It seems like these weeks leading up to Election Day are becoming increasingly tense. Most news media provides slanted coverage of the candidates. They immediately lose their credibility with me when a lead story begins with “[Mitt Romney or President Obama] may have cost the election with last night’s statement”. Really, do they think they can sway my vote based on their opinion of the news? I’d like to think I value my vote enough to make my own informed decision. The news media needs to keep their opinions out of their reporting. I believe that the tax system must change for the good of humanity. Assistance programs do not build character in the majority of the recipients. But that’s understandable. If I were to win $500 from a raffle, I would likely consider it a windfall, something unexpected and the money would be treated as such. I believe that is our human nature. I believe, for most of us, money has a value only if we earn it.

I’d like to debate taxing everyone, even those that receive government aid. Perhaps it has the capability of giving everyone a sense of belonging to the democracy of the USA and could possibly teach them math skills as they figure the difference between gross and net pay or the percentage of taxes deducted. A reader asked me to repeat the “satire” of the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper. OLD VERSION The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs, dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself! MODERN VERSION The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs, dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving. CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’ ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant’s house where the news stations film the group singing, “We shall overcome.” Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper’s sake. President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper’s plight.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share. Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper. The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant’s food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood.

The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2012.

This Saturday from 5:00 – 10:00 pm the Winery of Versailles is having a Wild Wine West Event featuring a western themed party with music by Exploit. Sunday morning the Versailles Eagles Auxiliary will hold a breakfast from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm. This is a great breakfast and is open to the public. Sunday evening from 4:00 – 7:00 pm the Versailles Christian Church 3rd Annual Cruise-In will be held at the church.

Healing prayers and get well wishes to Dan Dodson, Crystal Homan, Mark Harleman, Allison Reed, John Magoto, Cecilia Subler, John Subler, Tom Henry, Samantha Smith and those in need that are not mentioned by name. Happy Birthday wishes to Miriam Harman, Aliana Pleiman, Matthew Francis, Norma Magoto, Jim Buchy, Bonnie Luthman, Amy Wagner, Pauli Francis, Glo Quinter, Paula Schmitz, Iona Gariety, Brian Schweiterman, Jerry Bey, Stephanie Mestemaker, Ralph Gehret, Sarah Voisard, Shirley Billenstein, Mike Poling, Vicki Witt, Rhonda Albers, and Mark Harleman. Happy anniversary wishes to Morgan and Ben Seger (1), Maggie and Brian Knapke (4), Jenny and Kyle Francis (5), Mary Jo and Jim High (7), Katey and Chris Wibbenmeyer (8), Lynne and Joe Schlater (25), Phyllis and Ed Collins (54), and Betty and Luke Jutte (60).

My heartfelt sympathy to the families and friends of Treva Westerheide, Virginia Hollinger, Keith Cron, Michael Bundy, Kathryn Jay, Robert Ambos, James DeMoss, and also remembering the lives of Bob Francis, Larry Miller, Guy Borchers, Pat Yount, Billy Turner, Kevin Rue, Mary Francis, Robert Lee Fritz, Fr. David Heinl, Bob Rhoades, Jim Laub, Marie Minnich, Edna Sheffel, Bob Brumbaugh, J.P. Simon, Ann Subler, Dula Brand, Jerry Kuether, Raymond Wetzel, Fred Wuebker, and Homer Wood.

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” ~Winston Churchill

“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” ~George Bernard Shaw

Kathy Magoto is a volunteer citizen columnist, who serves Daily Advocate readers weekly with her weekly Versailles community column. She can be reached at magmon1@embarqmail.com or at 526-3798. Feel free to contact her with Versailles news and tidbits. Viewpoints expressed in these opinion pieces are the work of the author. The Daily Advocate does not endorse these viewpoints or the independent activities of the author.