Most employers now do pre-employment drug screening. This is intended to ensure a safe work environment and help make good decisions in regard to human resources. Now that this practice is commonplace, it forces people serious about getting a job to get clean.

Why is it then, that those who get food stamps, government assistance and even unemployment benefits are not required to pass a drug test? It seems that this practice would be even more important to keep those in the system honest and save taxpayers from supporting deadbeat druggies.

Additionally, let’s do Pre-Occupy drug testing. Before you make …

Read more »

Re: “Occupy Tacoma may face eviction” (TNT, 2-2).

I’m sorry to hear that the powers that be are seeking to get rid of Occupy Tacoma. It is sad that it is one of the few remaining settlements nationwide.

These mostly young people are the “canaries in the coal mine” who are bringing the problems in our current society to our attention, problems like income disparity, money corrupting politics, the environment, jobs going overseas, unfair tax structure and lack of jobs.

I try to drop in a few times a week to deliver some hot food and hold a sign …

Read more »

While I agree that the lower the income, the lower the ability of the person to do more than tread water financially, this Occupy thing is just not working anymore.

You have all said your piece, and for the most part, the citizens living in homes and apartments (and paying for them) agree with you on the need for change.

However, where did you – who do not work for a living – get the funds to buy the nice Carhartt jackets and warm clothes I see in the pictures in the paper? And how do you feed, relieve and …

Read more »

Re: “Occupy Tacoma may face eviction” (TNT, 2-2).

This little park has had very little use from other citizens. The Occupy Tacoma residents survived a cold winter, while the rest of us were nice and warm in our houses. They found a family in their group and a peaceful home to come to.

They have not caused any police intervention and no problem of any importance – except some may not look good. They have not disturbed anybody as far as we know.

Actually I find the group kind of neat. Their presence makes the city appear as a …

Read more »

After feeling confused about the strategies and mission of the Occupy Wall Street movement, I did a four minute internet search to find local events and information. It quickly became evident that the Occupy groups are focused and networking nationally and globally.

I encourage everyone to go to www.the-99-declaration.org and read this document that may be the solution to restoring voters’ voices to the political process. The demonstrations, the rhetoric and the news coverage do not do justice to a powerful idea that represents people of all races, economic levels and political beliefs.

Re: “Occupiers stand for what really matters” (Letter, 12-12)

The writer of this letter still “strongly supports the Occupy movement” and also states that the future of America’s children is being stolen by the “voracious greed” of Wall Street. What she fails to recognize is that sitting around on the wet pavement outside corporate or government buildings is not going to change what she perceives as the practices of greedy, thieving economic figures.

Granted, this is America and the protestors should have full First Amendment rights to do what they wish. But they also believe that what they are …

Read more »

Bradley Schiller totally misrepresents political reality in his column, ¨The problem is Washington, D.C. – not Wall Street¨ (TNT. 12-8). It is corporate America that runs Washington, D.C., not the other way around.

Corporations fund political campaigns of candidates for every political office imaginable, state and federal. They advertise their candidates with no limitations under the Supreme Court´s Citizens United decision. They fund an army of lobbyists to weaken congressional attempts at regulation. They cash in on their political contributions to get their lackeys appointed to powerful positions in agencies that regulate them.

It was corporate America that caused the …

Read more »

I, for one, still strongly support the Occupy movement – who else is speaking for the 99 percent of Americans watching their futures and their children’s, too, being stolen by Wall Street malfeasance and voracious greed? All while so many in government, federal, state and local, look the other way and do nothing – or, worse yet, aid and abet the thieves with special deals, bailouts and tax breaks, and no prosecutions. A really pitiful state of affairs not becoming at all to a civilized society.

Jobs, the environment, education, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, libraries,
police and fire protection, healthcare, …

Read more »