Open Forum: Keep the road maintenance position

One hundred people attended Oak Lawn Town meeting Nov. 17 evening in regards to retaining the current road maintenance position, those people voted and a majority vote was made to keep the position as is.

In addition 300 people signed a petition to keep the road maintenance position as it is, saving taxpayers close to 10 thousand dollars!

Reports given by both Mr Tusler and Mrs. Zettervall showed that even with vacation, sick pay and weeks unaccounted for the township would still save thousands by retaining the current road maintenance position!

Supervisors Haglin and Olsen completely ignored the votes, voices and reports given by the township people at Tuesday evening's meeting.The issue is tabled until March, towns people will finally have the opportunity to vote on this issue on a ballot.

Will Supervisor Haglin and Olsen still disagree with the tax payers of this township?

These two board members have tried for 2 years to get rid of this position regardless that it has been a savings to the taxpayers.

In March when Oak Lawn Township votes on the road maintenance issue we will also get to vote in one new supervisor.

I encourage all Oak Lawn township people and the board to keep the present road maintenance position.

Cathy Abrahamson

Oak Lawn Township

Basic Bible knowledge needed

Several weeks ago I read a minister's Open Forum response to another person's thinking that the Bible was written by men and therefore was hardly the "word of God"

Here we have the two typical approaches to the 2000 year old Bible.

The first is devotional where the Bible is taken as a guide to how to lead people's lives and what to believe about the world people find themselves in. There is nothing wrong with this approach when freely chosen.

The other way to approach the Bible is academic. From the academic and historical point of view the Bible is fascinating and has been studied in the original language (Greek and Hebrew) for centuries. Who were the actual authors of the Bible? When did they live? What was their world like? Why did they feel inspired to write stories about their world? Again, nothing wrong with this idea.

My problem is this; if you can't name the five books of the Pentateuch (the first books of the Old Testament) or the four books of the Gospels (the first books of the New Testament) you haven't done your homework and will not be able to convince me of your stand (whatever it is) on the Bible. And we will not be able to communicate in a reasonable and rational way about the Bible.

Incidentally, I bet the same can be said for understanding any religion and its books.

Peter Houston

Merrifield

Ward worked on access problem

When the new Brainerd auto and driver's license building opened at 623 North Fourth Street it had very poor in and out access.

The signage for in and out was confusing at best. One sign was hit and flattened out.

My wife and I told the lady serving us how bad it was and there could be a serious accident. She said every one has complained and signed petitions and apparently nothing can be done about it. They have tried.

I contacted 12 A Rep. John Ward. He looked at it and agreed it was a poor and confusing design and there could be an accident or something far worse if not corrected. Who would be liable and responsible?

A number of meetings and conversations took place. Rep. Ward kept us informed and guranteed the issue would not get swept under the "rug" or go away from "bureaucratic stonewalling."

The issue has been resolved, redesigned and the work completed except for one "enter" sign.

It is our good fortune to have a representative such as John Ward, who cares, listens and then gets the job done.

Thank you to John Ward and those that worked with him, you may have saved someone a lot of heartache.

John and Marlys Orr

Deerwood

Amendment oppresses women

Research done by the World Health Organization and Guttmacher Institute in New York published in 2007 make it clear that abortion rates are similar where the procedure is legal and where it is difficult or illegal to obtain (Google it).

Rep. Jim Oberstar voted for the Stupak Amendment to the House Health Care Bill which excludes coverage for abortion. Since research proved restrictions on abortion do not slow the rate of abortion, the only result will be to endanger the health of women by limiting their access. Abortion is constitutionally protected in the United States and this serves to protect the safety and health of women.

If this debacle they are calling health care reform ever makes it to law, restrictions on legal medical procedures must be eliminated. The Stupak Amendment is clearly most oppressive to low-income women who are the most in need of access to all forms of family planning.

To those who support restrictions on abortions, please wait until after you've adopted a few unwanted foster kids before you tell us anymore about how adoption is a better solution. There simply are not enough homes for all of the unwanted children in the U.S. And yes, I am an adoptive foster parent and a former foster child.

The Stupak Amendment is another act of violence in a long war of oppression against women.

Conrad Evarts

Brainerd

Screening tests save lives

We all know of women under 50 who have found their own breast cancer by regular self examination or by mammogram. This saved lives and is what the American Cancer Society and all professional groups recommend without exception. Yet an association that has many political appointees and is not representing professional caregivers wants to change this - why? Also recently, reports want to discourage regular PSA testing yet many men are alive today due to early diagnosis. In both breast and prostate cancer the last few years have shown a dramatic reductions in deaths due to these cancers. True, the medical profession has not always done well in how handle some of these new technical modalities but that is changing rapidly.

We come back to the original question, why would groups try to change the ball game and do away with screening tests that are proven to save lives? We need to look no further than the administration's current fetish to change our entire medical system and pretend they are saving our money while dictating our care (Medicare Advisory Boards), insurance companies and Medicare will say. "Ha, we don't need these procedures." Money will be saved and people will die and the bean counters will look good. Let's stop politicians from dictating something that is very precious to us - our medical care. There are many profound changes that are needed but this is not the way to do it.

James R. Brown M.D.

Nisswa