> SOUTHERN INDIANA — Health care vote a bad move for Donnelly, jobs



Recently, I’ve been hearing about a piece of Obama’s health care law that increases taxes on the manufacturers of medical devices. Starting in 2013, manufacturers will be mandated to pay an additional 2.3 percent excise tax regardless of whether or not they made a profit each year.

With Indiana being home to such a large sector of that industry, increasing taxes is going to hinder the ability to create more jobs. This law is going to prove a thorn in Hoosiers’ sides.

That didn’t stop Rep. Joe Donnelly from voting to approve it anyway.

Now, he’s running for Indiana’s seat in the Senate. Campaigning on a platform of reducing taxes and creating jobs, how can he defend his support for a law that does the exact opposite?

Indiana cannot afford for someone like Donnelly to go back to Washington in November. We need someone who will fight for the people of Indiana both on and off the campaign trail.

— Jamie Hudgins, Clarksville



Sportsman responds to letter



This is in response to James Wilson’s letter published May 31 titled, “Reader not happy with hunting.”

I will be 76 years old the end of this year. I am a sportsman and have been hunting and fishing for 60 years. My dad taught me safety and the proper way to handle a gun. He would not let me own a 12-gauge shot gun until I was 16 years old, although I went hunting with him when I was about 10 years old.

We first hunted squirrels, rabbits and quail. My mom could fix game and it tasted as good as any steak. We always ate what we hunted.

When I was a kid, I remember seeing rabbits hanging at Belvy’s Market on Spring Street in Jeffersonville. They could be bought for 25 to 50 cents each.

I took my sons hunting when they were 8 and 10 years old. They both know the value of handling guns safely. My brother and I used to hunt deer, rabbit, and squirrels. I still deer hunt some but I leave the rabbits and squirrels to the young guys and gals. Yes, girls hunt too.

My friend and I have hunted pheasants in South Dakota and Nebraska for about 40 years. I have a deer head mounted and two pheasants hanging on my walls. I also have a mounted pheasant that my dad shot in South Dakota in the late 1940s.

So, my reply to you, Mr. Wilson it this. Have you ever considered what would happen if the deer population went unchecked? You would probably have hundreds of deer standing in your front and back yards and eating your lawn, along with rabbits and squirrels. And as you look around your neighborhood all the lawns would look as bare as yours.

What do you think God put these animals on this earth for, to multiply without limits? I believe he gave man the knowledge to hunt to survive. Oh, and God gave us fish too. My family and friends love it when I fry up a big dinner of blue gill and crappie that I caught.

We thank God at each meal for providing us with the bounty.

We all have opinions and I disagree with yours.

— Jerry Metzger, Clarksville



Reader: Linden Meadows has unseen victims



After serving 30 years as a criminal justice professional, followed by six years as a criminal justice educator, I have wrestled with the concept of “justice.”

One vexing reality is that the ones who truly pay for crime are the victims, rarely the offenders. This is particularly true of the Linden Meadows atrocity perpetrated upon victims living in the surrounding area. Once a beautiful park, sitting on land donated to the city and protected by a reversionary clause, it is now a rotting eyesore.

Like throwing acid in a baby’s face, city leaders took the land, sent in the bulldozers and transplanted houses which have sat and rotted for eight years. I suggest there are only two ways “justice” can be done: Restore the park or return the land to its rightful owner. Otherwise, no matter how many millions of dollars are wasted, “Linden Meadows” or  “Captain’s View” will be a curse on the lips of all who utter the name.

— Leonard O. Gardenour, New Albany