Leaders count on us staying uninvolved

It seems we hold dear only those things that directly affect us today.

If we have a job with insurance as a company benefit, we don't really care about universal health insurance. If we have never interacted with an illegal alien who caused us real and direct harm, we are not concerned.

If we have not been affected by the war in Iraq, the sacrifices of our citizens with an association to the military are not a concern to us.

Our politicians count on this to get re-elected without really fixing the issues that are good for the country as a whole. If we don't work together to support the common good, we will always put off the hard decisions that benefit our citizens.

We must demand that those items that affect all of us as citizens of this country are solved for the benefit of all of us, even if an item on the public agenda does not directly affect us.

We are now looking for a new superintendent for our school system. Our school board, attempting to duck some responsibility, hired a search firm that will cost us more money to find a new candidate.

Look at your real estate tax bill, Our school board spends over 70 percent of it. Yet when the search firm held three open meetings to get ideas from citizens, fewer than 100 showed up to speak.

Ernie Ebner

Elgin