Sunday, Dec. 25, 2005 | 9:02 a.m.
How can the Bush White House and Republican Congress be so callous as to disregard the fact that our country is drowning in a budget deficit that grows by billions each month?
Apparently Republicans are cut off from the real world of average Americans and are unable to relate to concerns of rising costs of health care, fuel, costs of future college education for their kids and the increasing disparity between the "haves" and "have nots."
While the Republicans talk about the new jobs they have created, we read about major corporations such as General Motors dismissing thousands of workers. They don't seem too concerned that millions of workers lost secure retirement funds and health benefits because big corporations failed to use mandated safeguards to ensure the future of these hard-earned benefits.
We continually hear rhetoric that all is well with the economy, but all is not well as businesses and jobs are being outsourced to other nations.
Every day working Americans are watching their paychecks being eaten away by rising taxes.
The average family worries about the increasing tax burden they have to pay while the Republicans smugly want to continue plans that reward the wealthiest Americans with generous tax cuts; middle-class Americans continue to shoulder the biggest tax burden.
None of these things seem to register with the Bush White House or the Republican Congress. Because of this calloused indifference I will never vote again for a Republican, be it for national, state, county or city office.
Virgil A. Sestini
Las Vegas
Ron Kantowski's Dec. 17 column on Bishop Gorman High School's 88-3 victory over Valley High School ("Checking the records for a score worse than 88-3") supports evidence that anything can happen in girls basketball.
I moved to Las Vegas from central Ohio seven years ago where we lived in a community whose girls basketball team had won six big-school titles. Those girls with their blond ponytails were the darlings of Ohio until, as best as I can remember, they won a tournament game 102-4. The game caused a public outrage, and they were immediately transformed from darlings to bullies.
When the coach was asked why he left his starters in for so long, he responded that it was a tournament game and he wanted his girls to be mentally and physically prepared for a run at the state title. The game was a setup from the beginning since all schools in Ohio, both boys and girls, qualify for postseason play.
Of course the teams are seeded, and our school, Pickerington High School, was seeded No. 1 to play Groveport High School, the 16 seed. The situation had additional drama since they are neighboring schools and Pickerington is considered upper-middle class and Groveport is blue collar.
It seemed that from that game on, Pickerington was jinxed and appeared to lose the favor of all girls basketball fans outside of their own community. Now there are two high schools in Pickerington, and they seem to have split the talent pool.
Although they are still good, they have not reached the prominence of those earlier years.
Rick Perry
North Las Vegas
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