Views in brief

SK workers struggling in Defiance

IN RESPONSE to "Support builds for SK strikers": The workers at SK Hand Tool in Defiance, Ohio, feel your pain, as we are going through the same thing as you all are.

Some of us have lost more than half of our wages, along with our benefits. I just wanted to point out that it's not only the 75 employees there in Chicago, but the 75 here in Defiance as well.
Anonymous, Defiance, Ohio

Our rights can't wait

IN RESPONSE to "Why the National Equality March?": I'm so glad people didn't think the way this writer thought in 1963 when the March on Washington occurred.

There is no doubt at all that the '63 march galvanized the movement and led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. That's exactly why lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their supporters should march--to galvanize a budding movement!

And it's great that the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is supporting the march (though it should be noted that the event, as of this writing, isn't posted on their Web site, and the only event in D.C. in October they are promoting is their annual dinner). Not because of HRC's sometimes moderate, sometimes downright backward views, but because of the numbers they can help bring.

And if their rank-and-file members turn out, guess what? Those who stand to the left of the HRC can actually talk to them, engage them and encourage them to build the grassroots struggle that it's going to take to win equality for all LGBT people.

Now isn't the time to play armchair quarterback and stand on the sidelines. We have an opportunity to win equal rights, but that opportunity won't last forever.

The time is now to get in the game. Seize the time!
David Bliven, Briarwood, N.Y.

Some corrections on Carcieri

IN RESPONSE to "No end in sight to Carcieri's cuts": The authors state that Carcieri "repealed the estate tax with the help of the Democrats in the state legislature and instituted a flat tax option that benefits Rhode Island's 300 richest families."

This is not correct. Carcieri did propose repeal of the Rhode Island state estate tax, but the legislature did not let him. The legislature increased the estate tax exemption amount to $850,000 starting in 2010. While the exemption increased, this is still one of the strongest estate taxes in the U.S.

In addition, the legislature will tax all capital gains income at the same rates as ordinary income, which will mostly be paid by very wealthy people. Before, capital gains were taxed at a lower rate than income from work, which is not fair to working people. This change will increase tax revenues in fiscal year 2010 by $23.6 million.

There is no flat Rhode Island income tax. Instead, the income tax ranges from 3.75-9.9 percent on people earning over $375,700.

When pushing for progressive policies that benefit working families, it is important to get your facts straight.
Lee Farris, Senior Organizer on Estate Tax Policy, United for a Fair Economy

Fighting evictions from Fair Valley

I SAW the article about the mobile home park in New Jersey and the success that they have had over there fighting evictions ("Trailer park residents fight eviction and win").

There is a trailer park called Fair Valley Mobile Home Court in York, Pa., where residents are also being evicted from the land. It costs $7,000 to move a trailer, and most of the homes will be destroyed if you move them. Most of the people in mobile homes are elderly and or on disability. All of the homes are from the 1960s, '70s and early '80s, and most companies refuse to move trailers that old. No one in the park has that kind of money.

We have not received much response from legal services in York. The residents need help. They have decided to stay on the land because there is nowhere else for them to go. They have been told that they will be removed from the land and their trailers destroyed if they remain on the property. It is over 35 families.

Please help, we need more support for these families to stop the evictions.
Natashia Euler, from the Internet

Why the right won't debate health care

IN RESPONSE to "Let them eat (organic) cake": Back in 2008, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey was caught posting negative comments (trash talk) about a competitor on Yahoo Finance message boards in an effort to push down the stock price. So now I am suppose to take this loser seriously? Please, snore, snore.

It's funny we hear Republicans say that they do not want "faceless bureaucrats" making medical decisions but they have no problem with private sector "faceless bureaucrats" daily declining medical coverage and financially ruining good hard-working people. Honestly, where can they go with a pre-existing condition?

And who says that the "private sector" is always right? Are we forgetting failures like Long-Term Capital, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Enron, Tyco, AIG and Lehman Brothers?

Of course, the federal government will "destroy" health care by getting involved--oh, but wait, Medicare and Medicaid and our military men and women and the Senate and Congress get the best health care in the world, and, oh, that's right--it's run by our federal government.

I can understand why some may think that the federal government will fail if you look at the past eight years--with failures like the financial meltdown and Hurricane Katrina--but the fact is that if we support these programs, they will succeed.

How does shouting down the conversation on the health care debate at town hall meetings endear the right to anyone? Especially when the organizations that are telling them where to go and what to do and say are Republicans political operatives, not the real "grassroots." How does shouting someone down or chasing them out like a lynch mob advance the debate? It does not.

I think the American people will see through all of this and know, like the teabagger, the birthers, these lynch mobs types, a.k.a. "screamers," are just the same, people who have to resort to these tactics because they have no leadership to articulate what they real want.

It's easy to pickup a busload of people who hate, and that's all I've been seeing. They hate and can't debate. Too bad.
Paul, from the Internet