The Forum Bellows: Peggy's Diatribe

Did you guys read the column that was in the Forum today about the newspaper carriers?

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=110566&section=Columnists&columnist=Peggy%20Bellows

The Forumﾒs new editor Peggy Bellows occasionally writes a column and every time they seem to be in a whiney nature about how tough her new job is. In this column, she is complaining about how newspaper carriers are not real Forum employees, they are just contracted with them. So if your paper is late, blame them, not the Forum. But wait, she says donﾒt blame them either, she says tojust be patient. Does the Forum stand behind these contractors at all? She also goes on to complain about how they have several openings and so carriers are forced to work multiple routes. I will be the first one to defend the plight of early morning carriers in our weather; the Forum however, has no leg to stand on. If the Forum would make these people REAL employees and offer them the benefits they offer their other employees, then maybe the carriers would be more motivated to get the paper to the houses on time and in any weather.

I havenﾒt seen the post office having to write many letters to the editor asking for them to forgive the postal carriers for their tardiness and overall inefficiency. The reason is because they get paid decently and get decent benefits. Now no one is asking for carriers to be a top paid job, but to outsource the most important part of the Forumﾒs sales department seems to allow all their customers to complain solely to the Forum, and rightly so.

To Peggy Bellows: Please make some changes with your new position, not new excuses.

Posted by: samnero on 12/6/2005 at 3:36 PM | Comments (4467) | Permalink

Ice Skating Streets?

Now I am the first person to downplay the effects of the winter weather. I'm amazed daily at the overreaction by North Dakotans when it snows. I mean c'mon, how long have you lived here and are still afraid to drive when it's snowing? But last week when we saw the ice rain, I got a little concerned. My first problem was defrosting my windshield. After solving that, I had to carpool to work because my friend could not get his car to de-ice. I knew that this was the beginning of many disasters among the very poor drivers in Fargo. Luckily, the storm was bad enough that it did scare most of the people off the roads. I mean they even closed West Acres!

Now that the storm and ice have pretty much gone, we are left with patchy ice spots. These spots are probably more dangerous than if everything was icy. Fargoans have gained a fake confidence and have gone back to their old ways. Even the good drivers still slide on ice. I like to think I am pretty good at using the old tried and true method of pumping the breaks to stop from sliding. However, there was one spot today that I could not avoid, and could not seem to find traction. I am sure these spots are all over town and lesser used roads where sliding doesn't really have a chance of causing immediate danger. Where I slid though was right on the corner of Agassiz Middle School. I tried everything I knew how and still slid a good 20 feet, and I wasn't even going 20 mph. Now doesn't it seem like this could be a big problem?

In Minneapolis, and other big cities in the North, salting the roads are a common activity. It snows or rains cold, they salt the roads and everything is happy go lucky. No problem there. Except that the salt quickly erodes your car and makes everything look dirty, but no accidents right? I would like to believe that Fargo drivers are learned when it comes to driving on the snow and that the traffic is never bad enough where you can't drive carefully, however, there are those times and places where further action should be taken. Shouldn't the city consider salting icy intersections around schools to prevent any accidents? This just seems like a logical thing to do. The city already has the equipment they need to make this possible, they just have to designate the intersections. This will probably never happen, the city has other priorities and the people don't like salt on their cars. But ask yourself this, how many kids do you think it'll take getting hit before some efforts are made?

I also want to take a moment of silence for the Minnesota boy who was enjoying winter in the best way kids know how, sledding, when he was hit by an oncoming car when his sled went extra far, right into Highway 34.

Ice and snow can be deadly forces of nature as much as earthquakes and hurricanes can.
Please drive safely.

Posted by: Sam Nero on 12/5/2005 at 8:54 PM | Comments (32) | Permalink

Time for war?

Well I guess it's my turn to start talking about the war. Let me preface this discussion with my views on the war in short. Getting rid of Saddam Hussein is all people will remember in 200 years; however, for the next 50 years all people will remember is how much the United States messed up in doing it. Now that may not sit well with some of you, but how many people do you hear talking about Dresden on a daily basis? Probably not at all compared to the amount you still hear about Hitler.

Saying that, I think the only appropriate place to start is the immortal wisdom of Kurt Vonnegut and the last great Republican Abraham Lincoln:

"More than a decade before his Gettysburg Address, back in 1848, when Lincoln was only a Congressman, he was heartbroken and humiliated by our war on Mexico, which had never attacked us. James Polk was the person Representative Lincoln had in mind when he said what he said. Abraham Lincoln said of Polk, his president, his armed forcesﾒ commander-in-chief:

Trusting to escape scrutiny, by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory ﾖ that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood ﾖ that serpentﾒs eye, that charms to destroy ﾖ he plunged into war."

Now canﾒt we all agree itﾒs time to stop politicizing the war? Can anyone deny the fact that the war in Iraq was conceived well before Bush ever became President? And can anyone deny that Bush used his popularity and the peopleﾒs fear after 9/11 to start this war? Can anyone deny that everyone agreed that the world would be safer without Saddam? So war hawk or peacenik, letﾒs not fudge reality, the only one who suffers is our country.

And to leave you with one last thought from Vonnegut:

"[Vietnam] only made billionaires out of millionaires. Todayﾒs war is making trillionaires out of billionaires. Now I call that progress."

Posted by: Sam Nero on 12/1/2005 at 9:31 PM | Comments (31) | Permalink

Taking the Mystery Out of the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan

I thought I would pass along this public service announcement because I thought a lot of you out there might be interested an attending:

Please join Congressman Earl Pomeroy at a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, December 1, 10AM - 11AM at the Crossroads Senior Center at 2525 17th Avenue South (located on the corner- a former church building)

"Taking the Mystery Out of the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan" is the topic.  Questions about Medicare Part D? Come to have your questions answered.

Posted by: Sam Nero on 11/30/2005 at 1:14 PM | Comments (1662) | Permalink

Thanksgiving: What a holiday.

Well I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. I was out of town for part of it and spent the rest enjoying good cooking and good company. I donﾒt believe itﾒs a holiday that needs political digressing and is pretty non-religious agreed upon day. People of all cultures, religions, and political affiliations can celebrate equally. That is what makes it such a great day indeed.

I hope that most of you made it home safely and your travel plans were not delayed, and if they were, I hope you were some place warm. I also want to remind everyone to help out others who are stranded in this weather or your elderly neighbors who may not be able to shovel for themselves. Hopefully, this good deeds will come around to you when you are in need. Then you will be thankful, and so will your mailmen!

Posted by: Sam Nero on 11/29/2005 at 1:37 PM | Comments (107) | Permalink