At our recent Nebraska Horse Council horse expo, we had people here from about six states to view our expo.

People of Lancaster County should be very proud to have such a fine facility for agricultural events. This is an event center that is reasonably priced to hold these events in.

It would be a shame to let anything happen to this center and not allow an expansion to happen. It is not in any way competitive with any other facility in town and brings in lots of revenue for the city. All the other event centers in the state either are too small or we can’t afford them. Our expo has reached the point we can’t expand it until an addition is done.

People of Lancaster County are missing a golden opportunity to see some really nice events going on in their backyard. The Lancaster Event Center finally has turned the corner and is self-supporting. It sits in a ideal place for trailers, parking, easy to get in and out of, and all the other important aspects of an event center.

Just want to express my feelings for such a nice place.

Richard Newberg, Walton

President, Nebraska Horse Council

Staying out of downtown

The next to the last time I was downtown (about five years ago), I picked up a ticket and ended up paying a fine for my trouble. I vowed at the time not to go back until there was parking downtown like there is at every retail outlet and office in every other part of Lincoln. 

Unfortunately, I had to go downtown recently. I plugged the meter for 90 minutes, got back in about two hours and picked up another ticket. So I’m returning to my original plan, but I suppose five years from now I’ll probably get stuck again.

I almost had to go back just last week when I couldn’t get some sheet music I needed from The Violin Shop on 17th Street, and the owner said Dietze had it downtown, but fortunately he also gave me the name of a store in Omaha that could send it, and postage is less than $10 so …

See you all in five or 10 years. You really know how to make a guy feel welcome.

William R. Stone Jr., Lincoln

Sticking it to the poorest

Regarding the closing of the Star Ship 9 for more parking downtown: This is what Lincoln has always been about. Once again, low-income people take it in the shorts!

Sandra Lab, Lincoln

We must defend freedom

“Who is the enemy?” (letter, Hendrik Van den Berg, March 19). And Pogo replied, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

When my ancestors fought to remove the occupying British army from American soil, they had some specific ideas in mind about the kind of government they wanted. And, yes, eventually they had a civil war about the slavery and state-versus-federal supremacy aspects of their government.

But it became our country, our government, and those founding fathers were quite specific about two things — protecting the civil rights of all Americans and separating the secular government from any involvement in religion.

Just because they referred to God in their speeches does not imply that they wanted to eliminate the separation of church and state. Many of those men referring to God were deists and didn’t represent what most people see as a Christian point of view.

I believe that the best way to promote democracy around the world is not by imposing it through war or any other authoritarian means, and certainly not by weakening it here at home. It is by continuing to defend — especially from within — every aspect of our freedom as if our lives and that very freedom depended on it — because they do. Beware, Americans, because those difficult choices may soon no longer even be a choice if we don’t speak out, write out and act out now.

Carol Lee Doeden, Cook