GI Bill for weekend warriors
To the Editor:
I am writing in regards to Mr. Walgreen’s outburst about the National Guard. I support the VA. I support our Veterans. As one of them, I can say that nothing is perfect. It took me almost 3 years to get my paperwork in order after my untimely discharge from the US Navy. But, I was able to get my GI Bill while I was on and also when I went off Active Duty. Now the VA pays for my schooling. Not a bad deal.
What I am seeing more and more of is reservists getting the short end of the stick. However, this applies to those who have served in major wars. Not weekend warriors who join up to get college paid for. My concern is for those soldiers that are serving in Iraq and only getting Weekend Warrior pay. No hazard pay. And their families. What about them? They are not making ends meet. This goes to the classic stance that was true and probably still is: Military families usually end up on Welfare. This has been going on since President Clinton (because of his anti-military suggestions).
The GI Bill is only good for a short period of time. Doesn’t matter how much money you put in while you served or how much time in. I remember paying out 45 percent of my military pay for all sorts of weird little things. Life insurance, medical, and the GI Bill (then throw in Maine taxes and Federal). But at the same time I got free housing, free food, free medication, free entertainment and the satisfaction that I was protecting the rights of those crybaby liberals.
I would suggest contacting the DAV. See what they can do for you.
Jason Libby
English, Senior
Test it out at UHS
To the Editor,
I appreciated Joseph Thompson’s article “Sex in the city” for putting an important issue for USM and Maine in the limelight for a moment. We at University Health Services have already seen an increase in the number of students coming in asking for testing. For clarification, I wanted to add that students (of the 2,782 visits last year) were encouraged to have STD testing when relevant to their concerns/risk factors. Also, because the fee for testing can be steep for some students, we offer internal fee reduction options and/or sometimes refer to Portland Public Health’s STD testing program. I hope that Thompson’s article inspires more students to practice safe sex and get tested regularly when appropriate; we want to be a resource for their needs.
Larisa Semenuk
Clinical Manager, UHS
Craig for president!
To the Editor:
Our president scares me too! In fact, when he said something to the effect that God had told him what he should do I knew we were in trouble. He was sincere about what he thought he heard, and it’s nice to be sincere; however, that’s not all we need in a president.
My wife and I read Craig Giammona’s article “The President Scares me” in the April 19 edition. Both of us thank Craig and want him to know that he expressed our feelings clearly! Not only did he say what each of us would like to be able to say but he also said it in a manner that I wish all of us might adopt when we disagree with another human being. If Craig ever runs for president, Edna and I hope we can still be at an age when we can vote for him.
By the way, I’m a retired ordained minister and my wife is a retired member of the nursing faculty of U.S.M. Both of us are in our eighties and we’re now students in Olli at U.S.M. (previously known as Senior College). Neither our church nor U.S.M. is responsible for the words we wrote above. However, we are happy to say that both organizations still influence our lives.
Edna and Blake Ellis
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
Don’t argue with the weak
To the Editor:
In response to Mr. Violette and Ms. Hart, I would like to reiterate that I do believe in Christ’s teachings about loving one’s neighbor. I don’t hate homosexuals as people. I went to school with people who are gay/lesbian/bisexual.
I don’t consider myself a “Progessive Christian.” Mr. Violette and Ms. Hart are right in their article — it would be stupid to burn a moldy house. It would be insensitive to lock a woman up simply because she’s menstruating. Sacrificing animals would be barbaric. I acknowledge that. However, that is all part of an old law — it’s part of an old covenant with God. The New Testament outlines a new covenant. One without all the blood sacrifice.
The Bible acknowledges that homosexuality has been around since Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. I’m not going to dispute that. What I will dispute though, is that I’m just supposed to drop what I’ve been taught by every Pastor I’ve ever listened to. People may think that Homosexual love complies with basic teaching of the Bible, but it doesn’t. Everywhere you turn in the Bible, that union is clearly depicted as wrong. Never is a homosexual relationship declared right.
Now, I do believe I owe my fellow Christians an apology. Romans 14:1 says “Accept Christians who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong.” It isn’t up to me to dictate what is right and wrong. I was in the wrong in thinking I could. But it is my responsibility to make others aware of what truth is.
David Bates
History, freshman
Bush, butts, and preschoolers
To the Editor:
April 22, 2004 was a beautiful day. The sky was blue The sun was warm. What a perfect earth day! Then I looked down at my feet. Butts, broken solo cups, broken CD-Rs, plastic shopping bags, cans, broken glass, potato chip bags, newspapers, and all sorts of assorted crap.
To celebrate Earth Day, USM childcare had preschoolers going about cleaning up the trash that we college students left behind. Preschoolers were cleaning up our trash.
Something struck me a little wrong here.
In other news, Bush visited Wells, Maine to give a speech in celebration of Earth Day. I suppose his home state of Texas has too much smog hanging in the air to provide a suitable campaign backdrop. (Side-note: Houston Texas stole the title “nation’s smog capitol” from Los Angeles just two years ago.)
I wonder why Bush has decided to give an Earth Day speech at all. The way Bush is suddenly “earth friendly” reminds me of the 80’s when McDonald’s switched from styrofoam containers to paper products made from South American clear-cut lumber.
Bush has opened our national parks, plots of untouched land, to logging and ATV use. Logging requires roads to be built, and due to a legal loophole, once a road has been built on the land, the area to either side is available for sale and development. Future generations can get no claim to this national treasure.
His so-called Clear Skies Initiative took the Clean Air Act’s limit of 5 tons per year by 2008 and opened it up so that industries can pollute 26 tons per year by 2010.
Now, I’m not blaming the trash out in front of Upton-Hastings on Bush, far from it; Bush’s environmental policies (and his even being in office) are only the culmination of a systemic problem, which starts with you– the person reading this. Or should I say the person no longer reading, or couldn’t be bothered to read this. Which is that people our age don’t vote, don’t care, and don’t even try to live sustainable and responsible lives.
The next generation is already cleaning up after us on this campus. Let’s not go down this path any further.
Asher Platts
32nd Student Senate