Recently, the Heartland United Way held its annual meeting and celebrated another successful campaign. Fortunately for the people of Hall, Hamilton, Howard and Merrick counties, there have been many successful campaigns.

We have been personally involved with past campaigns and know that successful campaigns don't just happen. Mike Gloor, CEO of Saint Francis Medical Center, and his wife, Chris, a recently retired elementary school teacher, co-chaired this year's campaign and did an exemplary job. The final amount raised was a record an all-time high. The Gloors have been thanked privately and publicly, but one more thank you is certainly well deserved. Kudos to both of them for their leadership and their continued commitment to community service.

Bruce and Judy Smith

2209 Arrowhead Road

Minors should not be in bars

I have several questions for the community:

1.) Do we have a teen-to-younger drinking problem in Grand Island? 2.) Do minors spend time and money in bars? 3.) Do minors come right into the bar, set up to the bar and have a pop, etc.? 4.) Do minors come into the bar with a hand full of change to spend or play pool, video games, etc.? 5.) Do adults bring babies into the bar in baby baskets and set them in a booth, on a table, on the floor or on the bar, etc.? 6.) Do teens and younger have the run of the bar, whether or not they are with an adult? 7.) Do some bars post a sign No Minors After 6 or 9? What changes after 6 or 9 p.m.? 8.) Is there really such a thing as a family bar? 9.) Do some bars look more like a day-care center? 10.) Would you take adult drinks into a day-care center? 11.) Then why would you take the kids out of the day-care center and into the bar? 12.) Do knife fights and gunshots sometimes happen in bars? 13.) Do people sometimes get killed by this behavior? 14.) Are the kids only doing what they are being taught? 15.) By this kind of behavior, aren't we sending the kids the wrong message? 16.) Is it any wonder that the young people are getting the wrong message?

James Deuel

203 E. 11th

State leaders need to be accountable

Upon reading last week's headlines, I can see that our honorable representatives in Lincoln are once again considering more of the types of legislative actions that have proven to work all so well up to this point in time.

On page 1A, we are informed that the Legislature is considering raising the tax we pay on gasoline another 3.3 cents per gallon. This at a time when most of us can't even afford to fill our gas tanks for a trip across our fair state. Has it not occurred to our lawmakers that the reason the state's fuel-tax revenues will remain flat is because none of us can afford to buy gas? When we do buy gasoline for our vehicles, it forces us to make sacrifices in terms of other necessities that we might purchase. Thus, sales tax revenues may fall as well.

On page 3A, we see that our lawmakers want, at the same time they are raising the tax on gasoline, to create millions of dollars in tax breaks in an effort to attract new businesses who might promise to pay higher wages. The rationale behind this action is to keep our college graduates from leaving the state because they cannot find work that pays them a livable wage.

As in the past, when lawmakers give tax breaks to "attract" new business and industry, the revenue lost due to those tax breaks is usually passed on to the general public in the form of income, property, sales, gasoline and a multitude of other taxes. If this tactic actually worked, it would seem that Nebraska would be attracting all kinds of business and industry, and our college graduates wouldn't be leaving the state in droves.

I won't pretend to be able to account for all the reasons that our college graduates might want to leave our fair state. I can, however, think of a few logical explanations for this sad phenomenon. These explanations would include: 1. High state income taxes; 2. High state and local property taxes; 3. High gasoline and other fuel taxes; 4. High sales taxes; 5. Low income potential; 6. Too few job opportunities unless you want to work at an ethanol plant or in a slaughterhouse; 7. Employment laws that protect big business at the expense of the worker; and 8. A state government whose highest priorities are to interfere with the rights of private business owners, to keep track of all those bad pooches, eliminate all those nasty small schools, and above all, maintain the status quo in state government.

I love our state. I do believe that Nebraskans, overall, exemplify some of the best personal qualities that can be found anywhere in our nation. But, we are a dwindling lot. We are losing ground because our state legislators, all too often, promote their own interests and agendas at the expense of the state's citizens.

But, as it has been said before, perhaps we deserve the government that we have. It truly is up to us to make Nebraska the kind of state wherein young educated people want to stay, not escape. We can only make that happen if we hold our representatives in government accountable for every action they take in our name.

It seems we could make that happen with regard to our beloved Cornhusker football team. Why don't we start to speak up about our state government as well?

Micheal Pop

Loup City, NE