Letters, 10/11: Welcome racing track

I’m a former Husker Blackshirt ’85-’89 and avid drag racer. I have huge concerns about the way the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission and the county commissioners are playing games with our tax dollars dreaming up different ways to keep Greg and Missy Sanford from building a state-of-the-art motor-sports track in Lancaster County.

I spend $15,000 a year drag racing at tracks in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Iowa, and I’m just a little spender in the whole drag racing scene.

Does Lancaster County not want to benefit by the huge revenue that this track will bring in? It’s just disgusting how the Lancaster County Board members preach about bringing in economic growth to Lincoln and Lancaster County, and all I see is them running it off.

Let’s do something about this! Before they raise our taxes again or somehow make us foot the bill as usual.

See you all there at the County-City Building! This is the last public hearing on this matter, so let’s be heard.

Kent Wells, Lincoln

Cartoon’s left-wing view

I find it reprehensible that the Journal Star would choose to run an editorial cartoon Oct. 3 blatantly implying that Republican leadership in the House of Representatives was aware of and chose to ignore the sexual e-mails and text messages of Rep. Mark Foley.

There has been little or no evidence of that thus far, and the only talk I’ve heard of such an allegation comes from the far left wing of Democrats in the House.

Andy Ringsmuth, Lincoln

Torture vote outrages

Political parties be damned! Both senators from our state voted for the torture bill. They have no shame. They cannot blame this on George Bush; it was his idea, yes, but if we had a few men and women of courage in the Senate this bill would not have passed.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so angry, with the exception of the 9/11 attacks. I refuse to stop voicing my anger about both Sens. Chuck Hagel and Ben Nelson supporting this horrible bill. 

I’ve often wondered what Americans here in Nebraska hold dear. I hold the following dear: liberty, freedom, peace, equal rights (inalienable means for everyone, not just Americans), the Bill of Rights, the Constitution of the United States, the ability to speak (even to the police) without fear and respect for others.

Bush and his whole administration, by their own actions, have shown themselves to be unworthy of respect. Which leads me to question, how in the world did two senators from Nebraska decide to support such a horrible bill?

I am but one person here in Nebraska and may not reach many, but I vow I will not shut up about this matter. As the mother of one son in the military, I cannot fathom why Bush cannot see how this torture bill will only hurt our men and women who serve in the military. I also cannot understand how two men who serve this state are so blind to the problems with this bill.

Rhonda Pennell, Lincoln

How to get blight status?

I have a dilemma. My house was built in 1972. We had to build it as cheaply as possible so we would have a chance of paying for it in our lifetime.

Consequently we were led to a concrete block basement rather than poured and to cheap plywood siding with a thin layer of cedar with a pattern called “abraded.”

Now the basement is falling in, the siding is falling off and the roof is leaking.

Can someone tell me how I go about getting it declared “blighted,” so I can get tax increment financing so I can build a livable house?

Cecil R. Morris, Roca