I am a nonsmoker that believes second-hand smoke can harm you. I also believe Gov. Heineman and the unicameral did the right thing in passing the ban on public smoking. They gave smokers one more intelligent reason to quit.

I work for a retail store in Grand Island and hold a position of leadership in that company. We are open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and receive freight starting at 2 a.m. We will soon lose our separate, designated smoking break room. As a company, we are not excited about having our employees outside our store entrance huddled and smoking at all times of the day or night in all kinds of weather. I am seriously considering recommending to the owner that we not allow any smoking on store property by our employees.

I wish I could have gone to my employees and said to them that they had one year to please not start smoking at work, become a nonsmoker at work or because of a new policy they may not like, find new employment. Instead, I have about 90 days to work with my employees in solving a problem that most cities and employers across Nebraska have a year to accomplish.

People in a position of leadership are held accountable for the decisions they make. I hope not to lose any long term or short term valuable employees over the new employee smoking regulation we will make. The mayor and council, after failing to agree on how to tackle the smoking issue, quickly jumped on the bandwagon while patting themselves on the back and moved up the Grand Island deadline a year before what the law signed by Gov. Heineman requested.

The people in Grand Island city government are elected to serve all the people. Sometimes being the first on the bandwagon or being the one pulling the bandwagon doesn't mean you are truly leading the way for a better Grand Island.

Jim Phipps

1809 W. Anna

Americans uneducated about economy

I found it amusing that over 1,000 people attended a football luncheon, but I'll bet if the John Birchers could stop the NAU tomorrow with a 1,000 men, they wouldn't get 12 volunteers to help save America's sovereignty. My guess is not even the coach would step up to help because he'd be worrying if his team could win the next game.

If the Minute Men could stop the invasion of America from the South and ship back illegal aliens tomorrow with a 1,000 men, how many volunteers do you think they could get? Right.

If the American people understood the economy like they do football, we wouldn't have a problem in this country. I imagine every football fan can tell the name of most football players and who won what game but how many know what Congress created in 1913 or what Roosevelt did in 1933 or what income taxes on the 16th Amendment meant? My guess is not many could tell you about that and it's sad. People have been distracted by entertainment and are just living for the moment in America instead of getting educated and they're making a big mistake.

I think real heroes are people that will take a stand, like our forefathers who pledged their sacred honor to form our Republic, and be in the front line to save America, which is sinking fast.

If you're standing in the wings waiting for Joe Blow to get the job done, don't cry for your children and grandchildren when it's all over and too late to fix.

L.M. Miller

1104 W. Charles St.