By Staff
If you have a computer and you haven't visited the Reader Forum area of our website www.leaderpub.com, www.edwardsburgargus.com, or cassopolisvigiliant.com, you are missing out.
The lively debate runs the gamut. On any given day, you can read the opinions of your neighbors on national politics and local issues of all kinds.
Most of the time, readers' opinions are thoughtful and thought provoking. Others are cruel and petty and meant to hurt, the product of an angry person who simply wants to make others as miserable as he or she is.
Sometimes reader postings make you laugh out loud. Sometimes they make you wonder how some people can form the disjointed thoughts they do. Of course, it's the postings that make you go, “Huh?” which provide the most entertainment value.
For those of you who haven't visited our website or Reader Forum lately, here's a sampling of a couple of postings that have made me wonder.
Reader No. 2 responded, while she (it could be a he, but I think No. 2 is a she) doesn't condone vandalism, she thinks the planters are the ugliest thing she's ever seen.
Reader No. 1 replied back to Reader No. 2, inviting her to submit some ideas for replacing the planters that would be more to her liking.
Now here's the good part: Reader No. 2 responds back, “You'd think that the city could come up with a better idea on their own. We are all taxpayers; why such cheap planters?”
Here are my thoughts for Reader No. 2: Who exactly do you think “the city” is? For the record, the planters on the Main Street bridge were installed by volunteers and have been maintained by volunteers. And, while they are made out of PVC piping, volunteers have painted the planters to match the bridge and when they are covered in plantings in the spring and summer, they are quite attractive.
I doubt seriously you'd be willing to pay increased tax dollars for better decoration for the bridge, neither should you have to do so. That's the purpose volunteerism and community service serve. It seems as if you need to do a little of those things to appreciate some of the effort taking place to make our community a better place. Try being a part of the solution, like Reader No. 1, rather than sitting back and simply criticizing.
What does electrical have to do with computers? You've got to be kidding.
The bond request is a lot of money, yes. But it's also money that is an investment in the future of our community.
Another reader posted a message about how the Penn-Harris-Madison school district invested lots of tax dollars on new schools, “but that's a flourishing community.”
I wonder if the reader spent any time thinking about why communities like those served by the P-H-M and the Edwardsburg school district are, indeed, flourishing. Perhaps it's because of the progressive, modern education facilities available for their children. I know if I was looking to relocate a business or my family, I'd certainly put that at the top of the list of desired qualities for my family or the families of my employees.
As the state line area of our community becomes more saturated, residential developers are looking more and more for property in the Niles Community Schools district. Making the investment now in our schools will go far in helping to boost our area economically in the future. There's a lot of truth in the saying made famous from the movie Field of Dreams: Build it and they will come.
Our taxes are high, way too high. But it's not the taxes we pay to local bonds and levies that are the problem. It's those we have no control over, imposed by the federal government.
When we lash out at local endeavors, rather than place our tax anger where it really belongs, we do nothing but harm our local community, our children and their future.
Our kids deserve the same investment in them that our parents and grandparents were willing to make in us.