the government health care program would be the only option. This is not what the Obama administration is working for. The idea is that government-provided health care would be one of the options, and anyone could get it, not just those who meet certain criteria. Private insurance will still be available for those who want it and can afford it. This will result in beneficial competition between public and private providers.

Even though most of us who now have private health insurance are satisfied with it, there are still many people who don't have health insurance at all, or can only get catastrophic coverage. My son's situation is an example. He can't pay the premium for dependent coverage and still make rent. But they don't qualify for the currently available government subsidized health care, because theoretically, my son's employer could cover them. And what about people who are suddenly unemployed because of the 2008 economic collapse?

It only makes sense to demand better availability of basic health care insurance.

Patricia Scott

Brainerd