Reader Comments

Editor: Your article “Bureaucracy Implosion” correctly points out the abysmal failure of big government to handle personal problems and shows the complete failure of the system to handle the health and recovery of our heroes who fight to keep us free. Shame on this system--it simply MUST be brought into compliance with human needs; especially those of veterans and military members here as well as abroad. It would appear our brave soldiers are receiving better care on the battlefield than in the U S!!!! Frances Shannon

Editor: “Bureaucracy Implosion” is really well done. Marc Rotterman

Editor: The problem is far worse even than Donald Devine’s “Bureaucracy Implosion” indicates. Once the military medical system (an excellent one) has finished treating a soldier for combat wounds and it appears he should not return to active duty, his case must be reviewed by a board. If the board finds him 20% or less disabled he is discharged and becomes eligible for treatment by the Department of Veterans' Affairs through its Veterans' Health Administration and to veterans' benefits through its Veterans' Benefits Administration. If the board finds him 30% or more disabled he is entitled to Tri-Care health care for the rest of his life, gets military retirement pay, and gets to carry military ID for the rest of his life with all the military fringe benefits. He can also get veterans' benefits but they are usually offset dollar for dollar by reductions in his military retirement pay. Many soldiers hate these boards. They take months on each case; they are suspected of finding 20% disability in cases that are clearly 30% under the law and regulations; and they place the burden of making sure the medical file they see is complete on the soldier, not on the Army. Once soldiers are discharged and file a claim with the Regional Office of the Department of Veterans' Affairs they have to wait about four months. If the claim is complicated it may take longer because there is no control to make sure the claims are handled in the order received. Claims are frequently denied by the Regional Office because the claims examiner does to understand the claim, the law, or the regulations. If the veteran appeals, it takes about 231 days for the Regional Office to do the next step in the paperwork and about an additional 502 days for the file to go to the Board of Veterans' Appeals. It takes that Board about another 265 days. All together this process takes about 1041 days, of which about 43 are attributable to the veteran and about 998 to the government. (The numbers I have used are from a Department of Veterans' Affairs publication that is about two or three years old, but they still reflect the situation). Although the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans' Affairs use, to all intents and purposes, the same regulations to determine percentage of disability, a veteran rated 20% disabled by the Army and shortly thereafter rated 30% disabled by the Department of Veterans' Affairs has no recourse for this. Army and VA doctors are excellent. It is the bureaucracy that is the problem. Charles Mills

Editor: Good Points by Bill Sizemore in his “Reforming the Schools” but how do we eliminate the Teachers Union? Linda Palmer

Editor: I really enjoyed the article “Reforming the Schools” by Bill Sizemore. What I would also like to see is a breakdown of hours per day/wk or year of actually school work time that doesn't include sex ed, diversity training or global warming etc. Really basic courses are what is needed. Let the family teach the other stuff or make it optional. Then I would like to see how much the teachers are paid per hour of required attendance--and don't let them claim they have prep time and research etc. Every job has demands outside the office hours. They equate it to a full time job. My assumption is that the teachers are paid a very high salary based on hours worked. Keep up the good work, John Lee Alameda, CA

Editor: “Reforming the Schools” by Bill Sizemore is a great article! I have tutored in Ohio (Cincinnati) public schools for about five years under the State of Ohio 'STARS' program. I have witnessed why poverty children don't learn. Most of them (except those in the front row) can't hear most of the teacher's lesson. I am not exaggerating. You and I could not learn under those conditions. And nothing is ever done to correct this gross injustice. Joseph Sabatini

Editor: In an article with the same title as my own, Bill Sizemore offered several valid points in changing teacher structure and improving instruction for our nation's youth. I would offer one more point for his suggestion #3—“nowhere in corporate America are all employees of a company paid equally; they are paid according to their technical value and job expertise. Therefore, pay teachers of the more difficult math and science classes more money than the lower grade teachers and even more than Social Studies or History teachers. Those classes are great for general knowledge, but they do nothing to help a student obtain a job or be a productive participant of society.” I can tell you that the majority of the teachers in Missouri, including my two daughters (and myself were I still teaching Eng 101), all support these suggestions wholeheartedly. One thing my girls adamantly dislike is having their dues funneled to a political party or candidate whom they cannot support. That's why Missouri has a separate Teacher's Union from the NEA. It offers benefits such as group health plans, but does not waste dues on wrongful investments. For suggestions 5-6-7 and 12: Hear, Hear!!! Right on, brother! Keep up the good work. Jim Anderson

Editor: The only thing I see missing out of Bill Sizemore’s article, is school personnel drug testing. I work in the lowly oil field and have to submit to drug testing. And here we have school personnel handling one aspect of our most valuable resource, our kids. It would surprise you how many of the school faculty actually do drugs. No wonder our schools are so liberal. Cleve I. Noble Jr.

Editor: I am writing a new book entitled "The Demise of the USA:" As we KNEW it! The book will cover many, many subjects (as one might expect). The schools being the point where one might start if one wanted to drive toward a socialist society. I would like to use Bill Sizemore's article on the school system. I would like to imbed it in my book in its entirety without any changes. It is a wonderful piece and says what I have been trying to say for years. Thank you, Chuck Slate

Editor: Regarding Bill Sizemore’s ”Reforming the Schools,” first, let me make it clear that although I have taught school in Southern CA, I do not, have a teaching credential. I have a BS in Psych, and took the states' test for teaching. As three of my six sisters are teachers, back East, I thought I would try to help, and I did, to a degree, with some what are now called: "At Risk" children. It was a private school, for high school age students who were unable to stay in a public school for various reasons. The students awarded me with a certificate "Best Teacher of the Year". After they all left, I was fired, fired because I had helped advance 2 students up and out of that school, so that they could once again attend public school. That was the real reason. I was costing them money, lost income by DOING MY JOB! The real kick in the pants is if a child is upset with an adult, all he/she has to do is report to the office, "Mr/Ms/Mrs Smith ‘Touched me!’" That's it! Children services, by law, HAVE TO BELIEVE the minor! Think about these points before you complain about how lousy a job the teachers do. Thanks, John F. Bliss

Editor: I agree with most of what Bill Sizemore says in his “Reforming the Schools” and I believe that if parents could speak directly to the nation, that the system could be "righted" within ten years, to be the best in the world. The PTA published agenda here in Austin TX must have been dictated by the NEA, so something must change quickly, if America is to survive. I suggest a "SCHOOLRULE" web-site to collect e-mail suggestions direct from all citizens registered with the site who are concerned with education, then sort them and report tallied results quarterly to the nation thru news releases. I believe that within 3 months he would be noticed, and by 6 months Sizemore would be a force, if no political affiliations are mentioned. The Milton Friedman Foundation may help. Best Regards, John D. Watts, Austin, TX

Editor: In regard to Alan Caruba’s “Shame of the Schools,” I’d go for an inactive “No Child Left Behind” and substitute school choice. Thanks, Lisa Miller

Editor: Got to agree with Alan Caruba’s “Shame of the Schools” The 'No Child Left Behind' program is ideally good, but like he said, the schools just changed the way they are doing things to 'appear' to be passing instead of concentrating on the areas that need focus--the de-liberalism of the education system. We need to stop the cries, 'If we challenge them and they can't do it that will destroy their self-esteem!' and focus on each classified child's specific learning disability. Instead of mainstreaming the physically disabled and spending $45,000 per year for a special ed teacher per severely physical disabled child to sit with the child most of the day in a classroom with 20 non-disabled children who are trying to learn, the severely handicapped children should be in an environment where one on one teaching can quietly take place and where the child's areas of greatest difficulty can be focus on without distractions from surrounding students (yes this goes on in our district). I have a child in the 6th grade who still cannot pronounce words he does not recognize. What he needs is tutoring in phonics and word analysis. So you see, even private tutoring services are cashing in on the dumbing down of American children. The fleecing of America is affecting our children. It's time to put a stop to this. Sincerely, Amy Whyte, Brodheadsville PA

Editor: In his review of “Amazing Grace” Spencer Warren indicates nothing was said in the movie about the emancipation of the slaves in the British Empire. That's not factual, there was written dialogue as a trailer that mentioned this fact. That being said, I enjoyed the film as well as Mr. Warrens article. Keep up the good work. David Service

Editor: What a terrific article by Lisa Fabrizio titled “Anna Nicole, All American Girl.” I have not heard a lot concerning the “human" side of the woman since her death. The only part the author did not mention was how all of this will undoubtedly play out in her daughter's so far sad life. I cannot even begin to imagine how she will feel as she looks through what has been printed and filmed in the wake of her mom's death. Thank you, Amy Anderson

Editor: Lisa Fabrizio’s article reminds us that Anna Nicole Smith was no Marilyn Monroe. She was just the latest in a steady stream of Marilyn Monroe wanna-be starlets. Somehow, Marilyn Monroe was able to rise above the tabloid pulp and establish an identity for herself that was not dependent on a constant stream of trashy publicity. Her contemporary imitators (Jayne Mansfield, Anita Ekberg, et. al) and modern would-be imitators (Anna Nicole Smith, et. al) remained totally dependent on the transient notoriety and petty scandals which make up tabloid and other trash-news reporting. Maybe it was being 'the first girl' in PLAYBOY (men never forget their first girl). Or, maybe Monroe really had something elusive and hard to define -- but definitely what the others have lacked. She did apparently catch the eye of at least one U.S. president, after all. In all fairness, the trash & tabloid journals depend as much on the would-be stars to hook their audience and sell advertising. The tabloids know their main quarry (the Anna Nicole-Smiths of the world) can not thrive or last, unless they get regular publicity, and that the only forums which can deliver are the trash/tabloid journals. Brian Lynch, Austin, TX

Editor: First of all, a belated thanks to Donald Devine two issues back for the history on the issue of Iraq, especially that he “had urged action against Saddam Hussein but not nation-building” way back in 2002. Somehow, that idea was hardly ever mentioned on TV before the war started. There was nothing said beforehand by most about the "Failed Policy" when we went into Iraq, took it with a breeze. The people then dragged down the Statue of Saddam, and patted our troops on the back. If we established democracy, and the insurgents never came in George Bush would have gone down into history as the president that established democracy in the Near East. Now with hind sight the liberals have come up with the term "failed policy” well after the fact. It seems the term "failed policy" is a hind sight term, a finger pointing term. I hesitate to vote for anyone who uses hindsight and finger pointing, a news reporter term. Marine vet, Jim Goleta, CA