The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 20, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 16, 2002 Page: 3 of 32
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?6e @a*taduM RJECORD
THURSDAY 16 MAY 2002
3
letters
to the editors
Little House announcement
I AM WRITING to let you know about a change at Rachel's Little
House, For the first time in its thirty-one year history, the Little House
will close for the months of June and July.
Several reasons have prompted the decision to close the center.
First, summer enrollment is always lower as parents provide alternate
care for their children. For many, this "vacation" is not only helpful, but
necessary to cope with changing summer schedules.
Second, our facility is old and tired, a reflection of many years of
hard service. The time had come to make a commitment to improving
the facility, giving time to make the many necessary repairs and giving
a fresh new face to the classrooms and grounds.
Third and perhaps most important, the staff at Rachel's Little
House need and have earned a time of rest. They work tirelessly every
day to provide the care you expect and your children deserve.
We realize this decision impacts you greatly; we hope you will join us
as a partner in making Rachel's Little House the best it has ever been.
We will be pre-enrolling children for our pre-school and daycare pro-
grams beginning the week of May 20, 2002. Reserve your child's place
with us for our August 1, 2002 reopening.
Rachel's Little House believes in a high-quality program designed
to meet the needs of the whole child. Our commitment to nurture each
child's active learning through a well-trained staff makes us an exten-
sion of the home and family.
If you have further questions or concerns, feel free to call the Little
House, or contact any staff or board member.
NANCY SCHWERZENBACH, Little House Director
opinion
page
w
The Christian Right
I IDENTIFY WITH THE Christian Right. Our zeal for God may not
always be according to knowledge.
Why are we threatening our President by withholding our vote and
financial support if he doesn't attempt to settle the Israeli and Pales-
tine conflict according to our every whim.
Let us understand the tremendous pressure he's under and not add
to the burden.
Do we not have confidence in our prayers that God has given him the
knowledge and wisdom to make decisions for the good of all concerned.
Now that we have spoken by our vote, prayers, moral and financial
support, it's time for the Christian Right to be quiet and let the Presi-
dent be the President.
DAVID YOUNG
Farm Bill: Take what you can get
By Jim Guliea In the Progressive Populist
Faith's freedom
I WAS BORN IN THIS TOWN and returned here two years ago to
have a quiet life and be close to my family. Considering that I keep to
myself and travel for work quite often, I find all the talk of what I'm up
to quite amusing. If gossip is the best you have to do with your lives,
gossip away. However, there is one comment I take highly offensively.
I have been told several times that, and I quote, "Your standing in the
community would improve immensely if you went to church." Are we
not fighting a war on the other side of the world for this very reason?
Lisa prays
not because she's got the faith
or because she's learned about God at her mother's knee
or at the elbow of a preacher.
Lisa prays
because she tried everything else,
drinking, drugs, running away, working obscurely;
to take away the pain of being a frightened and lonely woman
which nowadays is totally unacceptable,
especially to someone, somewhere who seems to not understand.
Now Lisa prays
not to Jesus or Buddha
not to a theological God
or philosophical omnipotence
not to a computerized or selective savior
just to someone, somewhere who seems to understand,
and loves the hell out of Lisa.
Need I remind you this is America and this choice is mine, not yours.
LISA MORGAN
THE FARM BILL is nearly enacted, with the
House approving the conference committee report
May 2 and the Senate approving it on May 8. That
leaves many groups to lament what might have
been.
Some family farm advocates fear that it will finish
them off. E nvironmentalists complain that it encour-
ages overproduction. Urban pundits grumble about
all that money going to the heartland, with New
Yorkers noting that George W. Bush is willing to
spend $180 billion on agriculture
after reneging on his promise to send $20 billion
to rebuild Lower Manhattan. And the European Un-
ion threatens a trade war.
But don't blame Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chair-
man of the Senate Agriculture Committee, who did a
good job with Majority Leader Tom Daschle in get-
ting the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of
2002 through the politically polarized Senate and
then working out a compromise with House
conferees.
The bill rejects the market-oriented farm policy
of the 1996 Freedom to Farm law, which was sup-
posed to wean farmers from government supports.
Unfortunately that came at the same time free trade
was opening US borders to competition from foreign
food products.
The new farm bill increases agriculture spending
by $73.5 billion over the next 10 years. Existing pro-
grams are expected to cost about $107 billion over
the same period. Family farm advocates
complain that the higher limits on payments to
fanners ($360,000 in the final version instead of
$275,000 which the Senate called for) will send more
money to bigger operators and force smaller farm-
ers out of business. And loopholes will allow many
corporate farmers to skirt even that generous cap.
Rice and cotton planters in the South, who gain the
most from those payments, succeeded in getting the
House Republicans to raise the limits.
Harkin said the average 1,000-acre farm in Iowa
planted in corn and soybeans would receive $84,000
in government subsidy payments under the compro-
mise farm bill, or $10,000 more than under current
law. (That doesn't meant they'll clear $84,000.) As
the Des Moines Register noted, when multiplied by
the thousands of farms in Iowa over the next six to 10
years that infusion of cash will provide jobs for
farm-equipment makers and put money into the
cash registers
of local merchants.
The bill also does good work increasing spending
on conservation programs. Harkin's new Conserva-
tion Security Program provides $2 billion to reward
fanners for practicing good stewardship on working
land, instead of forcing them to retire land to receive
conservation payments. But it also expands the Con-
servation Reserve Program to retire highly erodible
lands, from 36.4 million to 39.2 million acres, and a
pilot program for wetlands expands to 1 million
acres at an additional cost of $1.5 billion. The En-
vironmental Quality Incentives Program increases
by $9 billion, with 60% going to livestock producers
to improve compliance with environmental laws.
The bill also earmarks $1 billion for rural devel-
opment projects such as assistance for rural water
systems and broadband communications access as
well as grants to assist producer-owned
businesses, regional investment boards, rural
business investment and rural firefighters and
emergency personnel.
The nutrition title provides $6.4 billion in assis-
tance for low-income people. Among the features, it
restores food stamps to non-citizens who have lived
in the country for five years.
The American Corn Growers Association gave
the new farm bill an overall failing grade and worked
against its passage, but President Keith Dittrich, a
corn farmer from Tilden Neb., did not
fault the Senate Democrats. "We ... watched the
Senate leadership fight a lonely fight for more sig-
nificant gains in price support policy, payments lim-
its and a ban on packer ownership. However, they
were opposed at nearly every turn by the Senate Re-
farm BilL.Continued on Page 4
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Ezzell, Nancy & Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 20, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 16, 2002, newspaper, May 16, 2002; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth220529/m1/3/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.