Taxpayers foot bill for bad judgment
The bailout or so-called “stimulus” plan is getting scarier by the minute. Insurance companies, automakers, you name it, are already getting large checks right out of the taxpayers pockets. Now we are moving to bail out what started it all ó real estate.
The current plan on the table bails out those that cannot afford their homes ó the most of which are not due to a layoff or loss of job, they are due to people that purchased homes they never should have in the first place. Despite that error in judgment the taxpayers will, most likely, be footing the bill for them to not only stay in their homes, but also lower their loan obligation.
This is not the banks working out a plan with customers that are behind, rather, the government making the banks excuse portions of the debt. Of course the government will also come in and “assist” these banks with newly printed money. Anybody wonder whose money that is?
Some people should lose their homes; they bought some-thing they could not afford. Some banks should go out of business ó they played a game of wanting high returns on high-risk loans and lost. Let the good banks step up to the plate.
Throwing taxpayer money at either group won’t change the outcome. The general consensus is that 40 percent of each group will be in the same position within two years. The government is not helping people; they are just dragging down those that tried to do the right thing all along!
President Obama says he “rejects a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequence.” Actions speak louder than words! The administration should heed the words of Margaret Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.”
ó Jeff Chapman
Salisbury
Try a lasagna bed
Thank you for Darrell Blackwelder’s columns about our gardening predicaments in Rowan County.
One suggestion I have learned: Instead of tilling, hoeing and soil amending, I use “lasagna” or “no dig” gardens, building on top of the soil. I have done cardboard (wet) or wet-layered (thick) newspapers, adding anything that typically would go in a compost bin, building up to 24 inches or higher, since the layers decompress after composting or “cooking.” You can plant immediately or let it “cook.” There’s lots of information on the Internet and books have been written about this. (It’s an old tradition; my great-grandmother and grandmothers did this with tremendous success.)
For the first layer, put thick items such as grass clippings, leaves, straw or peat moss, then add your kitchen compostables, especially coffee grounds (worms love this), egg shells (crushed), any uncooked food scraps (veggies/fruits), used tea bags, shredded paper towels, torn-up cardboard egg cartons, hair from hairbrush, the list goes on and on. Then layer with compost or composted cow manure or both. Then keep layering. Be sure to keep the beds to a 4-by-4 space and make paths so you can easily reach over and not step in the lasagna bed.
This method is virtually free of weeds; you can place plants close together, and it is totally organic. I also add discarded veggie plants right into my compost bin or the lasagna gardens. My back does not feel the same pain as tilling, hoeing, kneeling and weeding! You can use this for any type of garden beds, veggie, flower, landscaping and free form, or with borders of rock, stone, limbs, railroad ties, anything you can imagine.
ó Beckett Bridges
Salisbury
On the contrary
Art patrons of Salisbury, beware!
The upcoming show at the Waterworks is not the 50th anniversary of the Rowan Art Guild. The Waterworks killed the Rowan Art Guild and took their building. They are not an art museum. They sold, or gave away, the N.C. artists’ collection, the permanent collection and most of the donated sculpture garden.
The painting done by Aubrey Atkinson, the original founder, was given to the Salvation Army because they “had never heard of him.” The city misled us about taking back the old police station after we had completely refurbished it with our hard work and money. Our portfolio shop was closed so members could not sell art. The Waterworks crowd even hired a N.Y. consultant who concluded they did not need local artists to “drag them down.”
Their latest ego trip is an insult to the many good local artists, some deceased, who worked unselfishly to have our own space like other arts organizations. To honor them, I, for one, will not be fooled again. They must earn the respect of local working artists. Support hometown artists, please.
ó Clyde Overcash
Salisbury