Letters to the editor July 22, 2008

Performers thank supporters

To the Editor:

Joshua Bain, Carrie Hamilton and Cheryl Beck thank everyone who attended the Music of the Night Benefit Concerts on June 27 and 28 to support the music departments of the Greencastle and Cloverdale High Schools. School music programs face new funding challenges every year.

Thank you to the Greencastle Presbyterian Church for the use of their beautiful church for the performance. Thanks to the 20 talented high school students who performed that evening. Their performance was very special.

Thanks to Mark McKee and Andy Lorimer for helping with the sound and recording.

Brittney Brumfield and Karen Weaver also gave special assistance to the performance.

Anyone who was not able to attend the concert may still make a donation to the Greencastle and Cloverdale High Schools music departments through Old National Bank. You may stop in at the bank or you may write a check and send it to Old National Bank, 1 N. Indiana St., Greencastle. Please attach a note indicating your contribution to the Music of the Night Benefit Concert.

$9 trillion?

To the Editor:

Nine trillion dollars?

The news announced that President Bush signed a bill on Nov.7, 2007 to increase the debt limit to 9 trillion dollars.

Check this out.

I have a micrometer that will measure accurately to within 1/10,000th of an inch. A paper bill is 3/10,000th of an inch thick.

Take a $1,000 bill and put it on your desk. Now, put 999 more on top of that one. You now have $1 million, and your stack of bills is 3 inches high. Get 999 more stacks and put them on top of that.

You are going to have to go outside, because your stack will now be 3,000 inches high, or 25 feet.

Now you have $1 billion.

Don't quit yet, you are just beginning to get into real money.

You need 1,000 of them -- and now your stack is 25,000 feet high, or about 5 miles -- that's $1 trillion. Now, multiply that by nine and you have a stack 45 miles high.

So, the national debt would be equal to a stack of $1,000 bills 45 miles high.

Sleep well tonight!

P.S. July 15, 2008 -- Now the government is planning to bail out Freddie Mack and Fannie Mae to the tune of another $12 trillion.

You do the rest of the math.

Charles Rains

Greencastle