I cannot sit back any longer and watch the state of Nebraska continue the archaic criminal punishment called the death penalty without voicing my opinion that not all Nebraskans feel that getting tough on criminals means inflicting vengeance on the accused for the sole purpose of satisfying the victim’s need to have closure.

The only way for individuals to get closure is to forgive. Closure sometimes is used as another word for vengeance: “I hope they rot in hell for what they did to me/them/us,” or “they (Nebraska) can’t kill him/her fast enough for me!”

I have never seen any statistics showing that the death penalty is a deterrent to crimes committed that result in the death penalty. If such were the case, Texas would surely have no reason for the continuation of the death penalty because all the people about to commit such acts would see the given punishment in front of them and think twice.

Instead of putting these individuals away forever and keeping them off the streets, the state of Nebraska instead continues to lower itself to the depths of the original crime itself.

The justice system is not perfect — the wrong person is often found guilty!

The death penalty procedure costs more to facilitate than life without parole.

The state of Nebraska should not — must not — be in the business of inflicting vengeance.

Tom Wanser, Lincoln

We can’t afford to move fair

The majority of the working people are against moving the Nebraska State Fair. However, they feel that it can’t be stopped because in the past the state and city of Lincoln have given the University of Nebraska whatever it wants.

We are currently losing employers in the state and in Lincoln. We are heading into a recession, and people are losing their homes. Where is common sense? Certainly it does not appear that our state senators or the mayor and City Council members have it, or they would stop listening to costly foolish ideas.

As for the university, they have ground and buildings they are not using now. They will do the same thing with the fairgrounds. They should be required to pay the replacement cost of moving and building all of the new buildings that the fair will need as well as the land. If they cannot come up with that kind of money, then forget it.

We the taxpayers cannot afford to pay for all of these projects. Like the new jail, convention center, a mini central park, and moving the fair.

William R. Wood, Lincoln

Bury bill on home-schooling

Sen. DiAnna Schimek introduced LB1141 to require standardized assessments of home-schooled children.

Why shouldn’t children be required to take assessment tests? I find it fraught with serious problems.

Look at Germany.  Today in Germany, it is unlawful to home school. The law was passed during the era of Adolf Hitler and never repealed. Children are taken from their parents and made wards of the state if they are home-schooled. Hitler believed that if he could control the minds of youths (by what they are taught), he could control the nation.

What does this have to do with LB1141? Schimek says “she doesn’t want to end home-schooling in Nebraska, but only to provide some oversight of it.” Oversight is the problem. LB1141 will allow control of the curriculum of home-schoolers by controlling the test they will be required to take.

Failure to do well in standardized tests limits future educational and career opportunities. Thus it is important to “teach” what will be required by the test. He who controls the test controls the curriculum.

The public school curriculum is designed to be politically correct and does not allow opportunity to study all sides of issues. Take evolution as an example. Creationism is not allowed to be debated or considered. The same is true about marriage between man and woman versus same-sex marriages. The public school agenda is designed not to give any credence to 7,000 years of proven society benefits of marriage between one man and one woman.

There are many areas where somebody has decided what will be taught and what will not be taught.

Sen. Schimek’s intentions are good, but the results will be to the detriment of our people and our nation. This is a bad bill and needs to be quickly and permanently buried.

Ron Zimmer, Firth

Time for new administration

As part of the president’s unfinished business announced in his final State of the Union address, he pleads to make his tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanent. Deficit-based tax cuts for the wealthy, deficit-based tax cuts for oil companies and additional billions requested for war have become the president’s drumbeat of despair. The troop reductions promised have become a fading dream, along with plans of retirement and a college education for our kids.

The president’s budget projects huge deficits of more than $400 billion, more than doubling last year’s deficit. Economists believe the projections are optimistic.

It seems long ago the president was handed a budget surplus. Now he hands our children a huge debt owed to foreign nations. The American economy lost jobs last month for the first time in more than four years, and rising gas prices continue to squeeze our budgets tighter every day. Against the pain and uncertainty families are now facing, Exxon Mobil posted the largest profit ever recorded by a U.S. company.

This administration’s business is finished. It’s time for a change, America.

Steven D. Burbach, Lincoln