God Bless the one wounded and three dead U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. This Afghani was vetted for being a terrorist by our military before ever being trained by the same military and given a loaded gun. If the military can’t vet someone for being a terrorist what makes you think our government can when any Sharia Law believing Muslim wants citizenship here? Nothing is perfect or a guarantee. But like those soldiers who turned their backs trusting this unknown Sharia Law killer we are doing the same with every individual let in our country from these Sharia Law Muslim countries. With just 10 Sharia Law believing terrorists among each thousand (just 1 percent) Muslims admitted to our country we face the possibility of 10 terrorist attacks and maybe our death, a family member’s death or our neighbor’s death. The odds of someone dying are better than if you buried 10 12- inch landmines within a 32 ft. by 32 ft. area and waited for someone to walk across it. At some point someone will die. 

Tourism is an important growth industry in our economy. Many citizens in our community make their living directly and/or indirectly from tourism. I respect the importance of this industry within our county. I support the new “Relax” branding campaign’s mission to create greater economic prosperity by targeting tourists within an 8-hour drive time of our county. I think the majority of the work Paradise Advertising created is excellent and elevates the image of our home town. The source of monies used to pay for this campaign came from bed tax generated by tourists, and these monies are allocated for tourism marketing in various forms by state law. I understand the budget for this campaign is not funded by locals or their hard-earned tax dollars.

I have copies of “The world’s Meanest Mom”, printed in the Press Gazette on May 4, 1995, in another area paper on May 8, 1994, and where Ann Landers on October 22, 1983 wrote “Country Needs More Mean Mothers”. Amen to that!  For those not familiar with it, here’s the blessing! Many of us can relate to most or all of it, Praise God!