Letters to the Editor March 22,2006
Set aside funds to fight child abuse

Set aside funds to fight child abuse

The Tuba City Regional Child Abuse Prevention Council would like to encourage individual taxpayers about the opportunity to prevent child abuse and neglect.

Child abuse is a growing problem in the United States. According to Childhelp USA:

• In 2003, an estimated 1,500 children died of abuse and neglect -- an average of more than four children per day.

• More than three-quarters (78.7 percent) of the children who die are younger than 4 years of age.

• The rate of infant homicide reached a 30-year high in 2000.

• More than 2.9 million reports of possible maltreatment involving children were made to child protective service agencies in 2003.

• The actual incidence of abuse and neglect is estimated to be three times greater than the numbers reported to authorities.

• Child abuse is reported on an average every 10 seconds.

Prevention is one of the ways to reverse this alarming trend. For every dollar spent on prevention services, $6 to $10 is saved in social costs.

One way to become a partner in the prevention of child abuse and neglect is to contribute to the Child Abuse Prevention Fund through your state income tax form. This money is dedicated to support child abuse prevention programs throughout the state such as Healthy Families Arizona, parenting education classes, youth programs and child abuse education.

I am asking you, as a citizen and taxpayer, to join in the fight to stop child abuse and to make a difference in the lives of children.

Teresa Honahni

Tuba City Regional Child Abuse Prevention Council

Tuba City, Ariz.

Queries Sidney's stance on mine

In a recent issue of the Navajo Hopi Observer, Stan Bindell reported the comments the Hopi Tribal Chairman Ivan Sidney made at the Feb. 28 Hopi High Athletic Banquet.

What caught my attention was that "Sidney said he had been negotiating with stakeholders of the Mohave power plant to reopen the coal mine that recently closed."

I thought that this negotiating effort to reopen Mohave Power Plant had been done away with after Wayne Taylor's defeat but evidently not. Since this is not the case, why did Sidney not tell the Hopi people said he was going to continue the policy of Wayne Taylor Jr. on this issue? If he had leveled with the people, perhaps, Wayne Taylor Jr. would still be in office. Politics as it is too many times requires that one cannot be honest if one wants to be elected.

It was my impression that the Hopi people were in full agreement with a goal of the Black Mesa Trust to close the Mohave Power Plant for good so that they will stop wasting our water. In addition, many of us want to see real change in the administration of the Hopi tribal government.

It is now self-evident that the new chairman and Hopi tribe is only interested in the almighty dollar, which is unfortunate. Our Hopi forefathers had lived for hundreds, if not thousands of years without a single dollar. If my oral histories correct, they valued water above everything else because water was life itself.

The bottom line seems to be self-evident that we are in for another four years of the same old policies and programs.

Caleb H. Johnson

U.S. Army Colonel, Retired

Kykotsmovi, Ariz.

Lists many reasons for impeaching Bush

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." --Dwight D Eisenhower, from "The Chance for Peace" address delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953.

Perhaps if George W. Bush had spent more time studying history and less time wasting the gifts of privilege he might not have created the worst Presidency in American history. His brand of uniting has brought only bitter divisiveness in our country and world. His brand of slash and burn politics has made ignorance an art form and lying a way of life. His form of moral bankruptcy has given us the new CIA: CORRUPTION, INEPTNESS, and ARROGANCE.

Though his father warned against an involvement in Iraq, W. plunged us into a war, based on lies, for the sole purpose of re-election: the one political achievement that George H.W Bush was unable to attain. Stupidity and immaturity are not high crimes and misdemeanors, but violating the U.S. Constitution is.

He ignored the War Powers Act, taking a vague congressional resolution and using it to go to war. Congress shares the blame.

Since the framers expressly replaced "make war" with "declare war," President's have generously construed the language to support an imperial presidency. Since FDR committed forces in 1941 to defend Greenland and Iceland, and Truman committed armed forces to Korea in 1950, presidents have bypassed Congress. But no president has ignored oversight as policy nor employed deceit to gain justification.

George Bush has ignored the commands of the 6th & 14th Amendments, holding potential criminals without trial. He has shattered the 1st Amendment prohibition against separating church and state as well as promoting the curtailment of free speech.

He has ignored the 4th Amendment's prohibition against warrantless searches on American citizens. W has ignored the division of branches of government with the complicity of the Congress.

Lastly, his Patriot Act has shattered the rights of privacy. These acts alone should constitute the pursuing of Articles of Impeachment.

Out of the ashes of 9-11 has come a pervasive war on terror. Each time there is a challenge to W's actions, he demeans the Americans who challenge him as un-American.

Truly, an updated version of Senator Joseph McCarthy, W's lies repeated are still lies. A Congress that refuses their role of oversight by an equal branch of government fails in its duty.

Republicans lack the will and Democrats lack the courage to accept their responsibility.

Terrorism upon Americans has been centered in the White House. While religious intolerance is practiced in the Middle East, W and crew do the same from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. His targeting countries of evil was calculated not to solve issues but to make Americans fearful. He is more concerned with steroids in athletes, than with AIDS in Africa, recovery on the Gulf Coast, and human suffering around the globe.

His regime has profiteered from the day they stole the first election. VP Cheney received a $25 million gift from Halliburton that he had not earned, yet no one protested this corporate waste. They knew that this administration would award billions in contracts to his friends as the spoils of war, foreign and domestic. They profiteered from non-competitive contracts in Iraq, New Orleans, and always at the expense of the American taxpayer and with the complicity of the Republican Senate and House.

George Bernard Shaw said, "Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."

Impeachment is the safety valve when a leader surpasses stupidity, immaturity and ineptitude, with lies, corruption and unconstitutional acts. It is not a remedy lightly imposed, but this president and his administration will never change the new C.I.A. they have brought to America and the world.

Roger D. Hartstone

Flagstaff, Ariz.

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