State Blvd. family friendly – for now

I can understand how state traffic planners would look at Fort Wayne and say, “Hey, we need a throughway across town.” With the growth to the west and east of the city, it would be nice to have another path to travel. However, the traffic down State Boulevard is already heavy enough without thousands of extra cars and hundreds of semis cutting through every day.

This is a neighborhood. We have children walking to schools. We have businesses that rely on foot traffic. We have a major hospital that needs immediate access. We have homes that already sit too close to the street.

As with every other area in the city, we have to maintain our property values, so to put an Interstate 469 going down State Boulevard would negatively affect the value of all our homes.

I think the state planners are blinded by the new neighborhoods out east and west and forgetting the needs of those of us who have remained in the most populated area of Fort Wayne. We have found our throughways across Fort Wayne and do not need or want an expansion to State Boulevard. This change would be devastating to the safe family neighborhood that so many of us have been trying to preserve.

SARAH JOHNSON Fort Wayne

Stutzman still touting wrong path

Rep. Marlin Stutzman is at it again, trotting out tired policies and raising fears about the looming fiscal cliff. He knows if he can raise the fear level enough, we will act against the best interests of most people in this country. He touts “The Path to Prosperity,” a blueprint for added prosperity for the already prosperous at the expense of seniors, the poor and working people.

Here are some facts to remember about “The Path to Prosperity.” Bush-era tax cuts would be preserved and a new layer of tax cuts would be added, offering millionaires an additional quarter-million dollars or more in tax savings. Seniors would pay more for health care. Government workers would face a pay freeze. Education would face further cuts. The hungry would be hungrier through deep cuts in the SNAP program. Impoverished people would find it harder to qualify for health care through cuts in Medicaid. Single parents working to support their children would lose through cuts to the child tax credit. This is not simply bad fiscal policy; it is immoral.

We need to address federal spending, including the military budget. Through a balanced approach of reasonable increases in revenue and careful cuts in spending, we can reach a balanced budget well before the 2040 date envisioned in the Stutzman-endorsed plan. Only such a balanced approach will protect the vulnerable, share the burden and solve the problem. Only then will the promise of prosperity be shared by all.

KEVIN BOYD 2012 Democratic candidate for Congress Fort Wayne

Society, not gun owners, at fault

Here we go again: another mass-shooting, another outcry for gun control.

Many misguided individuals seem to think the Second Amendment was included in the Constitution so everybody could go out and shoot a bunny or squirrel for supper. I believe the Second Amendment was implemented so the citizenry could hunt to provide for their family and/or defend themselves – even from a tyrannical government.

What’s the first thing Adolf Hitler did after invading a country? He took away their guns. Why are both Syria and Egypt fighting with their lives to revolt against dictatorship? Because they’re armed. And they are not armed with pea-shooters and sling-shots.

Now, let’s address the most recent mass-shootings: Tucson, Ariz.; Aurora, Colo.; Portland, Ore.; and now Newtown, Conn. What’s the correlation? All the shooters were aged early twenties. What was the culture of their upbringing? Schools were no longer to able to discipline, eventually parents were no longer able to discipline. More than likely these kids’ only entertainment was a graphic video game with the only purpose to kill, maim or blow up as many people as they could.

Although this seems to be a trend, society obviously can’t ban somebody from being in their early twenties. And we certainly can’t ban these particular video games (that would desecrate the First Amendment, and we’re far more intent on desecrating the Second Amendment). Besides that, far too many parents are willing to indulge their kids with video games just so they don’t have to interact with them themselves.

Society, as a whole, refuses to acknowledge these observations. Because if it did, society would have to shoulder much of the blame. It’s so much easier to blame gun owners.

ALLEN SHATZER Fort Wayne