Dear Editor,

"Financial Crisis – Educate Yourself!"

These are interesting times to live in, financially speaking. The limitations of a letter to the editor won’t do them justice and neither, it appears, will most mainstream media. With all the unfamiliar words and phrases like “derivatives,” “credit default swaps,” and “securitization” flying around, it can make the head spin. I want to encourage people to think for themselves and investigate the causes of this current crisis. Don’t just go to the major news outlets, but seek out analysis from numerous and varied sources. I suggest you first go to www.mises.org ‘s “Bailout Reader.” While I could tell you that I think it’s the government itself, with the creation of bad regulations, ending of good regulations, and Federal Reserve interest rate distortions, you’ll just have to come to your own conclusions. To me, its kind of depressingly funny how we as a nation seem to expect the government that was a large part of creating this mess as the cure to the mess. If after all your investigating you get motivated enough to participate in our republic by contacting your representative or senator, all the better.

A quote that’s pertinent to what we are about to embark on:

“We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debt, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our calling and our creeds...[we will] have no time to think, no means of calling our miss-managers to account but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers... And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for [another]... till the bulk of society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery... And the fore-horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.” –Thomas Jefferson

Do we still have time to think?

-William H. Lovett, III

San Saba, Texas

Dear Editor:

Kudos to Pilar Rosales' thought provoking letter last week. Sure, we all love a winner and want to win! Most important though is what we instill in our children about winning or losing. Our children and grandchildren, after all, will soon be the leaders and/or losers in the real world.

I think the most important thing to look for in a coach or teacher is how they treat our kids and the example they set for them. I doubt if any of the kids had in their mind to "get rid of the coach!" Their most important thoughts should be to listen, learn and give their best to the person who is giving his or her best to them. I've always thought if the parents and grandparents would just encourage their children and let the coaches and teachers do their jobs to the best of their ability, everything would be so much better.

My husband and I both coached Little League teams for many years, so we have a little inkling what the coaches go through. Seems like even then the parents who really didn't have the "time", for some reason or other, had the most advice about what we should or should not do! Our favorite story is about the time after a game when some of the team members tugged on Bill's shirt tail and said "Who won, Coach?" The kids were having so much fun, they really didn't know if we won or lost!! Wouldn't it be great if we all had that attitude? Out of the mouths of babes . . .

Let's just support our athletes and our coaches and teachers and learn to be good sports! Maybe this would be the best lesson of all for our children!

Sincerely,

Jo Anne Hardy

San Saba

P.S. Isn't San Saba looking great? Thanks to all those citizens working so hard on it!

Dear Editor:

I want to thank Pilar Rosales for the letter she wrote last week. I wanted to write on behalf of the coaches and the football team, but I can't express myself as good as she did.

So, thanks, Pilar!

Juana Jimenez

San Saba

Dear Editor:

I would like to start off this thank you letter by saying how much I am so very grateful for all that the town has gone out of its way to make us all feel better here in the short time we have been sheltered here in the San Saba retirement home.

There are other towns, then there is San Saba. This town has gone above and beyond anything we could have ever hoped for or expected to have waiting for us when we arrived here. It's people like Marsha Hardy and the people from the churches helping so much with the food and clothes provided, and the American Red Cross for helping as well, and CVS pharmacies and Subway. But more than all of this, I would like to thank the whole town of San Saba for all the help and kindness they have showed all of us in the short time we have been here.

Thank you so much.

Lisa Riddle

c/o Marsha Hardy