Opinion
SOUND OFF: Published November 24
A teacher called in and said that she is tired of people who choose not to get a college education and have no right to complain about those who do. Unfortunately I do have a college education, but in this economy I can’t just go out and get another job because quite simply there aren’t that many out there. My employer has chosen, due to the economy, not to give raises for the last two years. With that in mind, to give 16 percent pay raises to teachers over the course of four years in unconscionable. The concept that taxpayer money is a never-ending deep pocket is preposterous. All the while, they continue to spend and spend tax dollars without a thought for other people who pay taxes who are not fortunate enough to get 16 percent raises over four years and who would be thrilled to get 4 percent over four years. C’mon. Stop looking at yourselves. Look at the folks around you who are paying your salaries. When you start paying mine, then I’ll be glad to give a 16 percent pay raise.
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Just returned from a driving trip in the state of Florida and am back home in Tonawanda. I went through six states and every state had gasoline at $2.70 a gallon or less. We are getting ripped off in New York! Write to your congressman.
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I hope that everybody realizes that when the Senate passes this health care bill, your average working person is going to pay $125 to $150 a week for health coverage, because most companies are going to opt out and pay the fine. It will be cheaper for them.
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So Mayor Soos doesn’t know why he lost the election. It’s called reassessment. Everybody’s taxes went up during the greatest recession since the great Depression. It’s called taxes, mayor. That’s why you lost the election. My school taxes went up more than $400. That’s why you lost.
- Opinion
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ADAMCZYK: An evening walk with Beethoven
Yes, that’s me: the tall and overweight man with earbuds in his ears and the wire descending to the machine on his hip, huffing through the dusk on Delaware Road in Kenmore.
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Sound Off published Friday March 19
With the snow melting, I took a friend to the newly named Veterans Park on River Road. What a disgrace. There is garbage everywhere, ruts in the grass and the inlet is all plugged up with trash and debris. The mayor says he is a veteran, yet he lets this insult prevail to all the men and women who came before him, some dying. You should be ashamed.
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HOPKINS: Going to the vet for health care
What does a veterinarian have to do with today’s health care debate? Read on.
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KEPPELER: Stranger in a strange land
I’m not too bad with computers.
That is to say, I can generally operate one without it blowing up. -
Sound Off published Thursday March 18
I’m a City of Tonawanda resident for most of my life and I see the recycling guys don’t want to put themselves out to do their jobs and we paid for their services. So please help, somebody get on their butt and get their job done the way they should.
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DUVALL: Spending cuts must be manageable
For as often as the media uses outsized, hyperbolic phrases to describe routine functions of government, we have going on in New Jersey right now a true ideological clash.
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Sound Off published Wednesday March 17
This is in response to the person who says there was a Jeffrey’s in the City of Tonawanda. The word is Zeffrey’s. It was an old-fashioned ice cream parlor. It was beautiful.
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LEFLER: The good life in Western New York
Oh look! Spring.Now, technically I know it’s not spring yet, but with the Ides of March and Buffalo’s St. Patrick’s Day parade in our rear-view, two of the indicators I use for spring have already passed. Throw in the nice weather we’re having and my body is ready to walk down Main Street in a T-shirt and shorts.
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CONFER: The census and your privacy
In his recent column, my friend Scott Leffler waxed poetic about how illogical — if not illegal — the U.S. Census has become as it asks questions that were unintended by our Founding Fathers. As with quite a few issues, I agree with Scott on this one and I will be one of those folks he mentions who will try their luck by filling out only one question on the 10-question form.
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DUVALL: News to relaunch its Web site this week
Times are changing, and so are we.
With that in mind, I’m pleased to announce that tonawanda-news.com, this paper’s Web site, will undergo a major overhaul. On Tuesday, our entirely new site will “go live” (just a fancy way of saying publish).
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