Opinions

To the editor:

I speak in the name of the beautiful birds. How does a people become evil to the point of believing that killing is the answer?

There were many ways to solve the goose situation — many. But it was expedient to do the stock business method, kill. And, of course, the mayor and the aldermen lock-stepped to the call.

This is just another big disconnect with the young people. Young people look to life. Young people look to all forms of life. They look for love. You showed them death. You showed them a way to hate. You showed them utter disregard for the will of the people, and these are your young people.

The mayor and all the aldermen need to step down, now! Whatever effectiveness they may have ever had is now gone. Leadership requires trust. There is none here.

Frederick Pinkowski,

Green Lake

To the editor:

To the voters of Gillett schools: We recently voted down a referendum involving our schools. Now, less than six months later, district officials are asking again!

This time it is for just slightly less than last time, yet considerably more than they need! For a small school district this is still a lot of burden on a bedroom community.

Why now? With the announcement of more state aid coming to small schools, why not wait to see what the numbers are going to be instead of pushing this through now? Is there an ulterior motive?

Remember, administrators work for us.

Maybe it is time to cut the fat, as has been suggested.

Please vote no on Aug. 9 and give the state aid a chance to kick in so we can see what, if anything, is needed! This is a lot of money over three years, so let’s not rush in without real consideration.

Kenneth Bukowski,

Gillett

To the editor,:

If you haven’t noticed, the campaign for the referendum has increased. There are signs popping up around town that refer to the future and to vote for the referendum.

To the people who voted against the referendum last time that are on the fence: if you recall, we, who voted against the referendum, voted it down. I am asking you to help us do the same thing again.

It has been told to me that, “Well, they’re going to get it anyway,” but not if you vote no like you did the last time.

Remember, district officials projected a shortfall of only $350,000 last year. They are asking for around two times what they really need. Let’s hold their feet to the fire and make them live within their means.

I am asking you to tell this School Board and administrator once and for all that the answer is no to this referendum. We won the battle last time. Now, let’s win the war. Vote no!

Del Miller,

Gillett

To the editor:

President John F. Kennedy stated in his 1961 Inaugural Address: “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Fifty-five years later, I’m left to wonder if we as Americans truly believe this anymore.

It seems in today’s world if we think we see a problem, we share it to social media, contact the local media or just complain about it to our friends. People announce that there is a problem and somebody needs to fix it. Often more time is spent finding someone to blame than in finding a solution. When did we start asking what can be done for us instead of what we can do for our country?

To the editor:

In April a referendum was held to increase the tax burden on the people living in the Gillett School District. That referendum was defeated by the voters.

Now the School Board wants to run the referendum without appropriate changes, except that it will be for three years instead of four. They refuse to make cuts necessary to help solve the budget problem.

This will not fix our budget problem; it will only prolong the problem. After the three-year period, we will be in a a worse financial crisis than we are now.

We live in an area where good-paying jobs are few and many people live below the poverty level. Many of our elderly are living on minimum Social Security and working part time to survive, and are having a hard time buying the medications they need or maintaining their households.

Our senior citizens should not be asked to make this choice.

Regular readers of this column know that I grew up on a dairy farm on Konitzer Road south of Oconto Falls. I have written frequently about the effect that that has had on my life. I was reflecting on that a few days ago and decided that there was more to say, so here we go!

Growing up on the farm taught me a great deal more about teamwork than athletics ever could. There was an incredible amount of work to do on a farm, and the only way to get it all done was for everyone in the family to work together. And back in “the old days,” the teamwork extended outside the immediate family, and neighbors had to help each other. Neighborhood work crews helped with threshing, haying, filling silo, etc.

To the editor:

Today is the Fourth of July, 2016. On this date, I was informed that we could not go to or call any of the Gillett School Board members about the referendum. Anyone who calls any board members is referred to James, the funeral director, or Mark Winkler. Neither of these men is a School Board member.

It looks like the School Board and the administrator are trying to remove themselves from being confronted by the voters of the Gillett School District about the referendum on Aug. 9, but that there is going to be an ice cream social on Aug. 2. At the ice cream social you will be able to ask board members about the referendum.

Why is it OK to question School Board members at the ice cream social, but it’s not OK now? It looks to me like they, the board and administrators, are trying to hide something. What don’t you want the voters of the Gillett School District to know?

To the editor:

Watching the Gillett Fourth of July Parade, I was appalled to see young grade-school children being used to carry signs reading “It’s about my future” in support of the Gillett school referendum Aug. 9 asking for additional millions of dollars from the taxpayers for general operating expenses.

I wonder if these children were told that a substantial part of these operating expenses go to pay early retirement super pensions and super benefits for teachers, administrators and staff.

I do not know the specifics of the Gillett situation and realize this is a statewide problem, but I do know this: I have family members where the wife was a school teacher and the husband also a public employee. He got to retire at 53 and still gets about the same pay and benefits, including insurance, as he did while he worked, along with regular raises. All at taxpayer expense.

When I was a kid growing up on the farm on Konitzer Road, the benchmark for a successful corn crop was “knee-high by the Fourth of July.” If the corn was knee-high by the Fourth of July, that meant it was going to be a good season for the farmer.

Boy, has that changed! If you drive by some of the cornfields in the area these days, the corn is well above shoulder-high. Has there been that much advancement in the fertilizers and seed since I was a kid? When did “knee-high” stop being the measure?

As so often happens, when I was thinking about this expression, it got me thinking about other idioms that involve the knee. You’re not surprised, are you? So, anyway, here we go, off into the world of colorful language.

My dad was fond of the expression “knee-high to a grasshopper.” Most grasshoppers are not very big, so to stand, metaphorically speaking, no higher than the knee of the insect would mean that a person is very small or very young or both.

To the editor:

Well, here we go again. I said in a letter to the editor back in the spring that the administrator and School Board in Gillett would try to go for the referendum again, and guess what? That’s just what they are doing.

Oh, it’s not quite as much money as the first time, but it’s still a bunch.

What I don’t understand is, it is said that the district had a shortfall of $350,000 last year. So, the question would be, why are you asking for more than you need? It was also said that they were going to forget about the $350,000 shortfall and go for more money anyway.

Ladies and gentlemen, just to let you know, the Oconto Falls School District laid off 12 teachers. Why? Because they did not have the money to keep going the way they were going and something had to be done.

Maybe we should do what Oconto Falls has done and let some teachers go.