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7/31/2019 Is Springboro Ready to Be a Gateway?
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Emporia, Kansas is spending
over $100,000 for four monu-
mentsone tobe erected ateach of
their four entrances.Wilmington,
N.C.’s gateway is a short radio
tower with three microphones on
stands in front of it. The radio
guys love it. I’m not sure every-
one else does.
Other citieshavesignsthatsay
“Welcome to city name” and
underneath are signs with all the
service clubs, way too much to
read when zooming by at 45 or 55 mph.
Monroe,Ohiohas a giant stat-
ue of Jesus from the Solid Rock
Church. Why put up anything
else, just look for Jesus and
you’re here.
Miami Township has
approved a beautifulwaterfallfor
their entrance offI-675.It’s under
construction and should com-
plete this summer.
Now the big question. What
would you like Springboro’s
gateway to be or are we to small
and insignificant to have a gate-way? I asked a few folks around
town and here’s some sugges-
tions: Statue of Jonathan Wright
atStateRoute73 and I-75andby
the airport on southbound State
Route 741, he could be smiling
or waving at someone in the dis-
tance;a giantKiller Brownie ona
pole that says “Welcome to
Springboro” stop for a killer
brownie at Dorothy Lane Market
now; a huge statue of Mayor
Agenbroad standing next to
Agenbroad’s Bed Bread and
Water (the city jail) with a sign
saying “Text while you’re driving
andYOU getto sleep here!”; and
my favorite a huge black bear
smiling with a sign that reads
“This is my town…behave…or
else.”
If you have a suggestion, idea
or just want to give me your two
cents worth drop me an email at
my addresslisted below.
Next Tuesday at North Park
it’s those wild and crazy guys“The Menus”from Cincinnati. If
you like the Doors, Bob Seger,
David Bowie, Van Halen, Roger
Miller, Johnny Cash and those
are just a few, you’re gonna love
the “Menus.” Zany costumes,
crazy songs and high flying
antics will keep you in FUN
mode all night long. Arrive early
for best seating. Show starts
promptly at 7 pm.Yes, I’ll be hit-
ting the gong to get the show
started. Don’t miss this event. it’s
gonna be HUGE! (that darn
Honda guy has me saying huge
to everything.)
I ran into Tim Harrison at
Krogers then a few hours later at
North Park on the walking/jog-
ging trail last week. He had no
wild animals in his care at either
timeso I feltsafe. His movie, the
“Elephant in the Living Room,”
that won five film awards is
available on DVD and Dorothy
Lane Market has them in stock.
He and neighbor Mike Webber who was theproducer, director of
the movie are both Springboro
residents.The showwas featured
on National Geographic Wild a
couple weeks ago.
Funny coincidence, the mayor
and I werefilming atthe MVCC
studio with Dr. Greg McDonald,
a local dentist, who told us the
story of doing some dental work
on one of Tim’s tigers, the next
day I run into Tim and he invites
me to join him and one of his
tigers for lunch. I said, “Let me
think about it for a while.” Since
Greg got the tigers teeth fixed
he’s been eating really well I
heard. Lunch with a penguin
maybe, a tiger….not so sure.
Is it just me or are specialists
in the medical field more into
pharmaceutical sales than they
areservice? I havemet withsev-
eral dermatologists over the last
fewyearsthatbarely gave me the
time of day. One never even
looked at my psoriasis, sayingshe believedme and here’s a pre-
scription for a drug that costs
$1,600 a month and then walked
out of the room. A nurse camein
andsaid“thedoctorwouldliketo
see you againin six months.”
I said,“I’ll just texther thenext
time.” I met with another last
week and my opening words
were,“No Enbrelplease.” He did
look at how bad I have it and
gave me a couple of scripts for a
cream to stop theitching andtold
me to consider the Enbrel, he’d
love to clear it up for me and
that’s what works the best. I got
about two minutes worth of talk
fromhim.Never didget to sever-
al questions I wanted to ask. He
wasin a hurry. I’ll be texting him,
too. I have another appointment
withanother specialist scheduled for October and have been told
this doctor is the one I’ve been
looking for. Process of elimina-
tion willget me tothe gold.
Hope everyone had an awe-
some 4th. C U next Tuesday at
the concert.
4 Thursday, July 5, 2012 Springboro Sun
OPINIONCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
- The First Amendment to the United States Constitution
1836 West Park Square, Xenia, OH 45385 - 937-294-7000
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Copyright 2012, all rights reserved
Published every Thursday 50 weeks a year, except New
Years and Christmas days.
Periodicals postage paid at Dayton, Ohio. Postmaster:
Send address changes to Xenia Gazette, 1836 W. Park
Square, Xenia, Ohio 45385.
The publisher shall not be liable for damages out of
errors in advertisements beyond the amount paid for
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bility for non-insertion of any advertisement beyond the
amount paid in advance for such advertisement.
This newspaper is environmentally friendly. Itis printed in recycled fibers and soy-basedinks, with the exception of some supplements.
SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS HEALTH CARE LAW
In support of ACA Against the ACA
David Goldman/APAn opponent of President Barack Obama's health care law demonstrates out-
side the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, before thecourt's ruling on the law.
Opponents of theAffordable Care Act, disappointed
in the Supreme Court’s majority opinion upholding the
Act, are calling theAct a ‘tax.’
Congressman Mike Turner wasted no time issuing a
press release along those lines.
The Act is not a tax.
But we ARE currently being taxed every day because
the Affordable Care Act has not yet been fully imple-
mented.
We are all taxed when a citizen in this country shows
up at the emergency room at their county hospital with-
out health insurance. Whether it for themselves, or a
sick family member, when people arrive at their local
hospital — which is required to provide “indigent” care
for them — we all pay.
We pay property taxes, sales taxes, cigarette taxes and a myriad of local fees because of this strain on local and
state governments to provide services.
Sit in the emergency room for an evening and watch
them come in…wearing $150 sneakers on their feet,
with every member of the family with a cell phone,
driving up in their new car with a $399-a-month car
payment. All of these expenditures are made every day
by people we know who have elected NOT to buy
health insurance for themselves and their family.
Years ago, with the growth of automobiles driving
down public roads, both individual states and the federal
governments agreed that allowing people to drive on
public ways without car insurance was a crisis. Daily,
we all face the risk of someone crashing into us, damag-
ing our car, or causing us personal injury.
The law requires all drivers to carry liability insur-
ance. Drivers can elect not to protect their own vehicle,
but they must carry auto insurance for the damage theymight cause our car or our person.
The law says that you must carry car insurance, at a
level established by the collective action of the U.S. gov-
ernment, state authorities and insurance providers, so
that we are all protected from undue financial harm as
the result of an accident.
The Congress passed the Affordable Care Act for the
same reason — because too many Americans refused to
take responsibility for insuring their health.
Additionally, the Congress recognized that the health
insurance industry needed to be regulated; the Act
insures that health insurance companies can not drop us
— people who are willing to pay for health insurance
coverage — because we are sick, or our children or
spouse become ill. And, it will control the cost we can
be charged for services, and control the price of medi-
cines prescribed.
It protects us, no different from the other public safe-
ty functions of government we all depend on, such as
our local police and fire departments.
There is a role for government in all our lives — the
need to step in for ‘the greater good’ when individuals
can not, or will not, provide individually. Most of us see
the value of police and fire departments– government;
and public school systems — government; and trash
collection — government; and safe water management
— government.
This does not mean that we should not demand well-
run government.
We do and will every day here at the Xenia Daily
Gazette, part of the sacred mission of the media … the
daily watchdog of the job done by local, regional, state
and federal officials on our collective behalf.
The President and the majority of Congress took a dif-
ficult stand, after years of research, to provide us another
level of government protection to enhance our lives.
Does Congress have any limits?
Apparently not, according to the ruling by the
United States Supreme Court upholding the
Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Based on the ruling, it would appear that the
reach of Congress to regulate and mandate behav-
ior has no limits as long as the penalty for not
complying is called a tax.
That Chief Justice John Roberts joined the
Court’s liberal wing in the majority, and not Justice
Anthony Kennedy, was a shocker in itself, but the
rationale behind the ruling caught many off guard.
Conventional wisdom held that the individual
mandate, the funding mechanism for the ACA,
would be struck down and that the Court would
have to dissect what could be salvaged.
The irony of the ruling is that in oral arguments
before the Supreme Court, the Obama
Administration stated over and over again that the
mandate was not a tax-because they, like many
others, thought this would be the most likely way
the Act would be held unconstitutional. Instead,
Justice Roberts’finding that the mandate is a tax is
the only reason the ACA survived.
Today’s ruling means the federal government
can tell you that you must buy health insurance,
regardless if you want it or not. If you choose not
to buy insurance, then you will be taxed, and we
all know what happens to those who don’t pay
their taxes.
The fee that the government will impose is 1
percent of your salary. Many people without health
care probably don’t have jobs, so what good would
a fee do? One percent of nothing, is nothing.
What’s next? Will the government mandate we
all buy solar panels?American-made cars?
Broccoli? That becomes the real question, because
under this ruling the government can force us to
buy anything it wants under the penalty of a tax.
Another group that could be negatively affected
by this ruling is small business owners. If they
will be required to offer health insurance to their
employees, their cost will ultimately go up. The
domino effect of this is that businesses will be
forced to fire employees or demote them to part-
time status in order to cut costs.
The worst outcome could be a stunt in hiring,
which is not something our current economy
needs at the moment. This ruling could scare
companies into sitting on the sidelines and waiting
to see what the cost evaluation will be. Companies
that may have been feeling more positive about
their business and the economy may feel different-ly now.
The Act also describes a special tax for Cadillac
plans, which are the plans mainly afforded by the
higher-ups in a company. If these plans are taxed,
who do you think is going to pay the tax? The
bosses or the employees?The cost will ultimately
be passed on to employees, thus raising costs for
middleAmerica.
The negative aspects of this ruling outweigh
many of positive aspects. A better outcome is out
there and it needs to be found. Luckily, the ruling
only states that the Act is constituational. This
means that as a law, it can still be appealed.
Obama said today that we need to need to move
forward and put the health care debate behind us.
How is that really possible when this ruling affects
so many future decisions?
David Goldman/APSupporters of President Barack Obama's health care law celebrate outside
the Supreme Court in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after the court's rul-ing was announced.
The Springboro Sun encouragesreaders to write letters to the editor:
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• Letters to the editor must be350 words or less. Deadline for let-ters is 9 a.m. The Friday before
publication. Letter writers have alimit of one published letter every30 days.
• Letters will be verified by thenewspaper via telephone. Thenewspaper reserves the right to edit
for length, style and grammar andto limit the number of letters on aspecific topic.
• If content is libelous or mislead-ing, letters will not be printed. Forletters that include claims that arenot a matter of public record, theburden of proof of the claim(s) fall
upon the letter writer.• Election letters will be pub-
lished prior to the election, but notthe week before the election, thatissue is reserved for the newspa-per’s endorsements.
• Opinions of letter writers orcolumnists are those of the authoronly. They do not represent theopinion of the staff and manage-ment of the Times CommunityNewspaper Group. Send letters to1836 West Park Square, Xenia, OH45385 or [email protected].
Letter to the Editor Policy
Is Springboro ready to be a gateway?MERGE WRIGHT
B
y Don Wr
ig
h
t
Times
Columnist
