Letters to the editor

Dear moderate residents of the city of Palmer

To the editor:

There is a great opportunity to serve your city with the upcoming election this October 4th. There are several open positions including five (5) council seats and one (1) mayor position up for election this fall.

Filing dates are only July 18 — July 29, 2022. This is a very short window to get your name in to be included in this fall’s Palmer City election. I urge those common sense, middle of the road, wise city residents to sign up to be a council member or mayor of our city.

I have followed the behavior of the city council and mayor that we have now with dismay. Unfortunately we are being led by an inept mayor, a new clerk with learning to do to be proficient, one councilman whose sole purpose appears to be to further punish the recalled council members, and four newly appointed members. Basically the City is like a ship adrift without a captain or competent crew to navigate the waters.

And if you haven’t been following the meetings, there is still a cry from the far right to get this ship over further into the right lane — or be damned! I am sorry but that is truly how they present their positions to the City accompanied with pounding of fists on the table!

The City of Palmer has so much going for it, and we need to get a crew on board to sail this ship down the middle of the shipping lane — not on the right or on the left, but in the middle where all can complain a bit, but each gets a bit of what is important to them.

This job is not an easy one, and it doesn’t come with much accolades or pay — but rather it is a position of leadership and service — and Palmer needs those moderate, level-headed, intelligent, educated members of our community to come forward and say, “I am willing to sit in that chair and lead our community wisely into the future.” We need people that do not have an agenda that is anti — whatever, or polarizing, or disruptive to the well-being of all the citizens of Palmer.

We are a small community in a beautiful setting, with a beautiful diverse population — we need healthy, middle of the road leadership now.

Liz Jackson,

Palmer

Against the American Choice and Innovation Online Act

To the editor:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has just given Klobuchar the Christmas in June present she has wanted for a long time – a floor vote on her anti-trust bill S.2992, the American Choice and Innovation Online Act. Big tech has been in the crosshairs of democrats and republicans alike for quite some time.

But now is not the time to introduce this legislation, for a number of reasons. Aside from the drastic economic impacts this bill will have at a time that the American public can least stomach it, is the national security implications. Numerous former Defense, Homeland Security, Intelligence and Cyber Officials have already come out in opposition to this bill, but also recently sent a letter to that effect outlining why this bill is a disaster waiting to happen.

S.2992 is poorly written, overly broad, and hoping our Senators oppose it.

Darrel Foister,

Palmer

Our disabled veterans are grossly under compensated

To the editor:

Our disabled veterans are grossly under compensated. They’ve been asking various Congresses and Administrations for fair and adequate compensation since the end of WWI (1918). That was a 103 years ago!

In 2022 a totally disabled veteran with no dependents is compensated at the ridiculous rate of $39,984.72 dollars annually. The National Average Wage Index (NAWI) for 2020 was $55,628.60 dollars per annum and the median income for 2020 was $67,521.00. The per capita GDP in 2020 was $63,416.00 dollars, among the highest in the world.

They are only compensated for projected lost wages and not including a ‘loss of quality of life’ payment. That is an antiquated approach to injury compensation. U.S. courts now routinely award quality of life payments in any judgment concerning personal injury cases.

Disabled veterans realize that they are being manipulated by our tax evading Elites who use campaign donations to Congress people in order to keep veterans’ compensation low so as to ensure a low tax rate for themselves. It is open but legal theft from the poor and disabled by the rich and powerful. Imagine that; I am so shocked! NOT!

So…

We can levy at least a penny tax on every dollar traded on the stock market to pay for the compensation due to our disabled veterans. The New York Stock Exchange alone traded about 1.46 billion shares a day in 2019. There are presently 13 separate stock exchanges operating in the USA. The Investor Class must finally step up.

This is now a national security problem.

Once our youth fully understand that should they enlist in the armed forces and subsequently be seriously injured or sickened in the line of duty then they are looking at a lifetime of near poverty and this realization among our young people will cause the armed forces to collapse. In fact, that has already started to happen across the entire country.

We will be facing a national defense nightmare and it will continue for decades. We need to head this off before all of our actions to do so will be useless. No one wants to be played for a fool, not even a young person. And that is what we are doing.

We have no right to expect our youth to make a sacrifice like this so that our Elites can evade a fair level of taxation. Be warned.

Paul Krotke,

Anchorage