Open Forum

It's time for all of us -- liberals and conservatives alike -- to put our money where our mouths have been and take the tax rebate pledge (http://www.rejecttherebate.com). If you've ever argued that individuals are a better judge of where their (market-determined) wealth should go than the federal government, then I'm asking you to think hard about how to spend your rebate. If you believe your church does a better job than the government administering to children, the elderly, the sick, and the poor, at loving your neighbors, or at building and supporting compassionate, generous and forgiving communities, then feel free to tithe your rebate to your church. If you've been critiquing Bush and Cheney's regressive energy policy of unfettered consumption and windfall profits to oil and gas shareholders through publicly subsidized exploration and development, then spend your rebate on an energy efficient product or investing in sustainable energy alternatives.

Personally, I'd rather see America spend my tax dollars providing leadership to the world on issues of environmental and social justice. Instead, we buy off voters with a tax rebate while promoting policies and ideologies at home and abroad that have accelerated the widening gap between the world's obscenely wealthy and the dumped-on poor. It is the poor who suffer most from water scarcity and pollution, biodiversity loss, resource overexploitation, land degradation, and global climate change. Ironically, these problems are largely created by the consumer demands of the world's most affluent citizens, and that includes most of us here in America. I'll be joining thousands of others in protesting by donating my tax rebate to what I believe in, and I invite you to do the same.

Kristen Blann

Merrifield

Why destroy?

It is difficult to understand why some people get such a high out of destroying other people's personal property. This has happened on my property twice in the past 10 days.

I feel sorry for those involved and know they will pay in the long run, so grow up and get a life.

Gloria Johnson

Baxter