Mail Call - Oct. 31

“I’m a very disappointed resident of the state of Maryland. Our Gov. O’Malley has got his way in congressional redistricting. Why was this done? Any dummy can see he wanted another Democrat to serve in another area. In other words, the great people of Western Maryland have very little say in the interests of the state of Maryland, and its operation. I wonder if Alex Mooney would have been elected ... the Democrats want to take full control. ... Our state, as far as I’m concerned, is a communistic state.”

— Hagerstown



“You know, President Obama has done more in his two years to get rid of these terrorist leaders than George Bush did the whole time he sat in office. George Bush did the talking, but Obama’s done the walking. Now the latest thing is Gadhafi, they captured him. So just look at the leaders that he’s got rid of, and plus saving that boat captain on that boat with the pirates, and so he’s done an outstanding job of getting rid of these terrorist leaders, and he doesn’t need to back away from that.”

— Hagerstown



“Traffic circles can function very well, if large enough. They can handle traffic from more than one crossing of streets. Washington, D.C., has many traffic circles, some very large, with two lanes of traffic within the circle. If handled properly, they can function very adequately for any area.”

— Williamsport



“I’d like to say thanks to all five county commissioners for voting ‘yes’ on the roundabout at the HCC area. We’ll see why, as traffic has to slow down when it comes to a roundabout when they’re approaching this type of intersection. Traffic lights, if you think about it, when it comes to red lights, it’s possible that people can run those red lights at a high speed and actually kill somebody walking through the intersection. So good job to the county commissioners for doing their homework on this type of project.”

— Washington County



“Someone from Hagerstown called in and said that the Bush policies are responsible for catching bin Laden. Well, remember one thing, Hagerstown caller, Bush couldn’t catch a cold, no less bin Laden. And I want to also congratulate President Obama on getting Moammar Gadhafi. It’s another bad guy off the list — more than Bush ever did.”

— Hagerstown



“I just read the letter to the editor from Anne P. Wright of Boonsboro. That’s very good. I commend you on your ideas. I don’t know how old you are, but you sound like an older person who has good sense.”

— Hagerstown



“Greencastle caller, I’ve got a nice bridge, going cheap, over the Potomac River, you’ll surely want to buy, if you really believe $2.4 trillion in Social Security funds are safe and sound, and earning interest. That money is gone, spent by politicians of both parties attracted to unspent money like sharks to blood, who stole — sorry, invested it — just like the Maryland legislature did with $2 billion from our transportation trust fund, and now we taxpayers — who do you think pays principal and interest on government bonds anyway — are responsible for that monstrous unfunded Social Security liability. ... I’d have left it alone, so it’d be there for the people who paid it in, when they retired.”

— Frederick, Md.



“OK, explain to me why it’s OK — every state does it, every single state does it — explain to me why it’s OK for a Republican governor to do redistricting, you know, to change the voting map in their states, but when a Democrat governor tries to do it, the Republicans go crazy. It’s just tit for tat. All the new governors in these other states, seems to me there isn’t something to cry about, Republicans just aren’t happy.”

— Hagerstown



“Regarding your editorial on Thursday, Oct. 20, I strongly disagree with your comment, ‘Bartlett has represented Western Maryland well for 20 years.’ In my opinion, Mr. Bartlett has served business well, and he has done a disservice to the average working person and family. He has voted ‘no’ for health coverage for first responders, ‘no’ to food safety overhaul, ‘yes’ to extend Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, ‘no’ to children’s health insurance program reauthorization, ‘no’ to Lilly Ledbetter fair pay act, ‘no’ to Medicare prescription drug bill, and ‘no’ to fair minimum wage — just to name a few. Too bad more people don’t read the representatives’ votes you publish in the Sunday paper. Maybe we wouldn’t have had his poor service for 20 years.”

— Smithsburg



“I live above Hancock, on National Pike, so I have to come 70 west. I’m running 70 mph in the left-hand lane. Speed limit’s 65, so I’m 5 mph over the speed limit, but yet people have to push you to get out of their road, because they want to run 75, 85, 90. What is wrong with these people out here anymore, that you can’t obey laws? From the cellphones, riding down the road on the cellphone — and I’m not on the cellphone while I’m riding; I’m parked — speeding like they’re nuts.”

— Hancock



“So now the tea party is telling businesses not to hire anybody. Do they really have the best interests of the people of our country in mind? What if you were between losing your house and could only get a job, and had an opportunity for a job but now a business has decided not to hire you, because of the tea party? These are not the kind of people we want in office. They do not have the best interests of the American people at heart.”

— Hagerstown



“You know, I was reading in the paper this morning about the Grandparents Day in the schools, for these schoolchildren, the grandkids. I think it’s very important for grandparents to go to the functions of the school for Grandparents Day because I go to them all, and I see so many kids that are so sad because their grandparents didn’t come, and my wife and I, we always make a point to talk to them and so please, grandparents, take a little time out and go to your grandkids’ Grandparents Day at school.”

— Hagerstown



“This is something that I just get tired of all the time. One of the worst people in the world, Gadhafi, is now gone. He’s dead and gone. So forget about it. Bury him and forget about it. Why does the press have to keep following a story on a dead man? It’s just totally ridiculous. Let his country handle it. We don’t need to hear all this. That’s their problem, let them live with it. It’s just like bin Laden. He was in the news just as if he’d been a U.S. president or something that had died. We get too much publicity for these dirtbags.”

— Hagerstown



“Nice article about the challenges facing our downtown city of Hagerstown, in the paper on the 24th of October. Nice article, good to discuss it. Been discussing it, doing a little something for 30-plus years and it hasn’t changed much. Thank God for ... the Barbara Ingram school and The Maryland Theatre. The first block of South Potomac Street’s good. Take a look at Frederick and go to Winchester, if you want to see something, Virginia.”

— Hagerstown