Letters, 10/21: Misled on school bond

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As a onetime member of the Lincoln Central Labor Union’s executive board and presently a much longer voting delegate as a member of Lincoln Central Labor Union, I feel very strongly that we were misled by those who spoke to our delegation in favor of the school bond issue.

Had we heard any mention of school closures, I’m sure there would have been much discussion, and our support and endorsement would not have prevailed.

As a strong supporter of our school system and community building, I feel we in northeast Lincoln are not being represented fairly with the proposed closing of Hawthorne and Dawes schools.

Jared Teichmeier, Lincoln

Messing with success

I just don’t get it. I was a counselor at Lincoln High School for 30 years, and during all of those years we consistently had programs designed to create a “school within a school” environment for struggling students, knowing that small schools do provide all students with advantages that spell success. This was the same in the other high schools.

Hawthorne Elementary and Dawes Middle schools both are small schools with award-winning records serving the needs of all students with extra support for those students with academic challenges. Now the school board says that they are too small and should be closed. Why are we asked to mess with success?

If these two schools are too small, where does that leave the focus schools who have far fewer students. Does anyone ask the school board if we can afford these small schools where the idea is the same — small schools helping students be successful?

In the case of the focus school the students are academically successful and often gifted. Do they deserve better than academically challenged students and immigrant children?

I remember that the focus schools were started with grant money, but several years later I would like to know what the current cost is to the district and the taxpayers. What does it cost to rent the several buildings needed for focus schools? I was never good at math, but this does not add up to me.

We need to know what the school board’s full agenda is for the proposal to close two successful schools. Things are not as they appear.

Richard M. Patterson, Lincoln

Keep it in perspective

Oh, the lucky students who can now roll around in bed.

Maybe if I didn’t read the paper in a sort of sequential way, I’d have more empathy for the young college woman who states she sleeps better now that she has a larger bed and she concludes, “it’s definitely much easier to have another person in the bed if the occasion arises” (LJS, Oct. 15).

However, just before picking up Homeroom, Section C, about schools, students and learning, I finished an opinion column on page 5B. The sentence that caught my eye in the earlier section was about the 2.5 million children ages 6 to 12 who are working full-time. It’s just four short paragraphs and there’s no picture — and it’s about life far away in Egypt, so I suppose there’s nothing much we can do.

But all the alumni of schools here in the United States — we can keep sending our donations so our favorite school can offer maid service, microwaves and larger beds. Learn all about it —16 paragraphs and a picture.

Naturally there’s a chance that one of those well-rested students will figure out a way to rid the world of a poverty that causes children to carry lunch pails instead of book bags.

Thanks, Journal Star, for keeping us informed.

Mary Ann Smith, Lincoln

No sympathy for illegals

Regarding the Oct. 15 Lincoln Journal Star editorial, “Status quo of illegal workers unsustainable”: Illegal immigration is only complicated if you try to rationalize that it is legal.

If I were truly concerned about my family, I wouldn’t do something illegal to jeopardize them.

The simple solution is to enforce the laws we have, including prosecution of employers. If there are no jobs for them, the criminals will find a way to go back where they came from.

I’m glad to see Immigration and Custom Enforcement is finally doing the right thing. I hope they continue. The wrong message has been sent for too long by looking the other way.

It’s difficult for me to sympathize with greedy people who want to invade my country, steal our jobs and leech off our social services, infrastructure, parks, etc., and act like they are victims.

Our forefathers who sacrificed so much for us and America do not deserve allowing this to continue.

Richard Wreed, Lincoln

Honda story off base

Neal E. Boudette’s article titled “Honda, UAW clash over new factory jobs in Indiana” (reprinted from The Wall Street Journal) that appeared in the Oct. 14 Lincoln Journal Star, presented an unbalanced and inaccurate portrait of the new automobile plant we are constructing in Indiana.

Honda selected Greensburg, Ind., as the site of our new auto plant primarily because of its close proximity to our existing network of U.S. parts suppliers, an available quality work force, and a solid transportation system, all key factors in Honda’s growth and success in the Midwest.

This was a clear and compelling business decision. The article’s assertions that we located in southeastern Indiana to avoid the UAW and minority workers are both unsubstantiated and divisive.

Like our plants in Alabama, Ohio, Georgia, North and South Carolina, our new Indiana plant will be a diverse and inclusive workplace.

Since selecting Greensburg for our plant location, Honda has publicly declared on many occasions our intention to attract candidates from diverse backgrounds, and has taken many proactive steps to accomplish this.

We strategically and specifically designed the 20-county hiring area to include the diverse Indianapolis metropolitan area. We sought the advice of the Indianapolis Urban League, the Ministerial Alliance of Indianapolis and other key community organizations and leaders regarding our hiring strategy and other matters. And we purposely advertised employment opportunities with minority publications and radio to increase the number of minority applicants. 

Regarding union representation, Honda has always left this issue for our associates (employees) to decide. We have a unique approach of working together with our associates as a team.  And it is worth noting that in 25 years of auto production in the United States, no Honda manufacturing operation has ever experienced a single layoff.

Jeffrey A. Smith, assistant vice president, American Honda Motor Co. Inc., Torrance, Calif.

With all due respect

Writing about the Nebraska Civil Rights Initiative (“Affirmative action critic trying to end policies in state,” LJS, Oct. 13), the Journal Star quotes University of Nebraska-Lincoln political science Prof. John R. Hibbing’s comment that voters may oppose the initiative because Nebraskans seem favorable toward helping women and minorities.

This observation implies that the voters of California, Washington and Michigan, which passed virtually identical initiatives by large majorities, care nothing about helping women and minorities, which is both insulting and absurd.

With all due respect to Hibbing, it is worth pointing out that the state civil rights initiatives most assuredly do not pit compassionate, caring people who are favorable toward helping women and minorities against meanies who are opposed to such help.

First, reasonable, caring people can believe that preferential treatment of women and minorities does not, in fact, help them.

Second, even if employing such double standards is regarded as help, reasonable and caring people can also believe that the cost of such help — discriminating for and against people based on their race, ethnicity, sex; implying that women and minorities cannot succeed if held to the same standards as everyone else; etc. — far exceeds the benefit of whatever help the few beneficiaries receive.

John Rosenberg, Crozet, Va.