A thank you to those who respond to fires

Editor: I want to take this time to thank all fire departments, police, national guards, and whoever else helped during those awful fires all over.

I'm sure they don't get enough thanks and I'm sure they love hearing it. They went out and risked their lives to save homes and lives. During this process we lost lives with them trying to help us do their jobs. They are angels sent from the heavens.

Thank you all so much for everything. You all have so much love in your hearts to risk your lives for strangers. You have done a wonderful job and will continue doing it when needed. Like I said, you are all angels and are very much needed. ROB AND LESLIE BUBURG Lodi

Tax and spend not the way to go

Editor: Regarding the article by Doug Bader on Thursday, Sept. 6: Short-term fixes to long-term problems:

Doug Bader said, “proponents of the tax measure advocate hiring additional employees. Won’t more employees increase the already unsustainable pension liability? Employee pay raises and replacement of department heads with new hires and richer contracts also increase pension costs. The citizens of Lodi are being asked to cast their ballots this year in support of a one-half cent sales tax increase. We are getting hit on all sides with tax and fee increases due to the pension liability debacle, but tax increases alone will not solve the problem. We need to take a hard look at contracting some of our city services out to the private sector: parks, building and street maintenance would be a good place to start, in addition to eliminating the pension for those workers, we would save the cost of equipment and supply purchases, equipment maintenance costs, storage and fuel.”

That is great insight to the flaws of this tax increase proposal.

The city manager would never agree to such a proposal. He is part of the establishment, and has already voiced objections to such a proposal.

The council would be hardpressed, and may not have the leadership to implement any procedure that does not have the approval of the city manager.

There is one scenario that would encourage city leaders to look at this proposal as a possibility, and that would be to vote no for the proposed sales tax increase. As long as government can tax and spend, there will be no effort to try and correct this problem. JOHN SLAUGHTERBACK Lodi

We need more people like McCain

Editor: Dear John McCain, God Bless you dearly. You are a man. There's only one person in my life I could call a man, and that was my first father-in-law, Jim York. He took care of what he should of taken care of.

He was a veteran, like me. I could not imagine what you have been through. And you still got up and did what you needed to do, to take care of your responsibilities. This world needs more people like you, and I will strive to be like. MITCHELL OTTO Lodi

Letters invited

The Lodi News-Sentinel welcomes opinions from its readers. Letters must be signed and include the writer’s address and phone number for internal verification purposes. All letters are subject to editing. Letters from local readers dealing with local issues are given priority. Letters from outside the local area are published at the editor’s discretion. Letters longer than 350 words will be cut to fit or returned to their writers. There is a holding period of 30 days between publication of letters by the same person unless no other letters are queued. Send letters to P.O. Box 1360, Lodi, CA 95241-1360; or email to letters@lodinews.com.