Writer shouldn't berate those who chose to vote 'no'

Dear editor:

I'm writing in response to Brendan Ash's letter of Sept. 12: "Shame on those who voted against bond."

No, Brendan Ash, shame on you.

Why do you feel you have the right to berate anyone for how they voted? Without the benefit of the results of the voting, beyond the raw vote count, you derided people who did not agree with you. Before I explain the real reason for the bond's failure, I'd like to address a few of your points on the sorry state the schools are in.

In the fourth grade 54 of us took a bus from our elementary school to another building a mile away. We had two large rooms in a community center, each with standard equipment for a classroom (desks and a blackboard ). No play equipment, just a big field. In the 6th grade 28 of us were in the auditorium/lunch room. We had to pull all the tables out for lunch time and put them away. We thought we were 'cool' because our teachers made us feel we were special.

Until I was a junior in high school, I didn't know schools could have air conditioning. At that time, many of our classrooms were still taught in prefab and converted barracks and we were happy that they had heat in the winter and windows for summer.

Despite all of this, we learned, because we didn't know any better. No one was around to tell us about our "horrible learning environment." Point is, it doesn't matter where you teach kids. If you're good at your job, they will learn.

You said," the average family's taxes would go up an average $200 a year if this passed. That's $16 a month, less then the cost of feeding a family of four at McDonalds, and about the price of FMO." Gee, isn't it nice that you think a family of four should give up a trip to McDonalds or HBO just for you! Its not your money!

Ever think, maybe the person paying for this tax is someone on a fixed income, a family of five just making ends meet, or someone who's health insurance just went up $30, $40, $50 a month?

Maybe, the current bond for the jail has already cut into their funds enough that they have already given up McDonalds and HBO. Remember, even if someone's home only cost them $35,000 30 years ago, the city/county still readjusts its value to current appraisal levels. That home may be worth over $150,000 or more now. Fact of life, every time they raise the value on a home, the home owner is paying taxes on money they haven't made.

But, I assume that this is one of those concepts you've never been taught in your cloistered world of academia.

You say you spent $100 in gas money so you could register for an absentee ballot. Kudos, good for you for being so civic minded and spending that kind of money and effort as a college student, to exercise your right to vote. But you spent that money ONCE. Home owners will be paying for the school bond for years. When the housing market improves, their homes will be reappraised at a higher value, ergo taxes will go up.

Yes, it is a shame the bond failed. I, like others I've talked to, thought it was a done deal. When the bond comes up for a vote again, which it will, it's going to cost everyone more. It would have been better if it had passed this time, but the system worked as designed. Like it or not.

Finally, the reason the bond failed was because only 1,514 people bothered to vote. The bond would have passed, per the Mountain Home News, if 70 more people who would have voted yes had bothered to show up!

Turn-out killed the bond, not the 529 people who had every right to vote their own conscience on this bond. They did not deserve nor need a lecture from you. After all, it's not your money!

Jim Binnell