Thinking about Hummers
The auto company which produces the Hummer has decided to put that division up
for sale. High prices at the pump have finally decided them. Additionally,
sales of the super-auto have plummeted dramatically. The collective pleas of
environmentalists, not to mention the failure of the practical-minded to buy
the boxy leviathans, were systematically ignored by the automaker. After all,
federal tax breaks to Hummer buyers kept that particular shell game lively. Now
that the line on the sales chart has definitely gone south, the automaker can’t wait to be rid of the magnificent dinosaur, especially since dinosaur juice is
so expensive these days.
Since the automaker’s feeble attempts to turn the Hummers into fuel-efficient vehicles persistently
collided with Americans’ love of power and luxury, no significant change was made to the vehicle.
Perhaps now there is an opportunity for an enterprising individual or company
to transform the concept of the Hummer. Maybe the 9,000-pound gorilla can shed
two or three thousand pounds to increase its mileage. This could boost its
marketability. Think of Hummers as small buses or giant taxis.
But if those staunch defenders of capitalism, those fortunate-son recipients of
multimillion-dollar salaries, the guiding lights of GM couldn’t make it work, who could?
Ed Gutierrez-Perry
Pleasant Plains
Plants can kill you
I am open to the premise there may be cases where the use of medical marijuana
could be warranted. But please, Mr. White [see Letters, March 5], don’t quote out of context from a book you haven’t read [the Bible] to justify your recreational use of mood-altering substances.
If you had sane arguments for medical marijuana they would be based on medical
facts (there are medical facts out there for marijuana).
Also, my hobby for 10 years was learning the use of wild plants for medicine and
food. There are plenty of “seed-bearing plants” that will harm or kill you dead, brother.
Mel Davis
Springfield
Sangamon County Seminoles
We have a semi-pro football team in Springfield called the Sangamon County
Seminoles [See “The Outlaws can’t stop playing football, by Amanda Robert, IT, March 5]. We started off as the Springfield Stallions four years ago, under
different ownership. The first year in the league the Stallions went to the
championship game and lost a hard-fought battle. Ownership took the team pro
three years ago. The pro team went belly up. The original, semi-pro, Stallions
offensive coordinator, Nick Pickett — a former high school football coach and current math teacher for District 186 — is the head coach of the Seminoles. Last year was our first year in the 8FL.
Our organization finished the regular season with two losses and beat the
Outlaws in both regular-season games.
After a few teams forfeited, we went six weeks without playing a football game,
which ultimately led to a hard-fought loss, in a very close matchup, to the
Outlaws.
We won our first game against a very good Decatur-area team named the Midwest
Crush. During that game SCS was able to raise money for St. Jude’s Children Hospital. This is an organization that the SCS family holds near and
dear to our heart. SCS is working toward setting up future fundraiseers for St
Jude. Every SCS does his part to fund the team. We rely on area businesses for
sponsorships to help fund our team. You can check us out on the web at
www.scseminoles.com.
Michael Harris
SCS owner
Springfield
Huddled masses
The “huddled masses” that the Statue of Liberty talks about seem to be huddled because they are
gullible. What does it take for people to wake up and see that the class war
that people like Rush are talking about has been going on for the last eight
years and they are winning? It is against us, the middle class.
Like the old quote, the enemy is us. Why are we the enemy to ourselves? Because
we follow like sheep and believe whatever talking heads tell us. No one gets
all radical about the fact that Madoff, and a multitude of others like him,
have stolen millions from the masses. We’re worried about socialism taking over. I just want my democracy back, the true
democracy written in the Declaration of Independence.
It’s time to return to democracy where people believe in working and receiving pay
for their labor. Not where their whole lives are based in a stock market that
only deals in paper. The stock market produces nothing except turmoil. We need
to see the real markets — the roads, schools and hospitals that affect our everyday lives.
Nancy Long
Springfield
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2009.
