Voices From The Readers

Voices From The Readers

Clarity On Finances
Editor:

The sky is falling. The Ocean Pines Administration forecast a "loss" of $335,000. We are terrorized by arbitrary budgets because we do not look at spending in a broad fashion. Let’s think like those wise souls who improved our area with a library that would never cover its costs via late charges on books and DVD’s.

Incidentally, the $3,601,399 difference between administration "Revenue" and "Expense" should be allocated to the other operations and recognized as part of their "Revenue", since they all make our community successful.
Jack Hartman

Ocean Pines

Gas Prices Questioned
Editor:

I was in Glen Burnie this past week and noticed that the cost of a gallon of regular unleaded gas had reached $3.07. While there about two weeks ago, the price was $3.19 per gallon.

My question is, why are the "gas bandits" on this island hooking, what at this time of the year are basically locals, with these high prices?

The BP station on Lighthouse Road and Route 20 was at $3.33 today (Saturday) which is 3 cents per gallon less than the fixed price up and down the island. I noticed the price at the Shell station east of Salisbury on Route 50 was $3.25 on Friday.

Why are the gas stations on the island "non-competitive" in price and as much as 30 cents a gallon higher than the other side of the Bay Bridge?

I think the locals deserve better here. I feel that if a gas station will break from the "pack", then the people should support that station and let the others eat their gas.

Tim Burrell
Williamsville, Del.

Views On Mental
Illness Need Altering
Editor:

In light of not only the tragedy in Sandy Hook but also the mall shooting in Oregon and the massacre at the movie theater in Aurora there has been much talk about gun control. While there may be many valid points to many of the arguments, I do not believe there will ever be any changes made to the existing laws.

With that in mind, it is time to peel back that layer of the onion and examine what would cause a human being to open fire on total strangers, especially innocent children. No sane human being could look a child in the eye and pull the trigger of a semi-automatic gun. It is time in this country that we remove the stigma from mental illness and begin to reform our health care system to treat mental health with more importance.

Our brain is the most vital of all organs and the only one that cannot be replaced via transplant. People who suffer in silence with mental disease deserve the best treatment possible and need not be treated like freaks or outcasts. Parents should not be made to feel shame if their child struggles with depression or autism, if their child is ADD or OCD, or exhibits difficulty in controlling their emotions.

These children were born this way, their parents did nothing wrong. We rally around families when their child is diagnosed with cancer or some other dreadful disease yet shy away from the families struggling with mental and emotional issues. The medical community will give a liver transplant to an alcoholic who has destroyed their liver with excessive drinking, or lungs to a smoker-all who have chosen to poison their bodies and caused the damage that destroyed their organs. Yet we treat those with mental illness as lepers, as if they caused their illness. We must begin the process to change how we view mental illness.

Brooke McClure
Ocean City

Campaign A Success
Editor:

Our 9th Annual “Holiday Gifts for our Soldiers” serving overseas during the month of November has ended as a big success again this year. This activity was organized by my husband, Carl, who served in China, Burma, and India during World War II. He understood that those serving overseas have to do without the comforts of home and wanted to help and let them know that we remembered and supported them.

We believe that the people of the Lower Eastern Shore are a very kind and special group who give from their hearts. A very special Thank You to the news media, American Legion Auxiliary Synepuxent Unit 166 in Ocean City, VFW Post 8296 Ladies Auxiliary in Ocean City, VFW Post 123 in Berlin, the Ocean Pines Community Center, and the libraries in Ocean City, Berlin, and Ocean Pines.

Thank you to those who donated.

Thank you to volunteers Judy Chuvala, Anna Foultz, Sandy McAbee, Ted Page, Peggy Rumberg, Teresa Travatello, and LouAnn Tummel. It was a team effort that made this activity a huge success.

God bless our troops overseas and everywhere. Thank you from our hearts.
Anna Foultz
Ocean Pines

Prayer Breakfast
Topic Announced
Editor:

It seems that a day doesn’t go by that Israel isn’t mentioned in the news. Why is this? What part does Israel play in the world? What does the Bible say about Israel? What part does America play? Are the Jews God’s chosen people?  Are we living in the end times? Much interest has been generated about this, most of us have heard about the Mayan prophecy that purportedly predicts the end of the world Dec. 21, 2012. We live in scary times.

In our nation, we are experiencing historic droughts, extreme weather, record floods, tornados, earthquakes, and a possible financial collapse. Could the disasters that America has suffered  been caused by America’s treatment of Israel? Listen to what the Bible states in Obadiah 1:15: “For the day of the Lord draws near on all the nations. As you have done, ( to Israel) it will be done to you.” The Bible also states that God will bless those that bless Israel and curse those that curse Israel (Genesis 12:3). Over the last twenty years has America been a blessing or a curse to Israel?

Is there a link between what happens to America and the way we treat Israel?  What you will hear this year at the Ocean City Prayer Breakfast will be incredible and will amaze you. Initially you will think that all this is just a coincidence, but it’s not. On Oct. 30, 1991, President George H. W. Bush pushed Israel into accepting the Madrid peace process (land for peace). The Bible says in Amos 9:15, "’I will plant them (Jews) on their land, and they will not again be rooted out from their land, which I have given them,’ says the Lord your God." On Oct. 31, 1991, the U.S. was hit with the “Perfect Storm”. This storm was made into a movie and many of you will remember it coming out of nowhere when it struck Ocean City. The storm caused severe damage to the east coast and to President Bush’s home in Maine. This is only one of many examples documented. Come hear what we, as individuals, and as a nation can do, for the Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to His people.

This year’s buffet breakfast will be Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013 at the Clarion Resort Hotel, from 7-9:15 a.m. We begin and end on time. Tickets are $16 in advance if purchased before Jan. 14. There will be no tickets sold at the door. Tables of eight to 10 people can be reserved on a first come, first serve basis.

Tickets may be purchased through the mail by sending a check to the above address or may be purchased at the following ticket locations: City Hall, 3rd Street and Baltimore Ave. in Ocean City; Long and Foster Realty, 120th Street and Coastal Hwy., Ocean City; Ocean City Chamber of Commerce, Route 50, West Ocean City; and Cropper Oil Company, Route 50, Berlin.

Bruce Spangler
Berlin
(The writer is the director of the Ocean City Prayer Breakfast.)