Southeast Nebraska speaks up: Letters to the editor for the week of Jul. 3, 2026
Our weekly round-up of letters published in the Lincoln Journal Star.
- Updated
To the folks who want to change the government, do so, harm none. One request, stop flying the American flag proclaiming yourselves patriots. It's our flag, you don't speak for all of us. Find your own flag, represent yourselves. Sad to say, but you've become the Redcoats in this scenario, with a King George III at the helm. If you are really patriots, then I ask you, where among you is Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Washington, Lincoln? Until then you have become merely patriots in name only. PINOs. Our country was founded upon not agreeing with a king. A mad one at that. Why do we continue to follow anyone who hasn't been in the midst of reality? Never have they worried about rent, food, gas, sick days, daycare, medicine, working two jobs, dying on that job. How can that person represent us? Remember, we have less of a fall when we have already dug the hole.
Brad Koontz, Lincoln
- Updated
From the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed …”
At times, the U.S. has lived up to those lofty ideals and we have accomplished many great things during our history. We are the richest country in the history of the world and we have liberated millions of people around the world from tyranny. We helped save the world from fascism during World War II and brought about the end of the Cold War. We should be proud of those achievements.
But there have been times in our history when we haven’t lived up to the lofty ideals spelled out in the Declaration of Independence.
The U.S. status as a “shining city on a hill” and a beacon of hope for the rest of the world is up to us. We must pledge ourselves to continue working hard to make sure our country lives up to the ideals we were founded upon. That is the true meaning of patriotism.
“We can do better here in the United States, we can do better. We can do better in our relationships to other countries around the rest of the globe.” —Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Dennis Patrick Crawford, Lincoln
- Updated
Since the writing of The Declaration of Independence 250 years ago, the document has been an aspirational guide for our Republic and every generation needs to consider the words that have given hope to millions of people. It is also necessary to recognize and remember that countless people who lived and still live in this nation are opposed to the meaning of the words of this declaration.
In 1776 a significant number of inhabitants wanted to remain loyal to the British king. The Civil War was waged because some citizens opposed the truth stated in the Declaration that humans are created equal and endowed with a natural right to life and liberty. Some thought they were better than slaves from Africa and the Native people who lived here for centuries. Those who opposed this document oppressed immigrants and consolidated their power with the accumulation of wealth that was derived from the labor of others.
Today we are faced with that consolidated power in the form of Project 2025, which among many principles that ignore the Declaration, advocates for what is described as “a unitary executive,” an authoritarian ruler that is above any law.
The citizens of our nation are confronted with the choice of acting in defense of The Declaration of Independence, and providing all human beings the dignity of their natural rights or abandoning this aspirational guide in living our ideals. What choice will we make?
Ron Todd-Meyer, Lincoln
- Updated
We are a nation founded on Judeo-Christian values. If we don't speak up and defend this, we are not any better than the people making comments against our great country that are not true.
We live in the best country and must defend it with our words and actions. Please tell anyone putting us down they are wrong. Period. I love my being an American in this USA and will defend it until I die.
I will not tolerate anyone saying otherwise. You either defend it or you leave it. There is no middle ground for this discussion. Thank you and may God bless our USA.
Margaret A. French, Lincoln
- Updated
A recent letter catalogued waste and fraud in SNAP — the program many of us still call food stamps — anchored by the familiar image of someone buying groceries with food stamps while driving a Mercedes. As lawmakers continue to advance cuts to SNAP, it’s worth asking why that single anecdote carries so much weight when the fuller picture with facts tells a different story.
* Food stamp fraud is real, but small and shrinking. The USDA’s own figures put benefit trafficking at roughly one to two cents on the dollar, and verified recipient fraud at a fraction of 1%. The program’s “error rate” is mostly honest mistakes in a complicated system, not theft.
* We tolerate far larger dishonesty elsewhere without demanding the program be dismantled. Americans fail to pay roughly $600 billion in legally owed taxes every year — more than five times the entire SNAP budget — and most of it goes uncollected from higher earners whose income the IRS can’t easily verify.
* The difference isn’t the amount of cheating. It’s who gets scrutinized. We shrug at unpaid taxes among the comfortable and fixate on one shopper in a parking lot.
* SNAP is easy to ridicule because the people it serves — many of them children — can’t defend themselves in print.
No program should excuse fraud. But before we judge an entire program by its worst anecdote, we ought to hold ourselves to the same standard. A hungry child in Lancaster County did nothing to earn our suspicion.
Vince Sutton, Lincoln
- Updated
As someone who has voted for Republicans, Democrats, Independents and third-party candidates, I am always open to whichever candidate I believe is best, regardless of affiliation.
The race for U.S. House in Nebraska's 1st Congressional District presents a unique situation then. With an incumbent Republican who's been in D.C. for years, and a Democratic candidate who has also worked in DC for years in the State Department, neither candidate from the main two parties offers the sense of change that most Nebraskans are craving.
Austin Ahlman, on the other hand, has not worked in government in D.C., and what's more, he actually reported on corruption in D.C. as a journalist. As an Independent candidate, he has much more freedom to vote to actually help Nebraskans, instead of conceding power to party bosses.
Washington, D.C., needs fresh blood. It needs outsiders who can actually drain the swamp. We need to send a message to the Washington politicians that our votes shouldn't be taken for granted, and that they actually need to serve constituents, and that there are electoral consequences for not doing that. If we just keep voting the same way with no results, we tell our representatives they don't actually need to do anything productive to keep their job. That can end with Austin Ahlman.
Time to shake up Washington. I'm voting for Austin Ahlman for Nebraska's 1st Congressional District. I think you should too.
Lance Bowman-Larson, Lincoln
- Updated
To Sens. Ricketts and Fischer and Rep. Flood.
Aren’t you tired yet?
Are you not tired of the constant embarrassment, the corruption, the graft and the lies told by the Felon in Chief you blindly follow?
You stuck by his side way back when he bragged about grabbing women by the genitals.
You said nothing when he insulted one world leader after another and alienated the U.S. from its longtime allies. Nor when he sided with Putin over the U.S. intelligence community.
You didn’t object when he tried to overthrow the results of a free and fair presidential election. And when he pardoned 1,500 of the people who desecrated our seat of government on Jan. 6, 2021, and attacked the police officers there to protect you, nothing.
You stayed silent while thousands of federal employees were fired with no good rationale. You failed to object when he kidnapped the leader of a sovereign nation and executed hundreds of people on suspicion of trafficking drugs.
Did you object when he waged an illegal war against Iran and left our country — the one whose Constitution you swore to uphold — in worse shape than it was before his War of Distraction? After months of bombing, did you support a move to curb his powers to continue to wage that war? No. No you did not.
Nor when he turned the front lawn of the White House into a cage for human cockfighting. And now — when we saw with our own eyes the failure of his no-bid contractor and Mar-a-Lago buddy — you sit silent as he actually tries to tell us the reflecting pool debacle is being caused by vandals.
So again I ask — and I ask it here because calls and letters to your offices are an exercise in futility — aren’t you tired yet?
Catharine Huddle, Lincoln
- Lincoln Journal Star
- Updated
I was amused by Ted Larson's letter "Lessons from Sweden" (LJS, June 24), advocating for national health care for the US and comparing it to Sweden's health care system. What he forgot to mention is that nothing is free. The average Swede pays 32% of their income in tax, plus if they make an above-average living, you can add another 22%! I lived in Europe for 25 years and was in the 42% tax bracket — and you do wait for medical treatment — depending of course on the diagnosis. Then you pay 19% VAT tax (like sales tax) on everything you buy, plus over $7 a gallon of gas, but what you have left is yours to enjoy. National Health has benefits, but for the USA, not so much - unless you like to pay taxes!
James Hoke, Lincoln
I read with great interest former state Sen. Julie Slama’s editorial regarding universal health care systems.
I found it to be untrue. Totally misinformed. Why?
I’m in Sweden currently. Swedes look at our “health care system” and shake their heads. In Sweden, if you have a gall bladder removed it will cost you $400 out of pocket. Open heart surgery? $400.
If you have a baby — two years of paid maternity leave. 80% of what you would normally make. In America, you’re lucky to even get maternity leave from your employer, much less paid maternity leave.
Waiting lists? No longer than in the USA.
I spoke to a Swede who had worked for a short time in the USA. When he needed surgery — and, like many Americans, was turned down by his “American health insurance” — his insurance provider found it cheaper to fly him back to Sweden, put him up in a hotel, have the surgery, recover in the hotel and then fly back to the USA. All of this was cheaper than having the procedure done in the USA.
My Swedish hosts have told me, “For us Swedes it's so hard to understand how you would not want universal health care.”
You can do better, Julie Slama. So can America.
Ted Alan Larson, Martell
I had a stroke last Monday (6-15) night around 7 p.m. The rest of the evening was somewhat of a blur, but everyone involved, from the paramedics to the nurses at the ICU unit at Bryan East, were very competent, efficient and polite. The speed with which my situation was dealt with I'm sure is responsible for lack of serious permanent damage from the stroke. Although I hope to never see any of them again (on a have-to basis), I'm grateful they were there for me when really needed. So, to all involved — Lincoln Fire and Rescue, Bryan emergency doctors and personnel, Bryan ICU nurses and doctors and everyone else involved with my care, thank you for all you did and do on a daily basis. Good city to survive a medical emergency!
Bill Westlund, Lincoln
Young teenagers face employment discrimination because they do not have work experience, and state law restricts what they can do. You can’t treat young teenagers as full adults. They are minors. Everyone seems to know this until it comes to the Nebraska minimum wage.
Self-checkout used to be rare in Nebraska, and teenage cashiers were common until voters passed a flat minimum wage law in 2014. Within a year, many places added self-checkout stands, and these are now ubiquitous. But alcohol has to be checked out by a cashier, and the cashier must be 19 years old. No more teenage cashiers was what minimum wage did. But the voters did not notice and again voted to raise the minimum wage in 2024.
The end result is college students seeking their first job and finding that few will hire them as they have no job experience. They end up leaving Nebraska. The state senators who made the change to the Nebraska minimum wage law, who understood this, are right to encourage teenage employment. The Omaha and Lincoln city councils need to understand why.
Andrew L Sullivan, Omaha
Nebraskans are living under the misimpression that we live in a democracy. Though our country and our state claim it. In a democracy, the voter, especially in statewide politics, votes their desires for their fellow Nebraskans, and the voters allegedly get what they vote for.
Nebraskans voted for medical cannabis. It's being held up by conservative state government. Nebraskans voted for an increased minimum wage. It's being held up and attacked actively by the attorney general because he, like so many in government are business owners or are close to the business community. And not the labor community. It's disgusting, cowardly and frankly un-American that we as Huskers voted to pay people more at base level as costs go up for everything, yet the business community with its political pull keeps wages suppressed.
If you cannot run your business without 1993 wages for your workers, then you don't deserve to run a business. There are plenty of successful business models that include the $15-an-hour wage, just less labor and more automation. Or more workers, and cheaper rental spaces, or any combo of those things.
Any business that adopts $15 an hour needs to put in their window a big sticker that says "No need to tip, we pay a living wage here” and let the market speak.
Aaron Fischer-Erikson, Lincoln
We hold up our Christian beginnings in praise of who we are as a country. Yet we, one of the richest countries, cut food aid for the hungry here and overseas. Yet we cut medical assistance for our citizens and other countries. Yet we incarcerate a higher percentage of our citizens than most other countries. Yet we continue to use the death penalty when most countries have abolished it. Indeed, extremely few countries still use the death penalty. Yet we increase our already high military spending while citing the need to cut human aid for budgetary reasons. With our Christian beginnings, we should be so much better than this.
Bill Cross, Lincoln
More like this...
To the folks who want to change the government, do so, harm none. One request, stop flying the American flag proclaiming yourselves patriots. It's our flag, you don't speak for all of us. Find your own flag, represent yourselves. Sad to say, but you've become the Redcoats in this scenario, with a King George III at the helm. If you are really patriots, then I ask you, where among you is Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Washington, Lincoln? Until then you have become merely patriots in name only. PINOs. Our country was founded upon not agreeing with a king. A mad one at that. Why do we continue to follow anyone who hasn't been in the midst of reality? Never have they worried about rent, food, gas, sick days, daycare, medicine, working two jobs, dying on that job. How can that person represent us? Remember, we have less of a fall when we have already dug the hole.
Brad Koontz, Lincoln
From the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed …”
At times, the U.S. has lived up to those lofty ideals and we have accomplished many great things during our history. We are the richest country in the history of the world and we have liberated millions of people around the world from tyranny. We helped save the world from fascism during World War II and brought about the end of the Cold War. We should be proud of those achievements.
But there have been times in our history when we haven’t lived up to the lofty ideals spelled out in the Declaration of Independence.
The U.S. status as a “shining city on a hill” and a beacon of hope for the rest of the world is up to us. We must pledge ourselves to continue working hard to make sure our country lives up to the ideals we were founded upon. That is the true meaning of patriotism.
“We can do better here in the United States, we can do better. We can do better in our relationships to other countries around the rest of the globe.” —Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Dennis Patrick Crawford, Lincoln
Since the writing of The Declaration of Independence 250 years ago, the document has been an aspirational guide for our Republic and every generation needs to consider the words that have given hope to millions of people. It is also necessary to recognize and remember that countless people who lived and still live in this nation are opposed to the meaning of the words of this declaration.
In 1776 a significant number of inhabitants wanted to remain loyal to the British king. The Civil War was waged because some citizens opposed the truth stated in the Declaration that humans are created equal and endowed with a natural right to life and liberty. Some thought they were better than slaves from Africa and the Native people who lived here for centuries. Those who opposed this document oppressed immigrants and consolidated their power with the accumulation of wealth that was derived from the labor of others.
Today we are faced with that consolidated power in the form of Project 2025, which among many principles that ignore the Declaration, advocates for what is described as “a unitary executive,” an authoritarian ruler that is above any law.
The citizens of our nation are confronted with the choice of acting in defense of The Declaration of Independence, and providing all human beings the dignity of their natural rights or abandoning this aspirational guide in living our ideals. What choice will we make?
Ron Todd-Meyer, Lincoln
We are a nation founded on Judeo-Christian values. If we don't speak up and defend this, we are not any better than the people making comments against our great country that are not true.
We live in the best country and must defend it with our words and actions. Please tell anyone putting us down they are wrong. Period. I love my being an American in this USA and will defend it until I die.
I will not tolerate anyone saying otherwise. You either defend it or you leave it. There is no middle ground for this discussion. Thank you and may God bless our USA.
Margaret A. French, Lincoln
A recent letter catalogued waste and fraud in SNAP — the program many of us still call food stamps — anchored by the familiar image of someone buying groceries with food stamps while driving a Mercedes. As lawmakers continue to advance cuts to SNAP, it’s worth asking why that single anecdote carries so much weight when the fuller picture with facts tells a different story.
* Food stamp fraud is real, but small and shrinking. The USDA’s own figures put benefit trafficking at roughly one to two cents on the dollar, and verified recipient fraud at a fraction of 1%. The program’s “error rate” is mostly honest mistakes in a complicated system, not theft.
* We tolerate far larger dishonesty elsewhere without demanding the program be dismantled. Americans fail to pay roughly $600 billion in legally owed taxes every year — more than five times the entire SNAP budget — and most of it goes uncollected from higher earners whose income the IRS can’t easily verify.
* The difference isn’t the amount of cheating. It’s who gets scrutinized. We shrug at unpaid taxes among the comfortable and fixate on one shopper in a parking lot.
* SNAP is easy to ridicule because the people it serves — many of them children — can’t defend themselves in print.
No program should excuse fraud. But before we judge an entire program by its worst anecdote, we ought to hold ourselves to the same standard. A hungry child in Lancaster County did nothing to earn our suspicion.
Vince Sutton, Lincoln
As someone who has voted for Republicans, Democrats, Independents and third-party candidates, I am always open to whichever candidate I believe is best, regardless of affiliation.
The race for U.S. House in Nebraska's 1st Congressional District presents a unique situation then. With an incumbent Republican who's been in D.C. for years, and a Democratic candidate who has also worked in DC for years in the State Department, neither candidate from the main two parties offers the sense of change that most Nebraskans are craving.
Austin Ahlman, on the other hand, has not worked in government in D.C., and what's more, he actually reported on corruption in D.C. as a journalist. As an Independent candidate, he has much more freedom to vote to actually help Nebraskans, instead of conceding power to party bosses.
Washington, D.C., needs fresh blood. It needs outsiders who can actually drain the swamp. We need to send a message to the Washington politicians that our votes shouldn't be taken for granted, and that they actually need to serve constituents, and that there are electoral consequences for not doing that. If we just keep voting the same way with no results, we tell our representatives they don't actually need to do anything productive to keep their job. That can end with Austin Ahlman.
Time to shake up Washington. I'm voting for Austin Ahlman for Nebraska's 1st Congressional District. I think you should too.
Lance Bowman-Larson, Lincoln
To Sens. Ricketts and Fischer and Rep. Flood.
Aren’t you tired yet?
Are you not tired of the constant embarrassment, the corruption, the graft and the lies told by the Felon in Chief you blindly follow?
You stuck by his side way back when he bragged about grabbing women by the genitals.
You said nothing when he insulted one world leader after another and alienated the U.S. from its longtime allies. Nor when he sided with Putin over the U.S. intelligence community.
You didn’t object when he tried to overthrow the results of a free and fair presidential election. And when he pardoned 1,500 of the people who desecrated our seat of government on Jan. 6, 2021, and attacked the police officers there to protect you, nothing.
You stayed silent while thousands of federal employees were fired with no good rationale. You failed to object when he kidnapped the leader of a sovereign nation and executed hundreds of people on suspicion of trafficking drugs.
Did you object when he waged an illegal war against Iran and left our country — the one whose Constitution you swore to uphold — in worse shape than it was before his War of Distraction? After months of bombing, did you support a move to curb his powers to continue to wage that war? No. No you did not.
Nor when he turned the front lawn of the White House into a cage for human cockfighting. And now — when we saw with our own eyes the failure of his no-bid contractor and Mar-a-Lago buddy — you sit silent as he actually tries to tell us the reflecting pool debacle is being caused by vandals.
So again I ask — and I ask it here because calls and letters to your offices are an exercise in futility — aren’t you tired yet?
Catharine Huddle, Lincoln
- Lincoln Journal Star
I was amused by Ted Larson's letter "Lessons from Sweden" (LJS, June 24), advocating for national health care for the US and comparing it to Sweden's health care system. What he forgot to mention is that nothing is free. The average Swede pays 32% of their income in tax, plus if they make an above-average living, you can add another 22%! I lived in Europe for 25 years and was in the 42% tax bracket — and you do wait for medical treatment — depending of course on the diagnosis. Then you pay 19% VAT tax (like sales tax) on everything you buy, plus over $7 a gallon of gas, but what you have left is yours to enjoy. National Health has benefits, but for the USA, not so much - unless you like to pay taxes!
James Hoke, Lincoln
I read with great interest former state Sen. Julie Slama’s editorial regarding universal health care systems.
I found it to be untrue. Totally misinformed. Why?
I’m in Sweden currently. Swedes look at our “health care system” and shake their heads. In Sweden, if you have a gall bladder removed it will cost you $400 out of pocket. Open heart surgery? $400.
If you have a baby — two years of paid maternity leave. 80% of what you would normally make. In America, you’re lucky to even get maternity leave from your employer, much less paid maternity leave.
Waiting lists? No longer than in the USA.
I spoke to a Swede who had worked for a short time in the USA. When he needed surgery — and, like many Americans, was turned down by his “American health insurance” — his insurance provider found it cheaper to fly him back to Sweden, put him up in a hotel, have the surgery, recover in the hotel and then fly back to the USA. All of this was cheaper than having the procedure done in the USA.
My Swedish hosts have told me, “For us Swedes it's so hard to understand how you would not want universal health care.”
You can do better, Julie Slama. So can America.
Ted Alan Larson, Martell
I had a stroke last Monday (6-15) night around 7 p.m. The rest of the evening was somewhat of a blur, but everyone involved, from the paramedics to the nurses at the ICU unit at Bryan East, were very competent, efficient and polite. The speed with which my situation was dealt with I'm sure is responsible for lack of serious permanent damage from the stroke. Although I hope to never see any of them again (on a have-to basis), I'm grateful they were there for me when really needed. So, to all involved — Lincoln Fire and Rescue, Bryan emergency doctors and personnel, Bryan ICU nurses and doctors and everyone else involved with my care, thank you for all you did and do on a daily basis. Good city to survive a medical emergency!
Bill Westlund, Lincoln
Young teenagers face employment discrimination because they do not have work experience, and state law restricts what they can do. You can’t treat young teenagers as full adults. They are minors. Everyone seems to know this until it comes to the Nebraska minimum wage.
Self-checkout used to be rare in Nebraska, and teenage cashiers were common until voters passed a flat minimum wage law in 2014. Within a year, many places added self-checkout stands, and these are now ubiquitous. But alcohol has to be checked out by a cashier, and the cashier must be 19 years old. No more teenage cashiers was what minimum wage did. But the voters did not notice and again voted to raise the minimum wage in 2024.
The end result is college students seeking their first job and finding that few will hire them as they have no job experience. They end up leaving Nebraska. The state senators who made the change to the Nebraska minimum wage law, who understood this, are right to encourage teenage employment. The Omaha and Lincoln city councils need to understand why.
Andrew L Sullivan, Omaha
Nebraskans are living under the misimpression that we live in a democracy. Though our country and our state claim it. In a democracy, the voter, especially in statewide politics, votes their desires for their fellow Nebraskans, and the voters allegedly get what they vote for.
Nebraskans voted for medical cannabis. It's being held up by conservative state government. Nebraskans voted for an increased minimum wage. It's being held up and attacked actively by the attorney general because he, like so many in government are business owners or are close to the business community. And not the labor community. It's disgusting, cowardly and frankly un-American that we as Huskers voted to pay people more at base level as costs go up for everything, yet the business community with its political pull keeps wages suppressed.
If you cannot run your business without 1993 wages for your workers, then you don't deserve to run a business. There are plenty of successful business models that include the $15-an-hour wage, just less labor and more automation. Or more workers, and cheaper rental spaces, or any combo of those things.
Any business that adopts $15 an hour needs to put in their window a big sticker that says "No need to tip, we pay a living wage here” and let the market speak.
Aaron Fischer-Erikson, Lincoln
We hold up our Christian beginnings in praise of who we are as a country. Yet we, one of the richest countries, cut food aid for the hungry here and overseas. Yet we cut medical assistance for our citizens and other countries. Yet we incarcerate a higher percentage of our citizens than most other countries. Yet we continue to use the death penalty when most countries have abolished it. Indeed, extremely few countries still use the death penalty. Yet we increase our already high military spending while citing the need to cut human aid for budgetary reasons. With our Christian beginnings, we should be so much better than this.
Bill Cross, Lincoln
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