Asheville Citizen-Times
| April 30, 2007
Section: Business Edition: MAIN Page: 4B READERS STORY |
| So the local author of "Living wage will harm living people," (AC-T, April 19), thinks a living wage is not a good idea because people should be paid what they are worth. Is that why Circuit City fires employees who are paid the exorbitant sum of $15 an hour while its CEO gets a measly $1.4 million a year? Is that why, as productivity has gone up, workers' wages have gone down? She asks where the Living Wage Campaign, which presented the ordinance to City Council, got its figure of $10.86 an hour for Asheville. It takes the rent for a 1-bedroom apartment and says that this should constitute no more than 30 percent of a worker's income. Where living wage laws have been enacted they have found no loss of jobs; on the contrary, business improved because more people have more money to spend. And it reduces reliance on public subsidies. But the writer needn't worry. This proposed ordinance doesn't require anything of anyone. The city already pays a living wage, and it asks only that it be one factor in awarding city contracts. It definitely does not require anything of private business; it does hope to develop incentives for businesses to pay a living wage. Lotte Meyerson, Asheville Meyerson is a member of the Asheville/Buncombe Living Wage Steering Committee. Liberals have it in for America R Radical left-wing Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) call for more gun control legislation in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre demonstrates a crass insensitivity to the pain, anguish and suffering of the students and their families. These extremist liberals go for the jugular. This comes as no surprise since all liberals, be they fascists or communists, have as a prime objective the disarming of the civilian populace. Every time a deranged gunman goes on a shooting rampage their first impulse is to scream for more stringent gun control laws. They place the blame on an inanimate object, forgetting the sickness that pervades society. Grammar school children are taught that they are the result of a biological evolutionary process and that life is a cosmic accident without purpose. Television and movie screens are filled with gratuitous violence and sex is portrayed as a bodily function with no moral implications. Young boys spend hours playing computer games that make killing amusing. "Gangsta rap" gushes with dehumanizing lyrics. Thousands of unborn children are daily deprived of the right to life. Congress should devote its efforts to dealing with these problems rather than more laws to deprive citizens of their "right to keep and bear arms." Joseph Moore, Asheville Drop talk about guns, let's talk about mental health I I found it appropriate that the editorial, "Failing mental health system needs new leader," (AC-T, April 19), appeared on the same day as a deluge of letters which were either backing or opposing gun control. The author of the letter, "Gun fanatics putting own spin on tragedy," claimed that "fanatics" "...are actually blaming the victims (of the V-T shootings) because they chose to obey the law and refrain from carrying weapons." Please, I don't believe this for a second. People who own guns legally and people who obtain guns for the purpose of murder are on opposite sides of the coin. Get a grip and be realistic. Now back to my original point. Shouldn't this country be trying to figure out how to get the growing need for mental health care accessible in all towns and cities? What is wrong here? Can't we at least educate the public? Shouldn't mental health issues be forefront in the classroom just as much as other health classes? Are there still that many people who think that poor mental health is a choice? It's only going to get worse. Abolishing weapons isn't going to abolish destructive ways. I'd like all the bombs to go away, but guess what? The people who make them are still here. Betty Butler, Fairview Violence is a result of our violent society W We are saddened by the loss of so many good people at Virginia Tech due to that self-involved sociopath (I will not allow myself to repeat, or even remember his name), but we shouldn't be shocked by this latest outburst of violence in a culture that seems to look for violent acts in many aspects of our daily lives. In sports, many of us look forward to that good bloody fight at a hockey game or a perfect "hit" at a football game, or car racing, where many a fan finds that multi-car wreck exciting, or the new free-for-all boxing matches where the goal is to pummel the opponent into unconsciousness. How many of us have rubber-necked at a highway accident looking for injuries or a fatality? Or been involved in an instance of road rage? And how many young adults listen to the rap songs that glorify violence against women and law officers, or play similar video games? We can focus on this gunman who acted on his rage to an extreme or we can ask ourselves if we, as a society, are promoting values that make violent acts more likely to happen in the future. Robert Pike, Swannanoa Navy should try recycling before building new OLF W Why does the Navy need to spend all that money and damage the environment to build an outlying landing field (OLF) in Washington County? If brass at the Pentagon could just cross the halls, the Navy could find existing bases that are underused and headed for deactivation, such as the Homestead AFB just south of Miami. There are probably several others, too. Once the money is appropriated, they just have to spend it, no matter how foolish the cost. Department of Defense spending will forever be twice as high as it needs to be until the system is changed. Don't let them build it in N.C. Jane Groves, Maggie Valley |
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