Letter to the Editors
This is the full version written 3-4-2011 on the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's inauguration.

Dear Editor:

I am as red-blooded as any American can be! And it is time I put some thoughts down in writing about our current situation in this wonderful country of ours. At almost 68 years old I have earned the right to speak my thoughts and we need others to speak up too, regardless of their age.

First of all, there is NO shortage of oil and gas in American or any reason, contrived or otherwise, to keep raising our gas prices and giving the big oil and gas companies their biggest profits in years. The President was quick today to speak out about the dispute between owners and players of football. Why can’t he take as much interest in escalating prices of gas? Why can’t he and Congress/Senate do something to put a stop to these big profits at the expense of our driving public?

In my 35 years of traveling all over the United States to 46 states and trying to motivate and inspire our young people and us older ones too as ABE LINCOLN, I have stayed with many families. Some of them were in the great state of Texas and informed me years ago that they owned oil wells and were MANDATED by our government to cap them off. When I asked WHY? I was told that it was to make the prices of a barrel of oil go UP!

The oil companies use the excuses of wars, storms, spillages, plant problems and numerous others to make us think there is a shortage and therefore the prices should be raised accordingly for the old adage of “supply and demand” issues.

Why is our government allowing companies like Shell, BP and others to take home their highest percentage of profit dollars ever at our expense? Why can’t someone investigate them just as we did Enron and the banking industries? Who in Washington has their hands in some ones’ pockets and is being paid off somehow to keep quiet and not do anything about the issue?

Our government is still the greatest anywhere in the World but it is time that it again should be a “government OF, BY & FOR the people”. It hasn’t been for decades! And the first thing we need to do to help put it back into our hands and make sure the politicians we send to Washington are doing what is best for us is to OUTLAW all the Political Action Committees or PAC’s as they like to be called! Until we do that the politicians will continue to be bought and sold by big businesses who buy their votes….legally or illegally.

And while we are talking of political reform in America lets do something about our taxes too. It is past time to have a FLAT TAX…probably of 10% or less….and make everyone pay their share. If everyone, including ALL the big businesses who aren’t paying a cent into the fund, sent in their annual 10% payment, our government would have more than enough to fund what is needed and get us back in the black again. NO company would last very long if they were trillions of dollars in debt like our government is.

One way to cut back on some of the unnecessary spending would be to get rid of ALL the government subsidies and let those who have been receiving this “annual landfall” either fall or survive on their own.

On education we also need some help. Our teachers are the most UNDERPAID profession in America and WE cannot do without them nor would we be where we are as individuals without the wonderful education they have brought to us. One way to put more money into the teachers’ pockets would be to get rid of some of the DEAD WOOD in our county school board offices all over America. There are too many “fat cats” making big salaries who are doing jobs that could be handled just as efficiently by others at savings of thousands of dollars annually.

And while we are speaking of DEAD WOOD in our school systems let us also look at all the FAT CATS in Washington who sit around doing nothing to earn their big paychecks. Why don’t we have somebody who really cares and is not afraid of stepping on toes go around and ask the simple question, “What do you do everyday to earn your paycheck?”

It is indeed time for the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA to once again become “a government OF, BY & FOR the people”.

Homer S. Sewell III aka
Abraham Lincoln
www.abeusa16.com