I taught at the college level in Alabama for seven years. Now, I am teaching English in Tokyo, Japan. I have always kept up with Alabama, and have been following the governor’s race this year with interest.Toyota is now looking for a location for a large plant that would bring thousands of needed jobs to Alabama. I can tell you, after dealing with the Japanese full time, they will have three priorities in this search: education, education, and education.
Don Siegelman has brought education a long way since my teaching days in Alabama. This is one reason he has been successful landing employers like Honda, Hyundai and Mercedes. Don Siegelman also has a solid plan to bring much-needed funding to education in Alabama. His plan will make sure that wealthy corporations can’t cheat their way out of paying their fair share of education costs. This is the kind of forward-looking thinking Toyota — and other foreign investors — will be looking for.
Bob Riley, on the other hand, has made a lot of promises in his “Plan.” But, he refuses to tell us how he is going to pay for his promises. Bob Riley cannot be trusted to improve Alabama schools.
I cannot predict where Toyota will locate its new plant. But, I would be willing to bet that if Bob Riley is elected governor, Alabama will drop down, if not off, Toyota’s list. Alabama needs four more years of Don Siegelman as governor.
Susan G. Matthews Sykes
Tokyo-to, Japan
(The writer was a professor at Talladega College)
All about Don
I can no longer sit back and watch as Don Siegelman and his cronies attempt to discredit a good man, Bob Riley.Honesty and integrity are two words that best describe Bob Riley. Bob has served as our congressman with distinction. He has protected jobs at the Depot, saved the Edwardsville Post Office, and worked to provide funds for our protection. He has represented our values well in Washington, working on legislation to eliminate the marriage tax and providing zero tolerance for child pornography.
Meanwhile, Don Siegelman has sold his home for twice its appraised value to a Birmingham businessman whom he later appointed to the state Securities Commission. Do you feel this appointee is there to protect our interest? Siegelman has spent millions of dollars as favors to his campaign contributors in the form of no bid contacts. A recent example of this was when the Siegelman administration awarded supporters $760,000 to build and maintain a Web site that is now being built for a price expected not to exceed $7,000. This money could have been used for our educational system, which Siegelman claims to care so much about.
In November, I will not vote for a man who has used appointed positions and unbid contracts for personal rather than public interests. My vote will go to the candidate who represents the people rather than himself and his business partners. My vote will go to Bob Riley.
Shannon Roberts
Heflin
Incinerative story
On Sept. 6th, The Star published an article entitled, “Alarm at Utah Incinerator Does Not Affect Anniston Army Depot Security.” This story, written by Jason Landers, described how an alleged intruder breached the security fence at the Tooele (Utah) Chemical Weapons Stockpile. No one was ever found by the Army and the security incident remains unexplained. In the body of the article Mr. Landers wrote: “Incineration of chemical weapons at the Utah stockpile came to a grinding halt at 9:24 a.m. MDT, as workers were placed on standby because of the alert.” He quoted Marilyn Daughrill, an Army spokeswoman for the chemical disposal program (PMCD) as saying “disposal was scheduled to resume today.”
For those in our community who look to The Star to inform them about the current state of our nation's chemical weapons destruction program, this might sound reassuring.
Unfortunately, it is absolutely untrue. The Tooele incinerator was shut down by the Army (PMCD) on July 15th after workers at the incinerator were exposed to GB nerve agent while performing routine maintenance. The incinerator was still shut down on Sept. 6th.
It is disturbing that The Star and the Army (PMCD) would paint a false picture to its readers that the Tooele incinerator has been proceeding along without any problems when, in fact, work has been halted for more than two months while an investigation is in progress.
Should anyone doubt that The Star and the Army (PMCD) have again breached its duty to report the news truthfully and objectively, just take a look at the Sept.16th article in the Deseret (Utah) News entitled, “Army incinerator remains closed. It will stay shut pending results in leak probe.” The article can be found at www.deseretnews.com.
Brenda Lindell
Anniston
