BND readers sound off on sinking school, hurricanes, term limits

Sinking opinion

Swansea Wolf Branch Middle School is starting to notice mine subsidence problems. Guess school officials and architects didn’t pay any attention to subsidence problems in Rosewood and Polo Run. The idiots built the middle school over an old coal mine anyway. What did they expect to happen, when the coal pillars 100 foot below started to crumble? Hope the school’s brainless trust was smart enough to buy subsidence insurance.

Here comes the bill

Swansea residents, get ready for a big Swansea property tax increase to pay for repairs or a new middle school.

Overnight problem?

About Wolf Branch Middle School in Swansea, something like this doesn’t just happen overnight. School officials should have seen things happening months ago, or even in the summer, with the cracks in the building. They should have addressed the problem then instead of waiting until the school year had started.

Term limits, yes

I think O’Fallon Mayor Roach has the right idea: term limits for municipal and county elected officials. I would love to see that in Belleville. Maybe we could finally get rid of Mayor Eckert and his cronies.

Swansea revolts

Good for Swansea. Finally a local government wants to revolt against paying St. Clair Township to do nothing but exist for the sole purpose of providing Democratic patronage jobs. Unfortunately, Swansea is talking to the hand. St. Clair Country Democrats will not give up their township slush fund, unless the voters make them, and that will never happen. St. Clair County voters really enjoy being taken advantage of.

Speedy MoDOT

What’s the difference between the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Missouri Department of Transportation? MODOT will repair and add a second lane to the Interstate 44-55 eastbound Poplar Street Bridge in six months. Took IDOT three years to add the Reider Road interchange on Interstate 64.

Climate clowns

It is unfortunate that Harvey and Irma have caused so much pain to our shores. The climate clowns have been crawling out of their holes, quoting Al Gore as the gospel in climate authority. There is climate change. Climate change has been going on since the Ice Age. I don’t understand why the climate clowns don’t do their research before spouting inaccurate statistics. Irma was the 7th strongest hurricane to hit Florida in the past 100 years — not the strongest.

Debtocrats for governor

In the “These Democrats want Rauner’s job” BND article, none of the Debtocrats mention how they are going to fix Illinois’ unsustainable fiscal mess. These people are the very party, run by Chicago Madigan, and the reason Illinois is the worst state in the Union. The jolly little dough boy, Pritzker, has pretty commercials but offers no solution for Illinois’ debt problems. All the Democratic candidates would be Chicago-run stooges. Illinois needs a leader who will make hard choices, not raise your taxes. At least Rauner has made some hard choices.

Five means Fifth?

If Judge Duebbert was only in front of the grand jury for five minutes, does that mean he asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination? If that is the case, then I think he should at least be removed from the bench, if not indicted. This makes me uncomfortable. Judges should inspire respect and confidence in the heart of the public. They should be held to a higher standard.

Crybaby teachers

While I do agree that Superintendent Ernie Fowler’s column was not a wise choice, the absolute eruption of shock about it is insane. He was telling a story from a 15-year-old’s perspective. I would venture to guess that many of the very books students read in literature at the school contain much more serious sexual references like “The Great Gatsby” and “Of Mice and Men.” I have heard many 16-year-olds speak and his writing doesn’t even register as vulgar. Perhaps some teachers just don’t like having a leader who says “no” on occasion. That is part of his job. Seems to me that there is a group of crybaby teachers who are throwing a tantrum because they no longer get their way.

Amazon here? Ha!

Does anyone actually think St. Clair County has a chance to get the new Amazon Headquarters to come to this area? One Amazon requirement was to have an international airport. Lambert lost that recognition when TWA went out of business, and flying directly to Cancun isn’t impressive. The Belleville brain trust couldn’t get the NGA. Amazon is a real business and the St. Clair County clowns are out of their league. If anyone at Amazon happens to read the proposal, the Amazon meeting room will be filled with laughter with the stories of a mayor who builds sewer lines to nowhere and the chief county clown running an airport that loses $10 million a year.

Tourism taxes

Why in the world would anyone expect Missouri to spend tourism dollars promoting Illinois? Illinois does not spend tourism dollars promoting Missouri. Why would this area be different from Illinois and Wisconsin or Illinois and Indiana? Tourism funds come from the hotel motel tax in each state. It is unrealistic to expect one state to promote another with tourism dollars. It would be a much more realistic expectation to take a look and see what Chicago gets compared to the downstate area.

We’re not the terrorists

Black Lives Matter is not a terrorist organization. I’ve never heard of a Black Lives Matter leader calling for violence against innocent people or police. This will be litigated soon, as an officer shot during protests in Baton Rouge sued the leaders of BLM. The officer claims BLM incited “disdain, hatred and violence against police” and BLM leaders used the Alton Sterling shooting to “to further incite its followers to take action against police.” This will be an opportunity for evidence to be presented over BLM’s “violence.” But remember, we’ve never seen footage of a Black Lives Matter activist driving a car into a bunch of people. But in Charlottesville a white supremacist did just that. And last Sunday, another white supremacist tried to run over protesters in Vancouver in a truck. The letter writers complaining about Black Lives Matter need to wake up to the real domestic terrorists.

Smithton grocer

Smithton recently lost its super market. I hope city leaders get together with business owners and someone opens a new store in town. It’s going to hurt the area if we don’t have even one small grocery store in Smithton. The rumor is that they want to put a liquor store in. I really hope that they don’t.

Good Catholic boy?

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s question to Amy Barrett, a Notre Dame Law School professor, during a recent confirmation hearing for a federal appeal court, should shock us all. Durbin asked Amy Barrett, “Do you consider yourself an orthodox Catholic?” This is from a guy who likes to tell everyone he was born in East St. Louis and his dad drove a Ford. He has come along way. When did your religious faith become a qualifier or non-qualifier for a federal job? It’s reminiscent of John Kennedy running for president back in the ’60s. Durbin has been in D.C. too long and no longer represents the values of an average person in Illinois.

Irrelevant Hillary

Hillary Clinton says she will not “forgive” the men and women who did not vote in the 2016 presidential election. That should keep them awake at night — not. Clinton needs to realize she is irrelevant. She is also part of the problem that kept men and women from voting. I am not excusing those men and women who did not vote. Voting is a right and a responsibility. But Clinton is done. Time to go home, cozy up to Bill and enjoy her family. Had the party supported Sanders instead of Clinton, it might be a different world today.

City or trough?

Can’t believe East St. Louis wasn’t named by the 24/7 Wall Street as one of the worst cities in Illinois. Is East St. Louis even a city anymore or just a political hog trough when the Democrats send money for votes? Stay tuned to 24/7 Wall St. when Illinois shows up as the worst state to live in.

Dreamer facts

Writer Lee Pitzer needs to get his “Dreamer facts” straight. There’s an estimated 800,000, not 1 million illegal immigrants. Dreamer “babies and very young children” have grown to be as old as 35 now. It’s Congress’ job to get it right, not Trump’s. Obama overstepped his authority when he ignored the rule of law and attempted to be the benevolent emperor.

Drug deaths

Recent statistics indicate 62,000 people die each year from overdoses and we’re told we average 12,000 gun homicides a year; maybe we should execute drug dealers like we do murderers.

Retired rankles

Would those who continue to use their retired military rank in their posts please get over yourselves? Whether you were a Colonel or a Staff Sergeant is completely irrelevant to the opinions submitted. Some of you seem to think putting “Col Ret” at the end of your post makes your opinion more valid than other opinions. It doesn’t, and the operative word is “retired.”

After midnight

I was disappointed to read that St. Clair County State’s Attorney Brendan Kelly’s 19-year-old son, Zac, was the victim of collision involving a drunken driver. The fact that the incident happened at 2 a.m. is somewhat concerning. Zac’s unfortunate experience just serves to validate the old adage that nothing good happens after midnight.

This story was originally published September 17, 2017 at 7:00 PM with the headline "BND readers sound off on sinking school, hurricanes, term limits."