Open Forum

As a young voter I take offense at the accusations that low voter turnout among 18-24 year olds is due to a "non-caring, care-free, responsibility-less" generation. How can politicians and older constituents blame non-interest in a race that has nothing to do with the X and Y generations? Why would a 20-year-old college student really care about how high the cost of medicine has gotten or what the estate tax should be? It would be like asking a retiree to sit down and watch an hour of MTV, it simply holds no interest for them. If the rest of the voting population wants us to go out and vote, that is understandable, but let us vote for something or someone we believe in.

Right now, most of our generation thinks that it does not really matter who gets elected, both Gore and Bush are mere figureheads. They are both pawns to their party, neither of them willing to step out on a limb and voice their own opinion, both of them careful not to step on the foot of any lobbyists. The younger generation wants to step out of the shadows and show everyone who and what we are. But that cannot be done until there is a free-voice leading us, one that does not have their pockets-lined with the ideas of a Fortune 500 company.

And until that day comes, when people are elected because of their fresh ideas and new visions, we will sit in the shadows and watch the older generations waste their votes on donkeys and elephants that are tired because they have been chained to the post too long. And we will watch them worry about the present while we, the X and Y generation, wonder if they will ever see the future.

Grant Schluender

Pillager

Many questions

It wasn't long ago I couldn't see any towers at public beach, Pelican Lake. Now I can see four!

News reports stated DGPS tower must be located on blacktop road, large tonnage rating. Why?

Towers like this are built everyday on gravel roads. Access is never a problem. Local people are hired to keep the roads open in winter. Are there future plans for large equipment? Missiles, or?

The site needs 3 phase power -- for a 500 watt transmitter! My $89 microwave rated at 600 watts an be plugged into any outlet. Three phase power is needed only for very heavy loads: huge electric motors, 25,000 watt transmitters. What's the future here? Another ELF?

Before this project was suspended in Mission, a huge chainlink fence covering several acres (about 700x700 feet) was erected. Why? Government waste? Big future plans?

(This is located 3-4 miles east on CR 11, off of CR 3, north side of road, huge clearcut area. Get slightly off the highway to see, due to brush growth.)

A lot of money spent for very little security? Any tower man can penetrate in about a minute, without cutting anything.

Why fence off such a huge area? Sites similar to this only fence around the building, tower and guy wires.

Check out equivalent local AM radio stations. Some transmit 5,000 watts without needing to fence huge areas for safety concerns.

The primary uses for DGPS involve big business, not "public safety:" farming, train and truck control, mapping, surveying, etc.

I have utmost respect and trust for people I know on the task force. It's people far away behind this that should answer questions.

Sadly, our government has a longstanding history of lying to its people!

A. Martin

Merrifield

Liberals-conservatives

I just read in the Open Forum the most enlightening letter that basically states everything that is wrong in our great country is the fault of the liberals and left-wingers. The gentleman from Deerwood seems to forget that conservative right-wingers have been in the White House since 1968 for all but 12 years.

During this time oil was found in Alaska and now goes to Japan instead of the U.S.A. We had double digit inflation, double digit unemployment, and interest rates on loans were 15 to 24 percent. But let us not forget the fantastic 10 percent across-the-board income tax cut (and of course, we must mention the fact that the low and middle class income tax payer also lost almost all their deductions) thanks to the Reagan-Bush tax cut. Most of us ended up paying more taxes not less.

Now the gentleman from Deerwood and the gentleman from Fort Ripley say that we should make a change and go back to "Reaganomics" also called "Trickle-Down economics." All of the liberals will remember this is when the president of the United States, a conservative, fired union workers and took money away from seniors and spent billions on B-1 and B-2 bombers that he said were needed for our defense but were not deployed during the Gulf War because they were not combat ready. During the Reagan years our nation's debt quadrupled. Also remember that back in the early part of the Clinton-Gore years the Republicans said they washed their hands of the president's economic plan and that they would not be responsible for what happened. "Big mistake." In the immortal words of someone in the 1992 election "It's The Economy Stupid."

E. Jacobs

Brainerd

No regrets

Isn't a student's education supposed to be to his/her best advantage possible? If this is true than why is it that teachers and counselors at Brainerd High School slight the Post-Secondary Enrollment Option? Is this because the district isn't going to get those students' lunch money; they don't want to lose students who could possibly be helpful to the athletic program? Most often heard, is that students who enroll in this program lose out on so much of their high school years. This program allows high school juniors and seniors to partake in classes and events at the local Central Lakes College. PSEO gives the students the chance to earn college credits in a college environment. Our schooling is supposed to be our decision and the best possible.

If a student is bored with the high school they have the opportunity to enroll in a more strenuous program at CLC. When I decided to go post secondary I received many negative reactions from the staff at the high school trying to deter me from my decision. I was told that CLC would take away my high school years and that I'd regret it for the rest of my life. I ignored those comments and enrolled anyway. Since Aug. 28 (first day) I have found that my decision was the best possible. CLC has enlightened my perspective on school and the importance of it. If you are or know of someone who is thinking of enrolling as PSEO I encourage you to do it. Despite what BHS faculty says it is a wonderful program, and I will never regret my decision for becoming a part of it!

Emily Schmidt

Baxter

C-SPAN rules

The beer, auto and tobacco industries are the "top biggies" working against a four-way debate, Ralph Nader told academicians, during an impromptu speech at the American Political Science Association's "Politics in the 21st Century" event that C-SPAN aired live Sept. 2.

Ignore ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN ... C-SPAN rules.

Barbara Carlisle

Brainerd

Lieberman is extreme

Vice President Al Gore has chosen Sen. Joseph Lieberman to be his running mate in the 2000 presidential election. In the media Lieberman's name is often associated with titles such as moderate and conservative, when in fact his voting record regarding life issues such as abortion are extreme and radical.

Lieberman's voting record shows his strong pro-abortion stance. Lieberman voted in favor of all types of abortion, including partial-birth abortion. He opposed parental notification laws, supports allowing any girl, any age, to make her own decision to end a human life secretly and without her parents' knowledge, and he consistently votes in favor of tax-funded abortion. Don't be deceived by Lieberman's so-called conservative public approach; his position is extreme. Lieberman supports abortion all nine months of pregnancy for any reason. The majority of Americans reject this radical position and should reject Gore and Lieberman in November.

Judy Miller

Fifty Lakes

Crow Wing County MCCL chair

Stop this bill

When our founding fathers decided to form a government they knew what they were doing. They had, each and every one of them, lived under one form or another of complete government domination. Where the controlling body had all of the power and the citizens had none. They wrote our Constitution and our Bill of rights so this kind of abuse could never again be used by one upon the other.

The first amendment gives us our freedom of speech. Our right to speak out against our officials without fear of reprisal.

The second amendment gives the right to keep and bear arms. It ends with "And these rights shall not be abridged." This amendment was written to allow us to defend ourselves, not from foreign invasion -- we have an army for that -- but from internal problems, such as a government that won't listen to its people.

In another attempt to deny the American people their inherent rights, someone has introduced Bill No. SB-2009 into our Senate. As an amendment to the Internal Revenue Act of 1986, this bill will require us to put on our 2000 1040 tax form all of the guns that we own. It may require fingerprints and a $50 fee for each gun you claim and the finance committee can pass it without the Senate voting on it. In view of the fact that criminals are forbidden to have guns in the first place this bill is aimed at registration and confiscation of the guns owned by only law abiding citizens.

Don't laugh, if this bill passes what will we lose next, our freedom of speech -- the right to assemble? Everyone, please call your senator and ask him to help stop this bill. In this area it's Sen. Ron Grams at (202) 224-3244.

Clyde DeBolt

Backus

Divided we fall

At this time, when not even a national government can moderate the actions of big multinational corporations, too many of our elected officials are making inroads in pushing our governmental control back to the state and local levels.

At this time we need a stronger, more democratic world government, that can only be equitable as long as it contains the total separation of church and state. And yet we have too many elected officials who are making inroads in closing the separation of church and state in our democracy.

Also, at this time we see an increase in violence against the minorities of the world, and yet we see too many elected officials who do not see the resulting ethnic cleansing as a threat to our national interests. And at the same time, when we need to cut consumption of fossil fuel in order to save the world's ecology, too many see any threat to the world's oil companies as a threat to our national interests, rather than an incentive to develop alternative energy sources.

And this is a time when big pharmaceuticals, and big agri-business are marketing products before they are ready, before enough scientific safety checks have been made, too many of our elected officials are blaming science for the problems that arise. And these are the same officials that support multinationals.

This is a time, when the coming generation, more than ever, needs to understand the forces that are prevalent in the world. They need to know the history and the present status of each of these forces. These forces are the ecology, the economic systems, the world religions, ethnic groups, science and forms of government. And too many of our elected officials want to fragment the public school system.

Dennis G. Gordon

Nisswa