I thought this was the land of the free - more and more we're told what to do or not to do. Seems like the government is taking more and more of our freedom away from us.

If they pass the ban on smoking, why not one on factories, where fumes and smoke are and workers have to stand it for eight to 10 hours.

Also ban cars, there are fumes from them and also how about the spraying of cornfields in the summer time.

Nobody is twisting your arm to go in restaurants, bars, etc. where smoking is. Workers go there to relax from a day's work for a cup of coffee and cigarette or beer.

I've lived 87 years and been around smoke all my life, so don't blame cigarettes for being the cause of cancer alone, there are other causes too.

I don't smoke, have tried it, but didn't like it.

Theresa Moffett

Shelton

If you borrowed it, bring it back

Please, whoever took or borrowed my two wheel upright furniture cart, would you please return it, no questions asked. As you know, I'm on oxygen and really do need the cart in order to do my job.

Thanks for being the honest person we know you are.

Al Wagner

1103 St. Paul Road

NAFTA must be repealed

To maintain our sovereignty as a constitutional republic, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of 1993 must be repealed.

A comprehensive understanding of the very visible moral decline of our society is needed. The last half century has brought our once-great nation from prosperity, liberty, justice and freedom to trillions of dollars of debt, loss of many freedoms, fear for the future and immense over-regulation.

The preoccupation with saturated hype news coverage of a campaign that has candidates who sorely lack any qualities of character that would be highly esteemed by our founding fathers who crafted the Constitution, such as integrity, virtue, morality and demonstrated seasoned wisdom.

Thomas Jefferson in 1789 said, "For promoting the public happiness, those persons whom nature has endowed with genius and virtue should be elected, that are able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens."

The failure of our government to address the immigration issue, the phony free-trade agreement charade, the fascination of the United Nations pretense at "World Governance," and our Executive Department's expensive, wrong-headed gamble at nation building.

NAFTA has been the foundation cornerstone leading up to, not only the crippling outsourcing of our manufacturing industries, but the up-coming "Law of the Sea Treaty" our Senate is preparing to agree to. Is there no end?

George Whitehead

1008 E. Phoenix Ave.

Central Nebraska is special area

I do believe that The Grand Island Independent is the most important news media we have. Your published news articles take the center stage in establishing "our spirit" and not only ours, but the surrounding areas.

Not long ago, while shopping in Ord, a little man put his hand on my shoulder and asked "How's my old paper boy?" You see, I used to deliver The Grand Island Daily Independent in Ord for years.

Since 1998, the 3rd District has lost 6,500+ family farms and thousands of families. Just take a drive in the farm and ranch areas and farmstead after farmstead is vacant. Smaller towns are having difficulty surviving. Most have 66 percent of population retired and surviving on Social Security.

Several years ago, a friend of mine, William "Bill" Miller with Rainbow Bakery, and I were having our Saturday morning coffee. We discussed a lot of things that were happening right before our eyes. How bread sales in sparsely populated areas, hardly was making labor and travel expenses, as volume was decreasing and costs increasing . . . lack of population growth is the problem.

We need to do whatever it takes to help our neighboring communities to attract families and help maintain businesses to keep them here.

We do well. Our City Council and County Board must be the favorable leaders to be the positive driving force. We should be interested in our close neighbors: Doniphan, Central City, Wood River, Cairo, St. Libory, St. Paul, Aurora, Dannebrog, Loup City, Ord, North Loup, Scotia, Elba, Greeley, Burwell, Shelton, Alda, Gibbon, Chapman, Spalding, Wolbach, Ashton, Fullerton, Albion, Ravenna, Boelus, Rockville, Palmer, Farwell and yes . . . Hastings and Kearney. Everyone in these communities have had great persons we all know. Ted Sorenson of Dannebrog, speech writer for President John F. Kennedy; Tom Osborne of Hastings, famous Nebraska football coach and athletic director; Roy and Jack Dinsdale of Palmer, founders of Pinnacle Bank; Grover Cleveland Alexander of Elba and St. Paul, famous pitcher of the National League; Darrell Johnson of Ord, World Series coach for Boston Braves; Loup City has an inventor of welding protection that can be placed with the nod of your head; Pete Peterson of Kearney, President of Bell-Howell Corp. and now a billionaire with Blackstone Group; George Norris of McCook, the father of REA and the list goes on and on. There were also Harold Edgerton of Aurora, M.I.T., Grace and Edith Abbott, Willa Cather, Senator Carl Curtis, many governors and national senators all good people.

We need to tell how great our area really is. We do not need Mr. Turner to purchase thousands and thousands of acres of Nebraska ranch land. We in Nebraska are going to have to get stronger to fend off the huge money foreign interests not only thousands of acres but unregulated hedge funds and private equity groups.

Our area has slipped since 1998. We need to vitalize our area for the "Good Life" of Nebraska stands for ...a solid family life.

Jay C. Stoddard

1810 W. Charles St.