Christine Amsden

There’s an age-old bit of writing advice that goes “Write what you know.” I’m going to turn it on its head and suggest that rather than writing what you know, you should know what you write.

The difference is subtle but important. If you only write what you know, your stories are truly limited. Maybe you’ve had powerful experiences in your life to draw from, but even if you do, can you write every word of your story with only the details in your head? If you can, is that the best story you can tell, or might it be better if you were able to add some details you aren’t entirely familiar with, but can learn about.

It’s up to you to decide if every aspect of everything you write comes from your head or not, but take the shackles off. As long as you spend the time to do the research, you can write about almost anything. What you can’t do, is try to pretend you know something you don’t. If you haven’t done your homework, it will show.

So, do you know who you’re going to vote for yet? Before you answer, don’t forget that there are probably half a dozen or more positions up for grabs in your area. In my neck of the woods, I will be helping to select a sheriff, county commissioner, state senator, state representative, national senator, and national representative. I will also be deciding whether or not to approve over a dozen judges and there are three ballot issues which directly impact my life.

Once every four years, people swarm to the polls to select our next president of the United States, but most of the time when I visit the polls they are fairly empty. When it comes to selecting the president ot the Unitd States, a single person albeit the most powerful in the country, we are but one of a great many tiny voices. When it comes to selecting city council members and imposing local property/sales taxes, we have a much larger voice. Since many of you won’t join me at the polls outside of a presidential race, I often get to scream my opinion. :=)

So when you go to the polls this year, make sure you are informed about all the races and consider going more often. There are usually 2-3 elections each year. We pick the people who run our schools, our public services, our police departments, who plan for local road construction, new schools, public safety, local economic growth, and much, much more.

Do a google search for the election office in your area.  You can find out who will be on the ballot and often find links to their web pages.

And now, for my opinions on the issues effecting my life:

Johnson County Question No. 1:

“Shall the following be adopted?

The present method of nonpartisan selection of judges of the district court in this judicial district by the governor upon nominations by a district nominating commission and subject to retention in office by a vote of the voters shall be discontinued and there is hereby adopted in this judicial district the election of judges of the district court by the voters.”

NO! Politics needs to stay out of our courtrooms. Judges should be chosen based on experience and qualifications, not based on political party nor who has the most money to launch a campaign. If we feel that bad judges are going to the bench, we already have recourse: We can fail to reaffirm them when the question comes up and/or we can fail to reelect the people who appointed them. Meanwhile, the average voter (and I include myself) are not qualified to determine who would make a good judge. I feel that going to elected judges would be a disaster for our county.

Johnson County Question No. 2:

Shall the following be adopted?

Shall the Johnson County Education Research Triangle Authority be created and, for its purposes, shall a one-eighth of a cent (0.125%) retailers’ sales tax be imposed in Johnson County, pursuant to KSA 19-5002, for the purpose of supporting projects and programs related to (1) medical education and life sciences and cancer research programs at the Johnson County locations of the University of Kansas Medical Center; (2) research and education programs in animal health and food safety and security at the City of Olathe location of Kansas State University; and (3) undergraduate and graduate programs at the Edwards campus of the University of Kansas in the City of Overland Park, with the revenue from the tax being distributed in equal shares to the three institutions, consistent with the statute, and used for building construction, academic and research program development and growth, faculty and staff recruitment and retention, and operation and maintenance?
NO! I am not interested in paying a higher sales tax rate, especially not during these diminishing economic times. They make it sound so innocent — 1/8 cent. Well, how does the song goes:  “A penny for a spool of thread, a penny for a needle….” Our sales tax rate is already over 7.5%, largely due to fraction of a cent tax hikes. This is real money, and they don’t even cut you a break on groceries in this area.

Olathe U.S.D. #233 Proposition:

“Shall the following be adopted?

Shall Unified School District No 233, Johnson County, Kansas (Olathe), issue general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $68,000,000 to purchase and improve sites, to acquire, construct, equip, furnish, repair, remodel and make additions to district senior high schools associated with the district grade reconfiguration plan that addresses program and space needs, including new and upgraded computer and communications technology and all other necessary and related appurtenances and improvements, and to pay fees and expenses related thereto; all pursuant to the provisions of K.S.A. 10-101 et seq.; K.S.A. 25-2018(f); K.S.A. 75-2315 et seq.; and K.S.A. 72-6761?”

YES! As much as I hate to approve tax increases, our school district is in desperate need of some new buildings. This is also not a permanent tax increase.

Sheriff:

Well, we’ve only got one choice this year, so I guess Frank Denning is it!

County Commissioner, 6th District:

Calvin Hayden vs.  John M. Topikar(incumbent)

CALVIN HAYDEN — Well, it doesn’t hurt that he is the only one of the two with a web site and that the Kansas City Star has endorsed him, but what really cinched it for me, was their responses to a series of questions by VoteOlathe. Hayden presents himself as much more knowledgeable and approachable. He even offers his phone number. Topikar, on the other hand, when asked how he differed from his opponent, said: “I do not very well know him.”

State Representative, 15th District:

Sean Tevis vs Arlen H. Siegfreid (incumbent)

SEAN TEVIS:I decided this race purely on the issues. Sean Tevis reeled me in with the idea that groceries should not be taxed. I also like his ideas on energy and open government. He’s new to public office, but that is also something that is appealing to me, especially at this level of government. It also helped that he had a nice web page with good information. I could not find one for his opponent.

State Senator, 9th District

Ron Wimmer vs. Julia Lynn (incumbent)

RON WIMMER: After a lot of thought, I went with Ron Wimmer. Julia Lynn has been a very approachable representative. She regularly sends out surveys to find out what her constituents are thinking and on one occasion, she personally responded to an e-mail I sent her. However, I disagree with her on too many issues. Meanwhile, Ron Wimmer’s positions more closely match my own and he has the endorsement of many notable places, including the Kansas City Star. This was my toughest call.

US Representative, 3rd Congressional District:

Dennis Moore (incumbent) vs Nick Jordan

DENNIS MOORE

You can view a debate between Dennis Moore and Nick Jordan here.

Also of note, Joe Bellis is running for the libertarian party and Roger D Tucker is running for the reform party. I have occasionally voted third party, though I choose not to in this election. Neither of these two struck me as strong candidates.

In the matter of Moore vs. Jordan, I felt that Jordan won the debate and was more eloquent than Moore. Nevertheless, while he said a lot of things that people want to hear about taxes and the expensive Wall Street bailout, I am not ready to see us go back to a Republican congress. They have made some destructive decisions during their reign. Jordan wanted us to blame Moore for all that has gone wrong, including the economic crisis, but I wasn’t buying it. Also, while Moore has been in office, his party has only been in power for 2 years. And I like Moore’s position on energy. (I like the Democratic position on energy, and as this is at the top of my personal priority list right now, it has tipped my ballot to the left.) At any rate, he gets two years and then I get to reevaluate.

US Senator:

Jim Slattery vs. Pat Roberts (incumbent)

Of note: Randall L. Hodgkinson is running for the Libertarian party and Joseph L. Martin for the Reform party.

JIM SLATTERY

I hate to say this, and I try not to, but my support for Jim Slattery is really a vote against Pat Roberts. Jim Slattery seems to pretty much tow the party line and that’s fine, especially since I currently agree with the Democratic Party on a number of issues ranging from energy to fiscal concerns to social policies. Pat Roberts, on the other hand, is a staunchly conservative Republican who helped pass the Patriot Act and would like to “protect” marriage by denying rights to homoseual couples (as evidenced by his support of the 2005 state constitutional ammendment which even went so far as to outlaw civil unions).

Judges:

Conveniently, there is a web site that reviews judicial performance to help us decide which ones we should retain and which we should not. The Kansas Commission on Judicial Performance suggests that every judge on the ballot should be retained this election cycle. They have specific performance reports on each one.

President of the United States:

I’m guessing you don’t need any extra help on this one. There is news and information about this everywhere you go. For the record, I support BARACK OBAMA. You may also be interested in knowing that three third party candidates are on the Kansas ballot (and probably others as well): Bob Barr (Libertarian), Ralph Nader (Independent), and Chuck Baldwin (Reform).

So if you’ve been conscious for the last year, you must have noticed that grocery prices are going up…and up….and up. I noticed too. In 2007, we spent about $500 a month on food and consumables (hygiene, cleaners, paper towels, etc.) and in the first part of 2008, it was almost $600 a month. We had even tried to anticipate the inflation by budgeting $50 extra dollars a month starting in January, but it turned out not to be enough. We had two choices: Find more money or figure out how to cut costs.

Then a few months ago, Austin stumbled across an article in Money Magazine about the benefits of using cash rather than debit or credit cards, even if you plan to pay the credit card off at the end of each month. The article discussed a study, in which people either bought everything with cash or bought everything with a debit card. Those who used cash, spent less money, even though those using debit cards were not running up debt.

I was skeptical. I mean, I don’t feel like I buy unnecessary things, I look for deals, and I always pay off my credit card at the end of every month. Plus, I get 1% cash back on a credit card, so that has to count for something, right?

Maybe, but in July we decided to do a cash experiment. We took our monthly grocery and entertainment allowances out of the bank in cash. Since we had overspent during the first 6 months of the year, I took out $520 a month instead of the budgeted $550, in hopes that we would even things out by the end of the year.

Here’s the thing about deciding to take $520 a month out of the bank and not allow yourself any more money to spend on groceries — that’s all you get. You can’t spend $550 because you don’t have $550, let alone close to $600!

So have we saved money? Yes! Almost $80 a month.

What are we eating? For the most part, what we were eating before. Here’s the snag. Towards the end of the month, when all that’s left in the grocery envelope are a few coins rattling around, we have to get a little creative. It’s amazing what we’ve found sitting in our own pantry, gathering dust, and in our own freezer, about to get bitten. I long onto www.allrecipes.com, type the ingredients I have on hand, and get recipe ideas. Or, if nothing seems to be coming up, I get creative. Last night, for example, I had (leftover from previous recipes),  half a pound of ground beef, a couple slices of bacon, half a head of cabbage, half a pepper, and half an onion. I couldn’t find a recipe that included all of that, but it didn’t sound half bad all thrown together in a skillet with a bit of rice and some spices. And it wasn’t half bad.

The last week in September, I had $10 left. Basically, I could buy milk. So I dug through the freezer for bags of frozen veggies, into the pantry for rice, pasta, and sauces, and hit the internet to figure out how to put it all together. It doesn’t hurt to be willing to bake your own bread products either. It even tastes better.

They say necessity is the mother of all invention, so why not get creative and get inventing? Force yourself to spend a little less money next month by taking it out in cash and see what you can figure out in order to continue putting dinner on the table.

I’m even considering cutting the budget down to $500. If I can figure out Coupon Mom’s secret, I’ll make it even less!