Do not let the legislators lull you into thinking they should get a raise. They all knew exactly what the salary was when they decided to run for the office.

They get $12,000 for the session which alternates between 60 days one year and 90 days the next.

The members who live more than 100 miles (round-trip) away from the Capitol are allowed 44½ cents per mile (one round trip per week). Also they receive $99 per day during the session. The members living fewer than 100 miles (round trip) receive $39 per day plus mileage every day.

The article in the April 9 Lincoln Journal Star concerning Sen. Chris Langemeier was quite demeaning. He and former state Sen. Doug Kristensen think we aren’t smart enough to know the difference between the Nebraska Legislature and the U.S. Senate. If Langemeier and the others pushing for a raise can’t make it, they should resign and let the people waiting in line to become legislators take over.

We voters better all study and look very close at proposed Amendment 1. They are quietly trying to push this through the last few days before the election.

Jim Le Butler, Lincoln

A new round of war lies?

If we all haven’t realized that the buildup to a war with Iran is just a continuation of lies built upon lies, we will never wake up. If we let the religious fanatics and the Israeli lobby control us again, then we deserve all the misery we will surely encounter in the aftermath.

The cabal in Washington is sick and you all know it … yet it seems we have lost our spine along with our morals.

Joseph Vocht, Lincoln

Op-ed cartoons slanted

Your political cartoons often show such a lack of respect for our “commander in chief,” almost on a daily basis. Why, when our world is in such terrible turmoil, would one want to pull our country apart? United we stand, divided we fall!

We are ashamed of the Lincoln Journal Star and its plethora of slanted political cartoons.

Shirley Tilman, Lincoln

Spending may destroy us

The Soviet Union spent so much trying to defend itself that it destroyed itself. Is the United States doing the same? Each man, woman and child in the United States owes $156,000 in federal debt, according to the Government Accountability Office as reported in Journal Star columns.

This is not a long-term mortgage. In 10 years much of it will come due — Social Security, Medicare, savings in government bonds, veterans’ pensions, debts to foreign governments, along with ongoing service payrolls. The day the public senses the government is bankrupt, the Second Great Depression could hit.

We too might be destroying ourselves. We are spending so much attacking enemies and potential enemies that we are becoming our own worst enemy.

Raymond Tiemeyer, Lincoln

Share smoking ban data

I’ve seen ads recently on television touting the success of Lincoln’s smoking ban and am wondering what prompted them to appear at this time. 

All I can assume is that, following our city attorney’s recommendation that the City Council wait a year (it’s now well over that) before assessing the efficacy of the smoking ban, they have amassed all pertinent information from the city and state revenue departments, along with figures from the health department on the ban-related reduction in secondhand smoke-related illnesses and/or deaths, and found the impact (if any) to be favorable to the city and her citizens. 

I look forward to this information being shared with the public, thus putting to rest, once and for all, concerns raised by the 38 percent who voted against the total ban: that the city’s health would suffer under what is one of the most progressive smoking bans in the nation.

Jan Karst, Lincoln