Partisan politics should have
no place when tragedies occur
To the Editor:
It is becoming clear that our current Minnesota State Representative Ken Tschumper (DFL- La Crescent) doesnít understand how our state government works or doesnít care.

After trumpeting his involvement in the disaster relief package for our area, he is now trying to paint Governor Pawlenty as a villain after finding out how the bill would be administered. It is the job of a sitting legislator to read and know how bills are implemented - especially one he authored.

There is no way he can plead ignorance or that he was tricked when he was intimately involved in the process. Partisan attacks on the Governor fly in the face of public opinion polls which show he has a 59% approval rating after the I-35 bridge collapse and the disaster that hit our region.

Partisan politics should have no place when tragedies like this occur.

Patrick D. Boone
Houston, MN

Compassionate volunteerism in Southeastern Minnesota
To the Editor:
"Compassion is the basis of all morality" Philosopher A. Schopenhauer

Our field road still has a couple tons of roadway in it and, like everyone; we await our turn for debris removal. Our hill road melted away and we discovered a leaky roof by standing in a puddle on the first floor of our three-story farmhouse. We still notice little things, new things each day. For instance today on the way into Houston, my husband John pointed out a white bucket 20 feet up in a tree indicating the depth and ferocity of the water on storm night.

Our Katrina is what it is being called. I find that an apt moniker. I gutted homes in New Orleans last February. The smells were the same, that mixture of sewage, dead things, human garbage, and chemicals. Even the buildings look similar with the colored spray paint, indicative of the status of the home and the number of pet deaths. I have conversed with Rushfordians who have the Midwest version of Katrina cough, a rattling chest cough that wonít go away from breathing dried sludge while walking on lawns, removing debris, or road dust.

The terrible loss of property and possessions is the same, searching through homes and business for things that are still usable, remembering one more precious item or scrap of information forever gone. The frustration of working with slow moving bureaucracies and discovering that your life has become some elseís political football is the same. After two years New Orleans is still waiting on FEMA checks or trailers and help from government agencies.

But the similarity that I wish to address is the generosity of volunteers. More than 1.1 million people have responded to the urgency of the situation in New Orleans. Citizens from all walks of life, whatever faith tradition or economic base, have provided over 14 million service hours in "what is the largest volunteer response to a disaster in the nations history."

This compassionate volunteerism was and is playing out in Southeastern Minnesota in lieu of the flood of 07. Right after the storm citizens, many who suffered losses of their own, started community cleanup. Whatever equipment was available, whatever situation needed attention, citizens worked with each other implementing rescues, opening roads, restoring power, checking on neighbors, or providing food and water. Then there are the volunteers from afar who just show up. I hear stories of strangers arriving at a site, some with their own tools, to whatever is needed. At Montini Hall in Rushford a couple from Mississippi came to work for us. She helped coordinate volunteers in her area after Katrina, using colored pins on a map to mark the states volunteers came from. Minnesota was full. This is her way of thanking us.

It is this outpouring of compassionate volunteerism, home grown and otherwise, bringing their support and spirit that is helping us rebuild our lives in the Southeast.
Marianne Zerbe,
Minnesota Senior Federation- VISTA Volunteer

Time to start with a new CJC plan
To the Editor:
As a taxpayer of Houston County I think itís time for our county commissioners to appoint a new CJC study group made up of citizen taxpayers not overloaded with special interest people. Itís time to listen to the people who are paying the bills and having to live with the consequences of a bad plan (size, location and cost). All taxpayer questions, opinions and alternative ideas should be looked at in open meetings. Our leaders have spent a lot of time and money, trying to shove this bad plan down the throats of people who donít want it.

Itís time to start over with a new plan.

Jeff Gerard
Spring Grove, Minn.

Let's help the people that need it
To the Editor:

Last weekís editorial on the State Childrenís Health Insurance Program legislation did not seem to advance the issue. The original SCHIP program provided medical assistance to children of poor families not the middle class. The legislation vetoed by President Bush sought to establish an entitlement to families making $70,000 or more. Many believe middle class families could afford medical insurance.

Basing an expansion of the program on new taxes to cigarettes is unsound. The figures provided by Mr. Warnerís editorial showed that the proposed tax would be insufficient to fund the expansion. Cigarette use in the United States seems to be on the decline hastened by heavy state taxes. Where will the money come from for the program when cigarettes go away?

Much of the cost of the current program is being assumed by people who donít have the government protection. Doctors are required by the government to take less for procedures done under SCHIP, and they in turn pass the costs on to their other paying clients. That is part of the reason medical costs go up so dramatically. People with private insurance plans or who pay out of pocket assume the cost for those who donít have money.

The legislation is still pending because even President Bush wants the program to be reinstated. Maybe Mr. Warner in future editorials could address improvements to the current program for poor people instead of pushing for a huge government bureaucracy which may not help.

Paul Ibisch
La Crescent, Minn.