Super proud

To the editor:

Oftentimes our society blames our youth for all that is wrong with the world. I would like to answer to this statement.

Friday, May 27, was graduation day for my school, Osceola High School. Some incredible things happened at our graduation and I would like to share them with you.

First, all of our graduates presented themselves in the proper attire for the graduation ceremony. Guys in white dress shirts, tie, dress pants (no jeans) and dress shoes (no tennis shoes). Girls in dresses and dress shoes. These two things started our positive adventure.

The weather was less than favorable but everyone arrived on time and the ceremony began on time. During the ceremony, power was lost in the Silver Spurs Arena at Osceola Heritage Park three times. None of our students acted out during these stressful times, and with the assistance of the personnel at Heritage Park, the show continued and we graduated in record time. At one point in the ceremony, the following instruments were used to announce our graduate's names: two bullhorns, two microphones, loud voices and finally one live microphone finished us off.

All this being said, here is what makes me proud to be an educator: The wheelchair lift would not work after the power problems. We had one wheelchair graduate and no power to get him to the stage, several of our male graduates (with no provocation) picked up our special student (wheelchair and all), carried him up the stairs to the stage, wheeled him across the stage to receive his diploma then carried him off the stage. The aforementioned young men showed their compassion and pride for their fellow classmate. These young men have parents who should be proud of their actions and I am certain I will never forget their names. We do have great youth and these times confirm that our efforts have not gone unnoticed. It does take a village to raise a child and Osceola High School is a super village.

Charlene Lackey
Junior/senior dean
Osceola High School

No public toilets next?

To the editor:

To allow your opinion column to be used to solicit the governor of the state of Florida, whose policies suggest he hasn’t used toilet paper in years, to intercede on behalf of the sanitary-minded residents of Osceola County concerning the selection of toilet paper in public restrooms leaves me dumb-founded and almost speechless.

Let’s hope Rick Scott doesn’t read the Osceola News-Gazette because if he does, he will probably address this problem with the same zeal and clear-headed forethought he has applied to all of Florida’s problems, which would mean you cannot only look forward to continued inferior toilet paper but no public toilets at all in Florida. Now that it’s been brought to his attention that there are, in fact, free restrooms out there that he never uses, they could be deemed an unnecessary expense, just like adequate unemployment compensation, federal money for high-speed rail or any rational plan for a national health care system that benefits average working people.

My advice to Donna Olmstead is don’t leave home without your preferred brand.

Jerry Mobley
St. Cloud

Fight for freedom

To the editor:

I beg to differ with the article by Robert B. Reich in Saturday, May 21, edition of the Osceola News-Gazette. How could anyone believe our treasury secretary tax cheating, lying Tim Geithner’s warning. It’s another scare tactic.

The nation’s debt limit needs to be cut considerably, raising it will only bring more inflation and bankruptcy (like Greece and Spain, etc.). We can’t keep printing worthless money and spending money we don’t have; giving millions to Egypt and Brazil to drill for oil, which we will buy. We need to drill for our own oil and not depend on foreign oil. The government will not go broke. Tax money comes in daily. We are taxed to death now.

Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget will not affect Social Security for people 55 years and older. Changes will be made only to people just coming into the system, which will keep it solvent and preserved for our children.

Wake up, America. The government wants to make slaves out of us, forcing health care down our throats and forcing us to buy mercury-filled light bulbs (which are dangerous), telling us what cars to buy, what foods to eat, how to raise and educate our children. It is time to fight for our freedom. Less government, less spending, less taxes, less restorations.

Lovelace Perkins
St. Cloud