Published: February 27, 2009 07:22 am      

Letters for February 27, 2009

Community service requirement unfair

Unatego's class of 2009 is the first that requires every student to complete 40 hours of community service to graduate. Students also have the option to complete 25 hours of service for a single organization as the final in Participation in Government, or they can write a research paper. It is very difficult for some students to find an opportunity that will offer that many hours. In some cases, we need to fit those hours into our work, sports, homework or family hours.

Community service is a very important lesson for us to learn, but I think it is difficult for some to find the transportation, time or qualifying organization to get the initial hours completed, and then to add an additional 25 hours seems to be too much. It is our understanding that the state Department of Education, in fact, declined the amendment.

We should all do as much community service as possible, but it should be voluntary, not a requirement. I don't understand how our school can make this a requirement for graduation when it was not been passed before the beginning of the graduating year. The school needs to set up programs that we can help with and provide opportunities for us to volunteer and obtain these needed hours, if it is a requirement. I am not bringing this up because I do not have my needed hours. I have them and was glad I could volunteer to support my community, and I was fortunate to have the opportunity. I am just concerned for those who may have done many good things for others but, because they did not get a piece of paper signed, they may be short for a graduation requirement imposed on us that even the state Department of Education does not agree with.

Sandra Decker

Unadilla

Decker is a senior at Unatego Junior-Senior High School. Decker and other students have written letters to the editor as part of Kevin DiBartolomeo's Participation in Government class.

U.S. in trouble with Obama at the helm

What happens when voters choose style over substance? What happens when the American electorate rejects an experienced, qualified candidate for a political hack with no significant legislative accomplishments? You then get, as Tom Sears succinctly states, "a youthful, radical, naive, inexperienced liberal who has no idea how to run a country."

America needs a stimulus package that will ignite the economy and create permanent jobs. It's called tax cuts. Instead, President Obama, demonstrating a frightening lack of leadership, turned the task over to Nancy Pelosi, who just loaded it up with spending programs for Democratic constituencies. What will $5 billion for ACORN and the like stimulate? More voter fraud? The estimated cost of this mess is more than $780 billion. Columnist George Will wrote that when interest and other factors are added in, the true total may exceed $2.3 trillion.

In addition to what some are calling Obama's Bay of Pork, the president's recent foray into world affairs went badly as well. In his interview with Al Arabiya TV, he practically begged Iran to accept his offer of "unconditional talks." Columnist Amir Taheri, writing in the New York Post, states that, "Obama appeared unsure of his own identity and confused about the role that America should play in global politics." How reassuring. We can now expect our president to bring uncertainty and confusion when the next crisis rolls around. And then what, ask Hillary?

If a President Palin or a President Quayle had nominated a cabinet of tax cheats or displayed this kind if ineptitude, the major newspapers would crucify them. Yet there's a double standard for liberal messiahs. It's called undiluted adoration.

Conservatives, please join me in prayer. God (the real one), help us.

Rick Day Jr.

Schenevus

Community service teaches values

I am stunned by Glenn Innes' recent letter arguing against the requisite 40 hours of community service for students at Unatego High School. Let's assume the 40 hours is done within a single year of high school. That amounts to just about one hour per week. I would think that 16- and 17-year-old students could afford to give up one hour of television, video games or hanging out in the mall to discover the joys of giving of one's own "personal time" to bless others.

Glenn seems to have missed the point that, while community service is certainly a benefit to the community, it is equally a benefit to the one doing the service. There is a great pleasure to be discovered in learning that you have the capacity to make a difference in the lives of others; in knowing that you can be a helpful and caring neighbor. This is more than just good citizenship, it is good humanity.

And to think that the students are then required to "write a few paragraphs about the service they did for their community"! Surely, a student could take a single study hall period in which to "write a few paragraphs." Frankly, I would have expected that 40 hours of community service would be deserving of something more than just a few paragraphs _ a term paper, perhaps, a thesis or dissertation. Really, Glenn, the truly surprising thing is that the school requires so little of you.

As a taxpayer in the Unatego district, I am glad to know that the students I support with my taxes are being taught the value of community participation. I can only hope that the deeper lessons of such service are not lost on the majority of these budding minds.

Cathy Maxam

Otego

Christians, voice views to politicians

Now that the Democrats control the House, Senate and presidency, let's pray that they do a better job than the Republicans did. OK, so let's hope President Obama brings our troops home and helps the economy and environment; but we all don't have to agree with every policy and agenda he pushes.

Please let your senators and congress people know you are against any form of abortion, because a fetus is a defenseless not-yet-born person, not a choice; and that you want marriage protected as between a man and a woman; and that you are against bullying by universities toward those of us who don't buy into Darwinian evolution theory and tell them to support academic freedom.

Lastly, let them know you are against the Fairness Doctrine, which really is just a ploy by the far left to further control our minds and remove our ability to critically think.

I respect our new president, and he had an excellent and very religious inauguration. Many Christians voted for him, but now is the time to speak up against these issues that he believes he is supposed to pursue because he was elected to this one nation under God.

Please go to the American Center for Law and Justice website and sign the various petitions that are listed under Take Action at www.ACLJ.org. Also check out www.Hischannel.com as an alternative to TV.

John (JP) Pasquale

Livingston Manor

Student had it right on school uniforms

I agree with the Nicole Archer about uniforms in school, for the most part. For parents, it saves money on buying tons of clothes. Uniforms serve a purpose, and that is to help students focus on their studies instead of worrying about being up-to-date on fashion.

It certainly does not limit their creative ideas. Creativity is in your mind, and parents and teachers should cultivate that in each student.

Regarding curtailing fights, uniforms will not deter that part of teenage social behavior. I attended a parochial high school that required uniforms, and we had our share of run-ins with each other from time to time.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the subject, Nicole. You sound like a very sensible teenager.

Mary McKeon

Margaretville