Letters, 5/11: Don't eliminate snacks

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To the health-o-holics who want to remove snacks and pop from our schools: You can have my zebra cake when you pry it out of my cold, dead, pudgy hands.

I mean, really, do you know what kind of black market you’ll create if you cut the snack supply from the industry’s biggest (no pun intended) users?  I’ll be able to sell oatmeal cream pies for a buck apiece! Not that I would.

Next you’ll want to have snack-free buffer zones around schools:  no Swiss cake rolls within 500 hundred feet of any elementary!

Now granted, you healthier-than-thou decision makers have a marginally good point. Building mini-marts inside the new high schools probably wasn’t the best strategy for combating the teen health crisis. But there are better ways to solve this problem than a zero-tolerance snack policy. 

For example, let’s make health food more affordable and make junk food way more expensive.

Seriously, at lunch a student can decide between an itty-bitty cup of Jell-O with fruit for 75 cents or a great big Cosmic™ Brownie for a mere 25 cents. With math scores being as high as they are, kids are starting to figure out they can buy many more brownies than Jell-O for their 75 cents.

Now I don’t deny that schools make junk food way too available, and I don’t really think you intolerant anti-snackites are plotting the demise of the vending machine, but I’m certain the only good that will come from this lunacy is the profit margin for the gas-n-gulp right across the street.

Let’s set limits, not eliminate. And leave my Little Debbie snacks alone.

Cory Free, Lincoln

The good life?

I read your recent editorial, “Revaluation is necessary for fair taxes,” with great interest and a very different perspective.

A native Nebraskan of 40 years, I moved to Los Angeles in 1994. After 12 years in California, I have been researching the possibility of “cashing in” on the value of my property here in Los Angeles and moving back to Lincoln. Life in California has been very good to me, but it seemed this move would be good for my future financial security, and I was looking forward to enjoying the culture and beauty Lincoln has to offer. 

In comparing the cost of living between Los Angeles and Lincoln, I was prepared to build “Energy Star” to compensate for the additional heating and air conditioning costs I was accustomed to paying for in Nebraska. However, the reality that real estate taxes on my home would increase four times upon relocation to a home valued at half of what my home is valued in Los Angeles County has made me wonder whether I am making a good financial decision.

As it stands, even with paying cash for a new home in Lincoln, I can only improve my monthly cost of living by $350. Perhaps a small price to pay for a sunny California lifestyle that I’ve gathered many happy memories from living?

The people of California passed a law in 1977 called Proposition 13. Officially titled the “People’s Initiative to Limit Property Taxation,” the real estate tax on a parcel of property is limited to 1 percent of its assessed value at the time of purchase, until the property is resold. This “assessed value,” however, can only be increased by a maximum of 2 percent per year. 

I thought your readers might find this perspective as much of a wake-up call as it has been for me. Meanwhile, I’m still basking in the California sunshine contemplating the true definition of “the Good Life.”

Jan Morris, Toluca Lake, Calif.

Gas-price outcry useless

Over the years I have noticed some things about how the oil companies set gas prices. First of all, they can set them anywhere they want. They tend to be cute about this by raising prices so high that we all scream bloody murder, then they roll back a dime or more, so now it seems like a bargain.

Our senators and congressmen will rattle their collective sabers and shout, something must be done! Absolutely nothing will be accomplished. Meetings will be held, printed words will be generated by the barnful, statistics will show ungodly profits, and still nothing will be done!

Do not make the mistake of believing that Washington gives a hoot about it. Remember, it’s our fault. We’re addicts, you know. My advice to you is don’t worry about it. Nothing will change, and life’s too short to waste our worry cells on a hopeless cause.

Oh, by the way, expect a manufactured gas shortage this summer. You’ll be more than happy to pay 4 bucks a gallon; addicts always do!

Patrick Maloy, Lincoln

Release energy info

Now that President Bush has stated that “our addiction to oil is a matter of national security concerns,” maybe it would be a good time for the administration to release all of the information relating to Vice President Dick Cheney’s secretive Energy Task Force and its  National Energy Policy.

This certainly would demonstrate the administration’s commitment to the people of this country and show that the Bush/Cheney team did not give the energy industry undue influence over national policy.

Of course, with all the financial support the oil companies have given Republicans, I doubt we will ever see much of this secretive group’s policy information.

David Brockman, Beatrice

Conceal-carry law backed

The mayor has come out against the concealed weapon law. What about the other 200,000-plus residents of this fair city? I believe the majority would favor giving the victims of crime a chance to defend themselves.

The Legislature (that represents all of us) decided to come forward into the 21st century and voted for it. So why should the mayor oppose it? The idea that it would increase crime has been proved to be a fallacy.

Do I plan to start packing a gun? Hardly. But I would like to have the privilege if the need should ever arise.

Leonard Hovey, Lincoln

Punish the employers

The illegals in this country are working for employers, most at wages Americans cannot or will not work for. There is all this talk about punishing the illegals! We should have stricter punishment for employers that hire illegals.

We should also, considering our failing social system, be more concerned with taxing the wages they make, and making sure the employers pay them properly, than just pocket the money. This would give the country another tax base and help shore up a system that our leaders have been raping to death.

This is fact, not conjecture.

Dan Longley, Lincoln