Something is dreadfully wrong when we cannot get our votes counted accurately. In school I was taught that a vote counted in this country. I was also taught to solve an arithmetic problem over until I got the same answer twice. Apparently that does not apply to elections in Alabama and some other states. I don’t understand having the right to have my vote counted with only 98 percent accuracy. I expect 100 percent. While reluctantly applauding Gov. Siegelman’s decision to withdraw his recount request, I will never accept the election result as legitimate. A recount in a closely contested election should be a matter of course. We need election reforms to assure that every vote is counted as each voter intends.
Let’s not repeat the mistakes of 2002.
Stanley Easton
Jacksonville
Incineration
In the only recent local election that can fairly be called a referendum on the incinerator, Robert Downing defeated Larry Sylvester for County Commission, demonstrating once again that THE PEOPLE DO NOT WANT INCINERATION!The long-held opposing views of Downing and Sylvester were clearly articulated by both candidates and by The Star, and the people have spoken once again, just as they did in the survey done last spring by the prestigious George Bush School of Public Policy at Texas A&M University, which also indicated that a majority of our citizens oppose incineration.
At a U.S. Senate hearing in April 2001, Mike Parker, who works for the Army, testified that advanced alternatives to incineration can destroy our stockpile safely, efficiently, without costing more, and as quickly, if not more quickly than incineration. He also testified that the stockpile will be stable for the next four decades. The Star was aware of the testimony, but never reported it.
In September, the National Research Council gave its approval to neutralization as a “mature, safe and effective” way to destroy Kentucky’s stockpile, and just this past week the Pentagon itself recommended neutralization for Kentucky, which has in its stockpile the same types of weapons that Anniston has.
The time has come. Let’s neutralize.
Let’s retrofit for an advanced alternative, which will not emit deadly toxins for the next ten years on top of our already deeply poisoned community.
Will we clean up our community in a safe, responsible exemplary manner or continue to be America’s “Toxic Town” for decades to come?
I’m certain we’ll do the right thing. We can’t afford not to.
Rufus Kinney
Jacksonville
Misdemeanor
If I am convicted of a misdemeanor marijuana charge I will not be able to get a job at Wal-Mart and that is just one of many places. I know this because I applied there last week and on the application it asks the question: Have you been convicted of a marijuana offense in the past seven years? With today’s climate of mistrust companies run background checks for even the most menial of jobs and lying is pointless. They will check and although they say that a conviction will not necessarily bar you from employment chances are they will pass you over again and again for someone who does not have a criminal record.
If I can’t get a job then at some point I will have to get food stamps and/or other government assistance which will cost the taxpayers of Alabama money. This is unfair to the taxpayers of this or any other state. I wasn’t costing them a dime before the police busted in and declared that I am a criminal. I am not a criminal. I am a wife and mother.
In Alabama the first time you are caught it is a misdemeanor but if you are ever caught again it is an automatic felony which means prison time and more money from the taxpayers to house me and feed me and provide medical care for me and so on. If I am sent to jail my children will be without one of their parents which is so wrong. We are one of the few two parent homes around these days. My husband and I have been married for 12 years. To rip away a mother from her kids all for a joint is more than TOTALLY UNAMERICAN it is downright INHUMAN. There is no justice to be found in that brand of punishment.
All of this begs the question ... How does this help anyone? It doesn’t help me (not that I need help) and it doesn’t help the average Joe whose tax dollars are going to pay for me to be incarcerated for a choice that the government has made a crime. All it does is hold people down and make them helpless and dependent on the system when they were not before.
Loretta Nall
Alexander City
