The Public Pulse, Feb. 7

Fight illegal employers first

State Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont, Neb., in his fight against illegal aliens, has set his sights on the 17- and 18-year-old sons and daughters of these immigrants.

The senator believes they must not be allowed in-state tuition rates at Nebraska colleges. It must not matter one iota to him that they graduated from our state high schools or that many of them have been here for years.

Sen. Janssen introduced Legislative Bill 1001, which would repeal the Nebraska Dream Act. This act provides in-state college tuition for students whose parents brought them to the United States illegally and who graduated from a Nebraska high school.

He also has introduced LB 940, which would amend the Welfare Reform Act to require drug screening for people receiving cash assistance from the state.

Sen. Janssen seems to want to pick fights with people who are helpless to fight back — the poor and disenfranchised. If Sen. Janssen doesn’t want to fight the companies that encourage illegal aliens to come here, he should leave their children alone.

It is not a crime to be poor.

Jim Elsener, Lincoln

We’re abetting criminal activity

Everyone knows that Medicaid and Medicare are fiscally unsustainable. Taxes will eventually need to be increased to cover the shortfalls.

Yet, we learn that 1,000 undocumented and pregnant Hispanic women have been collecting Medicaid in Nebraska. I am infuriated at this travesty and wonder why we are breaking our laws to feed, clothe, medicate and educate people who cross our borders illegally.

Common sense tells us families should not have more children than they can support.

Laura Bennett, Omaha

Show immigrants compassion

Many immigrant bashers, who appear to me to be predominantly right-wing “Christians,” would do well in their ranting about prenatal care, in-state tuition, housing and jobs to stop and reread Matthew 25:42-45.

John Walburn, M.D., Omaha

Save on new VA Medical Center

As a veteran and volunteer at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Omaha for more than 25 years, I have watched the hospital building being transformed into such a wonderful place.

Now, the government thinks it should spend $560 million on a new hospital to replace the current obsolete one.

Please do not waste that amount of money when all that is necessary is to build a four-story parking garage over the main parking lot and a four-story office space above the garage. A catwalk could be constructed from the new office building to the existing hospital.

Ask the people who work, volunteer and are patients in the existing hospital how they feel about the current building. That alone could mean a huge savings to start with.

A. Carl Vleck, Bellevue

Appreciate care for Pine Ridge

I want to thank Gov. Dave Heineman for leading a group of elected officials to meet with Lakota Sioux tribal members in regard to the problems on the Pine Ridge Reservation, as well as problems related to the sale of alcohol in Whiteclay, Neb.

State Sens. Brad Ashford, Russ Karpisek, Colby Coash and LeRoy Louden have taken a step forward with the introduction of legislation that may provide, in part, much-needed alcohol treatment.

Having spoken with Sens. Rich Pahls, Scott Lautenbaugh, Abbie Cornett and Scott Price, I appreciate their receptiveness and urge them to carry this concern forward in the current session.

When we consider the ongoing hardships that exist on most of our Native American reservations, I appreciate that Nebraska’s leaders are proactive on these issues, and I pray that solutions will be found.

Rick R. Galusha, Omaha

Deer bill goes a little bit too far

Parts of Legislative Bill 836, introduced by State Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha, are laughable, at best.

Eradication of the growing and sometimes menacing deer herd in our state is a joke. I sympathize that deer can be deadly to motorists and a hazard to crops, but surely a stronger effort to allow farmers and landowners to take care of problematic animals on an as-needed basis is in order.

I am an avid hunter, but I believe spotlighting deer to be outrageously unethical. Longer seasons? Yes. New seasons? Maybe.

I’d like to know what the percentage of crops ruined by deer or varmints actually is, relative to the state’s overall harvest.

Parts of the bill (giving farmers the right to take some action) seem logical, but I don’t think this bill was very well thought out.

Don Wilson, Omaha

Pay for injuries without helmet

James A. Monaghan’s Feb. 3 letter argues for the Nebraska motorcycle helmet law to apply only to younger, inexperienced riders. He says that during his 25 years of riding without a helmet he has never been in an accident.

He attributes this to being responsible while riding, but he also has been very lucky. Accidents happen. Even if we are very careful on the road, that doesn’t mean other people on the road are.

The dangers of the road are multiplied when we are on a motorcycle. The reason we don’t require people to wear helmets in cars is because there are many other safeguards, including seat belts and air bags, in place.

If someone doesn’t want to wear a helmet, that’s fine with me. But those who suffer major head injuries on a motorcycle because they weren’t wearing a helmet should help pay for the costs that will be passed on to everyone else by way of higher insurance premiums.

Mike Bristol, Omaha

Let us all make our own choices

Why is it that most people against the helmet law worry strictly about the money they might need to spend on medical care for the motorcyclist? A motorcyclist really only endangers himself by not wearing a helmet.

It still boils down to personal freedom. Instead of going after riders who don’t wear a helmet, why not target those who drive while using their cell phones? Require them to have $1 million in medical coverage and long-term care policies.

When people text and talk on a cell phone while driving, they endanger not only themselves but also the people around them. Who pays the medical costs then? Let people make their own choices.

Joe Hoover, Omaha

Can’t really blame Republicans

Are Republicans the real reason the Obama administration is stuck in neutral? Democrats trumpeted their super-majority last year. According to them, they could accomplish anything they wanted without opposition because they could vote down a filibuster in the Senate.

So, how have the Republicans hindered them? By voting against bills they oppose? What is the other option? If they find legislation contrary to their principles and stated beliefs, what should they do? Broker a deal, offer to vote for it if they get special consideration and twist it around to what they think it should be?

Why don’t the Democrats and independents want to own the decision and the final versions of their bills? Why did the voters in Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey reject the party in power so clearly? Because there are so many Republicans?

Marshall True, Omaha

Such talking sounds like a deal

What deal was made with the “underwear bomber” to get him to talk? An attorney doesn’t let his client talk unless he’s got a deal, a promise or something.

James G. Perry, Omaha

Help us protect polar bears

My 4-year-old son, Kael, checked out a book on polar bears at the library. Neither of us knew that after reading the book, we would want to help save polar bears from extinction.

Here are a few facts on polar bears and what might happen if we don’t help:

— Over the past three decades, the Arctic ice cap has shrunk by a size equivalent to six Californias. As the sea ice disappears, scientists are finding more evidence of polar bear drownings, starvation and cub deaths.

— Oil companies are wanting to drill and industrialize some of the polar bear’s most important habitat.

— In the past decade, trophy hunters in Canada have killed 600 polar bears. Hundreds more have been killed for commercial export.

— Polar bears are protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act but need the highest level of protection.

We can make a difference in the world by saving polar bears.

Albanie Walker, Bellevue

Consider Neihardt in education

Recent articles about charter schools, including Susan Darst Williams’ Feb. 3 Midlands Voices piece highlighting the need for them, and the Oxbow Writing Project on improving writing skills were heartwarming.

Youth today are in desperate need of good communication skills, heroes and mentors.

I hope the works of Nebraska’s poet laureate, John G. Neihardt, and trips to Bancroft and Blair, Neb., are considered.

As a husband, father, athlete and outdoorsman, Neihardt loved kids, life, the land, adventure, heroes, dreams, pragmatic mysticism and discussions of a “lofty nature.” He taught himself Greek at age 16 and spent 30 years writing “A Cycle of the West,” a journey of the human spirit.

Timely creative and critical writing essays can be found in his 1921 Laureate Address, the 1926 Kansas City Journal Post (“Can writing be taught”) and a Nov. 13, 1921, Omaha Daily News column (“What it means to be poet laureate”).

His original study, a library, museum and garden are maintained in Bancroft, while Blair has the Neihardt-Black Elk Park for outdoor enlightenment.

Randy Lukasiewicz, Omaha

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