A budget is a plan to execute a vision. It is therefore imperative that we have an agreed vision for the future of Ironton before we can craft a budget to support that vision in support of the citizenry.

Even in these troubled economic times, the citizens have a right to expect that vision to include stable or modest improvement in the quality of life for themselves and their families.

We are all very aware, by our visits to the grocery and gas stations, that costs are increasing and that you get only what you pay for.

Cutting city outlays, exclusively, instead of raising city income to meet real needs will mean a continuation, nay acceleration, of the slow, steady deterioration of the quality of life we have suffered since the 1950s, punctuated by some successes due to the efforts of the CAO and, recently, the Ironton Port Authority.

We are so very fortunate to have our new schools. We need to invest in a city suitable and inviting for some of our children to remain here.

If you agree with the foregoing, I urge you to contact your city council members and the mayor to let them know you are willing to pay for a budget that will support such a vision.

Please don’t delay; your silence is a vote for decay.

Paul Woods

Chairman

Ironton Port Authority

 

President should not dictate his ‘moral’ views

Our Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law … prohibiting the free exercise” of religion.  Religious charities, schools, and hospitals engage in this “free exercise” in two ways.

One is through good works, which are a way of expressing and acting on their faith. The other is by following the tenets of their faith in conducting their operations.

President Obama is telling these institutions they cannot do both.

If they want to express their faith through good works, they must now violate their faith by providing their employees contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs.

It doesn’t matter whether the government forces them to pay directly for these drugs or forces them to hire insurance companies that provide the drugs for “free.”

Either way, the Obama administration is working to eliminate the ability of these institutions to engage fully in the free exercise of religion.

This action follows the administration’s recent failed attempt to give the government a say in the hiring and firing of ministers, which the Supreme Court unanimously rejected.

Let us continue to pray for our country and our president’s “moral convictions.”

Dan Hieronimus

Ironton