Letters to the editor

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, May 19, 2008

FEMA saves town

I have lived in Greensburg 48 years. I am writing at the anniversary of the EF5 tornado that destroyed our home as well as 95 percent of the homes and businesses in Greensburg.

My wife, Joleen, and I have been living in a mobile home in FEMAville for nine months, part of the mobile home community FEMA built after the storm. I believe that without these mobile homes, Greensburg might have ceased to exist because residents would have been forced to locate elsewhere.

FEMA has helped fund many projects in Greensburg. I appreciate their help in making sure that Greensburg survives.

MAX E. SEACAT,Greensburg

Robbing students

I'd like to congratulate Washburn University. Those guys have quite a racket going on.

I'll ignore the outrageous cost of tuition and focus on one of the little problems with education costs - course books. Washburn teachers "require" students to purchase particular course books, all under the guise of those being necessary for our educations.

Now I can't speak for everyone, but I know quite a few students who don't purchase their school items on their parent's credit cards. Some of us out there strive to get the money necessary to purchase these "required" items. So why are students required to buy books that run $90 to $110 and then only get pennies back for them later?

I paid more than $80 for the "required" book for my cellular biology course, complete with CD-ROM. Do you know how many times I used it? Never.

The grade wasn't contingent on upon reading the book but merely turning up for class lectures.

Then, when I went to the school bookstore to participate in the annual book buyback event, I was told I would only get $7 in return for the $80 book. I also received a handful of wooden coins that could only be used in the bookstore.

You know what I'd really like to do with those wooden coins? I'd like to tie whoever deemed these outrageously priced books a requirement to a tree and dance around pelting them with those wooden coins.

I can't fathom why the price of a decent education is so high these days. When the economy is backsliding and $1 won't buy a gallon of gas, why are the universities trying to rob students? I'd have more respect if they just popped out of the bushes once a semester and stole my purse. At least then I'd feel like you were working for the money.

I wish the gas station took wooden coins with Washburn University stamped on them, because the school has all my money.

JAIME BROWN,Topeka

A little hypocritical

Many seem to be jumping on the political green track to gain the environmentalist votes without viewing the whole energy picture. Alternative energy resources haven't been perfected nor are they available for everyone right now.

For now, Kansas and its neighboring states need energy and a decrease in the price of energy power. Our nation does have many decades of a domestic natural resource energy - coal.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' vetoes of the Holcomb coal-fired plant bills and her views on clean environment for Kansans seem insincere. For example, she uses the state airplane to fly to the Kentucky Derby, college basketball games, the NCAA tournament and political campaigns.

It's nice she can travel, but her use of the state airplane affects our environment and raises the demand for fuel, which in turn increases the cost of fuel.

JEANNE LITTELL,Topeka

It's all about greed

Greed means 1) Marked by inordinate desire for wealth; 2) An implication of selfishness; 3) obsessive acquisitiveness of money; 4) Stinginess.

Do these meanings remind you of anyone? You got it, the oil companies. I don't understand how they can justify the prices we have to pay for gasoline. A few years ago companies that made millions were doing well. Now, they want to make billions. I would like to know what do they do with their second, third and fourth billion? I realize prices have gone up, but it all stems from the price of oil. Maybe if our country would stop selling our oil to other countries it would help keep the prices down.

Of course, those in government won't do anything about the problem because most of them are oil people, and if they aren't, then the attitude is, "If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

I wish I had the answer to all of this but my one hope lies in what the Bible says: " It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24).

TRUDY CALHOUN,Topeka

Nurses make difference

The work of America's 2.9 million registered nurses to save lives and to maintain the health of millions of individuals is the focus of National Nurses Week, celebrated each May throughout the United States.

National Nurses Week strives to raise public awareness of the value of nursing and to help educate the public about the vital roles registered nurses play in meeting the health care needs of the American people.

The Kansas State Nurses Association would like to recognize the 2.9 million registered nurses in the nation and the more than 27,600 registered nurses in Kansas who provide highly skilled, safe, quality care in a variety of settings; and who encounter increased challenges to their professional and ethical commitment to deliver essential health care.