Opinion

To the persons who are trapping house cats in the area of 11th Ave and 5th Street and the west side of Vinton,      Will you please STOP!!     Not all cats are homeless. The cats being taken around 11th Ave and 5th Street are well fed, well groomed, neutered, and spayed. One by the name Buddy, a big orange male, well groomed, well fed, neutered; was the Nicest, Friendliest Cat EVER!!!! Great with children and elderly.

Dear Editor, Mike Pence is NOT a Traitor!!Fact Check:  Mike Pence did NOT have the power to overturn the 2020 election results and keep Donald Trump in office!  The 12th Amendment of the Constitution says the vice president; as president of the Senate, is to open envelopes containing Electoral College votes from each state, count the votes, and announce the winner.

Dear Voters, In his most recent political ads, David Thompson makes a desperate attempt to manipulate voters. He is trying to twist a 24-year-old ad, created by him at the time, to allege that Ray Lough is not qualified to be County Attorney today. There is not one single thing in any of these allegations about Ray that are current. Do you see today’s law enforcement backing David Thompson? Do you see today’s county employees backing him? Do you know how many Democrats have told me they are not voting for Thompson? Don’t be fooled by this decades old, manufactured, ad.

Dear Editor, Many people will decide not to vote in the upcoming elections for various reasons; but if there was ever a critical time to do so, it is NOW! Get out of your easy chairs...throw down the dish towels and go vote. I am 74 years old now. I joined the Young Democrats when I was a junior in high school. This was shocking to my family because both sides had been Republicans as far back as Teddy Roosevelt.

Dear Editor, David Thompson has served nobody but himself for the last 24 years that he’s held the office of Benton County Attorney. Rather than protecting county employees or giving sound legal advice he’s instead harassed and terrorized them while creating a hostile work environment. Instead of protecting the county from lawsuits, he’s instead played a significant role in literally causing one currently in litigation.

Dear EditorAfter reading about the nepotism issue, I decided to research it further. Mr. Thompson’s comment about contacting the Attorney General’s office to verify that this was not nepotism, did not sit well with me. First, as an attorney shouldn’t he be able to interpret code 71? Isn’t this his job to uphold the laws? Second, if it is borderline why in the world would you go ahead and endorse it as a member of the hiring committee?  Hmmm, something smells.

Dear Editor,The rise of secular humanism over the past 70 years has created a religion-shaped hole in our culture. Many people have taken hold of the belief that humanity is capable of morality and self-fulfillment without belief in or need of God. Secularism dominated our culture, yet failed to offer people a philosophy of meaning, purpose, and most of all, hope.

Editor: SM:  I suggest you look at our history.  This was the first year of so of John Kennedy’s Administration – October 1962 – known as the Cuban missile crisis.  He was successful in downgrading this nuke threat to our Nation (Cuba is only 90 miles away) with daring and diplomacy.  Khrushchev  (USSR) backed down; we withdrew missiles from a nearby country to the USSR as a token (they were obsolete anyway).

Dear Editor, Prosecutors can't please everyone all of the time. That's why competence and experience in a county attorney must outweigh party and pleasure. It must also outweigh “nice” and “mean.” It is in a county's best interest to have a bulldog for a prosecutor.David Thompson has been serving Benton County for 24 years. Thompson swells the county budget through assertive collection of fees and debts.

Dear Editor, In a response to one of my recent musings on this Opinion Page I was asked how I could consider myself an American. An interesting question asked of a person exercising his most basic of all individual rights set down in our nation’s Bill of Rights – expressing his opinion in a public forum. But, what the heck – let’s drill down on the reasons that I believe I am, indeed, an American.