I was struck by two pieces in the April 15 Star. One was a news article about a $600,000 federal grant to help find work for workers at the soon-to-be-closed chemical weapons incinerator, the other an editorial lamenting the lack of funds for essential criminal justice services like crime labs.

The connection? Well, which does Calhoun County need more, five or six highly paid “consultants” and “managers,” or a crime lab?

Of course, these funds are from different levels of government and the grant money can’t be used directly to fund the crime lab, but, in fact, the money all comes from the same ultimate source — the taxpayers.

What we need at all levels of government are leaders who will face up to these kind of choices — the vital vs. the desirable, in the same way my family and most others do every day. It is the unwillingness to deal with the fact that resources are limited and that priorities must be set and choices made that has put this country, from Calhoun County, to the state of Alabama, to the federal government, in serious financial difficulty.

David L. Truitt
Deer Park, Texas