Stars and Stripes letters (Bush gets negative mention once again)

People in and affiliated with the military aren't afraid to criticize Bush anymore. This is telling.

http://estripes.com/article.asp?section=125&article=19007

Why is it that when there are budget cuts, the school system suffers first?

Recently there was a notice on my door that due to quality of life betterment, everyone’s getting a new dishwasher. It’s very nice of the government to improve my quality of life. But in the same week, kindergarten parents were notified that the kindergarten aide would get another half an hour cut in hours and that now there will be only one person in the classroom from 1:30 p.m. on.

Every year since I’ve moved to Germany the aides have had their hours cut. Starting this year, the kindergarten team had to take a full day for planning. So once a month, while everyone else is in school, the kindergartners get a day off. Now they’e going to need more time for preparation.

From the second the little students walk into the classroom, they require hands-on help and attention. While the teacher teaches the lesson, the aide is constantly assisting, directing and helping the children. By the end of the year, nonreading and nonwriting kindergartners should be writing and reading simple words. They should be introduced to basic mathematics, and if at all possible have been taught a little science and health. Without the help of aides, these educational goals will not be met.

Many of these children are going without their full support system at home, and now they’re losing their support system at school. Let’s not make educating our children a low priority. If President Bush wants everyone reading, then he should quit cutting education spending. He can keep the dishwasher and use that money for what’s really important — the future of our nation, our children.

Tiffany DuBois
Gelnhausen, Germany


Indians betrayed even today

We’re at the end of Native American Month, and somebody forgot to tell President Bush. According to a recent article in the Denver Post, American Indians have been betrayed again.

The article said that more than a century ago the U.S. government took control of Indian assets, including grazing fees, oil royalties and the like, promising to manage the assets in the Indians’ best interests. The money at stake isn’t welfare or tax dollars. It’s the personal property of up to 500,000 Indians. But the multibillion-dollar trust fund is apparently in such a shambles that the government can’t figure out how much the Indians are owed. A federal judge has told the government to repair the trust fund accounting by 2007.

The article said the White House convinced a House-Senate conference committee to insert an ugly and damaging provision into an Interior Department spending bill that erased many legal victories that the Indians had won.

How long will the government continue to betray our Native Americans, who owned this country in the first place? I urge all Americans to condemn the betrayal of our native people.

John Kirby
Pordenone, Italy