Published: May 05, 2008 04:56 pm            

Readers' Forum: May 6, 2008

ISU heartless to Cole Holmstrom

This story, “Indiana State guard Cole Holmstrom taken aback by loss of scholarship,” April 30, 2008, really belongs on the Tribune-Star’s front page, not in the sports pages.

It tells the student’s side in this heartless affair. Here Cole Holmstrom tries to speak about having his athletic scholarship unceremoniously ripped out from under him. And the reason this young man lost his basketball scholarship at Indiana State University? Is it because he wasn’t producing, wasn’t fitting in, wasn’t bulking up, wasn’t breathing right, who knows? As Holmstrom says, “he wasn’t given a reason why his scholarship was pulled.”

And this is all we get from Kevin McKenna, his coach at Big Blue, Inc.: “We decided to move forward.”

We should all recognize this little drama. It mirrors the regular occurrence of workers being ground up and spit out by companies that choose to pull up stakes in communities that have contributed hard-working and loyal employees to these companies. CEOs stand in front of cameras for a few minutes, tell the public, “We decided to move forward.” and that’s it. The Cole Holmstroms of the world are left sitting alone somewhere wondering what all their hard work meant to anyone; what all those pep talks from plant managers and fly-in, fly-out administrators were really about.

Isn’t it wonderful to see this bloodless approach being fully incorporated into the athletic programs at Indiana State University?

— Gary W. Daily

Terre Haute

Obama should not be forced to debate

Concerning the Tribune-Star’s April 30 editorial comment:

Why should Barack Obama debate Sen. Clinton AGAIN? At this point Obama is ahead in delegates and the popular vote. If he has the game ball why should he have to play by her rules? If she were ahead, she should not be forced to debate him.

If you are going to criticize Obama for not debating Clinton, why did you not criticize Clinton for not appearing on Chris Matthews’ Hardball College Tour? After all both John McCain and Obama did. Perhaps she did not want to address the Bosnia lie again.

— Bob Sparks

Terre Haute

More competition will lower gas $$

One thing we can all agree on is that we want cheaper gasoline. I remember 10 years ago paying 79 cents for a gallon of gas — one fifth of the current prices. Gas prices seem to be the number one issue discussed by presidential candidates here in Indiana; the problem is, neither candidates’ plans will help lower the prices.

Obama says he will give more tax rebates to the people, and provide funding for research into alternative fuels. Clinton wants to have a “gas tax holiday”, and force the oil companies to pay the taxes. Both of these plans will lead to nothing but even higher prices. Where will Obama’s plan get funding? Taxes, probably in the form of higher gas taxes. If Clinton forces the oil companies to pay our gas taxes, where will they get the money? From us; they will raise their prices.

Though economists may differ on many things, there is one thing almost all will agree on: competition lowers prices. Right now, while there are many oil companies, there is actually very little competition, due to OPEC. In order to really reduce prices, competition must be increased, so that oil is not our only option.

The problem is, there are many obstacles limiting competition. Take ethanol, for example. It is not feasible on a large scale to make ethanol from corn; it takes too much energy to convert the corn. Brazil, on the other hand, is doing wonders, making ethanol from sugar cane.

Why can’t we do that here, in the U.S.? The import taxes on sugar cane are too high for us to benefit from sugar cane. One has to wonder, who benefits from the import taxes on sugar cane? Certainly not Indiana’s farmers. I don’t know anyone who farms sugar cane. Perhaps farmers would actually benefit from the importation of sugar cane, due to lower fuel prices.

If competition is the answer, then why is increasing competition not what the candidates discuss? The answer is either that they think the Americans are to ignorant to understand this, or that someone, perhaps the oil companies, would be very upset with them for allowing competition to increase. One thing for sure, the answer is not that the candidates’ plans are actually good for taxpayers.

Even though the election is here, it’s not too late to tell the candidates to quit trying to pull the wool over our eyes, to tell them what we really want is for them to remove obstacles hindering competition, so that, not only will the price of oil go down, but we can reduce our oil dependency and lower our impact on the environment as well.

— Luke Rowe

Worthington

Excellent health care appreciated

My brother was in the ICU at Union Hospital for 20 days in March. I just want to say how much we appreciated the excellent care he received and the willingness of the doctors and nurses to talk to us about him.

It was a great comfort to us during a difficult time. We hope that Tamara’s new job is going well.

— Marilyn Payton

Rosedale

        

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