Speak Out- October 24, 2012

If you have a short comment you would like to make, call the Speak Out line at 623-5887. Longer comments are better suited as a letter to the editor.

Saturday, 6:53 p.m. You know, I’ve been watching that Santa Rosa County Transit bus, and all the times I’ve seen it go by, I’ve only seen a passenger in it one time. Is it really worth the cost? Thank you.

Saturday, 4:11 p.m. Hi, my name is Bruce. The reason I’m calling in is in reference to the presidential debates and everything. I don’t know if anybody is paying attention or anything. I’m retired military and my benefits have already changed under Obamacare. My co pays have increased and will continue to increase. Some of our other benefits are cut back. My wife met a person in physical therapy. He said his visits were cut back because of reviews by medical care people that he couldn’t get any more physical therapy. He had to pay for it himself and he was retired military. We have to look back and see what Obama promised and what we actually got from him. It’s a far cry from everything he said he was going to do and he didn’t do. And like I said being former retired military every time a democrat has got in, they have cut the military back so far. Clinton cut the budget backs. The military operates on a budget just like everybody else. Everyone needs top pay attention to these debates. I’m tired of these four years and I want to see change. Thank you. Saturday, 2:35 p.m. Hi, Jeff again here. I got to the store to get the paper, thankfully I got a ride. I’m reading about the bus service. I’m all for the bus service. I lived in Dallas for 10 years, and I lived in New Orleans for 8 years. And I never owned a car at either time. I got from one end of the city to the other via the bus system. That includes work, grocery store, Target, Walmart, wherever. You need to extend the bus service. More people will ride it all for a monthly pass. Back in the 80s I paid $42 a month for a monthly pass and that was all transfers and everything. East Milton is more than an industrial park and the airport down Highway 90. East Milton is also Hickory Hammock and Ward Basin Road. If you all would come here, I would gladly walk to the corner there to get the bus so I can do things. East Milton, Milton and Pace are more than just Highway 90. Extend the bus service. Thank you.

Saturday, 12:43 p.m. Yes, this is Jimmie. I’ve had a couple people tell me they’ve left comments on here about this mess on Avalon and you all haven’t printed it. So either they didn’t’ tell the truth or you didn’t do your job. We appreciate Speak Out, and we’d appreciate if you’d print them if people called in. Thank you. Editor’s Note: Jimmie, we print as many Speak Outs as we can fit in the paper. Speak Out’s that cannot fit are published online. We only have so much space in our papers. Thank you.

Friday, 7:20 a.m. This is Rick. Yes, I would like to know some information on our drug testing here in Santa Rosa County in our school systems. For instance, do our athletes need to be tested regularly? And what is the penalty if they are found with drugs in their system? Thank you.

Thursday, 8:46 p.m. Yes, this is a response to Charlie’s comment about the mess there near Nichol’s Seafood. I have to agree, I spent almost $300 on shocks on my car because of that crap they call a road there. I’m going to contact the state and Panhandle Paving and figure if maybe one of them will maybe help me out with this since their sorry work has messed up my wife’s car. I wouldn’t complain about it too much though because they are liable to cut everything else off that that stupid crap. They’ll probably cut off the entrance totally. Jesus Christ what a mess.

Thursday, 5:32 p.m. Yeah, this is Bobby, I keep hearing on television some black folks saying white people don’t like the president. I don’t think they stop to think, but white people elected him. It’s impossible for the black people alone to elect somebody. Also, white people freed the slaves, they couldn’t’ free themselves. White people also passed the equal rights amendment and they integrated the schools. The Supreme Court upheld that and they were white. White people passed that. Black people couldn’t do it by themselves. So they need to quit thinking racial all the time. Any time everything happens it’s racial. That’s’ not the way it is anymore. Thank you.

Thursday, 11:37 a.m. This is Mary, a senior citizen. I appreciate you printing my Speak Out. This morning I was reading the October 17 paper and the Letter to the Editor by Sharon Glass. I totally agree with that. In my 78 plus years I have never heard so much stuff about racism. It seems like all the years I’ve seen people that are racist are the ones carrying a chip on their shoulders going around seeing if they can blame someone for their problems. I think that’s racist. And my maternal grandmother, her grandparents that lived in the 1800s had slaves. But they treated them very fairly. They gave them homes in return for work. The mother of the family would look after the grandmother’s children. There was no racism. It was something our nation did. By the way if they would go back and check, the Africans sold their people to the European traders. That’s how they came to the U.S. You can’t blame that on people today. We had nothing to do with it. Thank you very much.

Thursday, 10:31 a.m. This is Ron. These people in Santa Rosa County keep electing the same people over and over. And they keep having the same problems over and over. And I would like to tell Chet that he needs to take a look at a re-run of the debate between Biden and Ryan. I think Mary the senior citizen and I were watching the same program. I think Chet was watching a different show. I think Biden was very disrespectful. And if that’s what you people want for a vice president and a president, boy you are in for trouble, and so are we. Bye.

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Speak Out- October 24, 2012