To the editor:

And to the citizens of Brown County,

It has been some time since I have wanted to offer some words on any subject in this forum. I felt nobody really cared. The last foray I attempted was to inform the citizens of the county as to the state of affairs over the debate on the Brown County Schools referendum. I invested significant time in studying the BCS budget and those of similar systems throughout the state. It was obvious that BCS was spending almost a third more than other systems. But everybody said that wasn’t factual. It passed overwhelmingly.

Then a new superintendent was appointed and among the first things she stated was that the system was spending too much money and the budget needed to be cut back. As “Gomer” would have said: “Surprise, Surprise.” It wasn’t to me.

I said at the time that the two largest employers in this county were the BCS and the county. Any budget increases will be accepted due to the fact the largest voting block will be county employees, their families, and friends and neighbors. So I decided there wasn’t any valid reason to offer any more input. Except now.

I read the letter from the gentleman from Bloomington and felt there should be some opposing response. To begin with, I’m very weary of those that are blaming the administration for this pandemic. There are those that are saying that the president didn’t act soon enough. They’re saying that his own intelligence agency predicted in November that there could be an issue with this virus. But the report didn’t include a possible effect on the U.S., primarily China. So what was he supposed to do, shut down the borders, the economy and the entire nation at that time? He would have been vilified if he had.

There are individuals stating that the administration isn’t doing enough in addressing the issue. Hogwash. Once the pandemic was identified, the administration acted swiftly and decisively, martialing sources and pulling together manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies to aid in this issue. The president knew some of the CEOs by name and convinced them to direct their production of needed materials.

To some, it just wasn’t enough. Their agenda was that we didn’t have enough respirators, face masks, etc. I guess they think we should have had hundreds of thousands respirators and millions of face masks lying around in warehouses somewhere. A letter addressing the issue of the shortage of face masks was published the BCD. I thought at the time, what did he think, that we should have millions in reserve? As to leadership, wonder what the current Democratic presidential candidate would have done in this crisis?

This country wasn’t ready for WWII to begin, either. But it geared up for war production, and in a little over four years, won that war, along with the assistance of many allies.

In the letter, this individual also indicated that the opposition to the second and most costly 3 trillion “hero’s” legislation was apparently not justified. I disagree. The first bill included “pork barrel” pet projects that had nothing to do with aid to the issue of the pandemic. Congress knew that the lawmakers in both houses, as well as the president, wouldn’t dare oppose or vote against it. It was a blatant case of political extortion. That bill, along with this pending one, will only serve to further the devaluation of the dollar at a time that isn’t economically sound. The legislation was designed to enhance the Democratic Congress’ chances in November.

And finally, there are groups that blame this pandemic of the president totally. People with any common sense and reasonable intelligence know that just isn’t true. The problem with that is, not everyone this day and age possesses common sense. They get their “news” from social media, and of course, everyone knows that social media is always correct!

The real cause of this pandemic is a moronic Chinese “scientist” who created this virus in a laboratory to attempt to create a cure for it and then went out into the public to spread this disease so they could test the vaccine they had produced. He was case No. 1. Also at blame are the almost 400,000 people that were in China and returned to the U.S. within the first two months of the outbreak.

So, before one casts blame to any one individual and believes some of the media and political “talking heads,” attempt to accept the more reasonable and factual input. Of course, there will always will be present those that just won’t accept any facts, or truths that get in the way of their dislike of the president.

J.D. Ray, Nashville

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