California funding

Dear Editor,

When I have been back to Red Willow County, and from what appears in the online version of the Gazette, The Work Ethic Camp does seem like a good solution to rehabilitation.

Out here in California we are experiencing something like a $35 BILLION state shortfall. One of the few departments to experience little or no cutbacks in our governor's proposed budget is the correctional department (the prison guards union donated heavily to his re-election campaign). (It) seems there should be someway to get a mere $3.5 million operating budget for the Work Ethic Camp squeezed into Governor Davis' budget proposal for the state of California -- some kind of note from the prison guards union attached to the request is all it should take. Hey, they probably wouldn't notice it in Sacramento and it would help ease the budget crisis in Nebraska.

Now how's that for this thing they call "thinking outside the box" out here? Hmmm, maybe it is time for a visit home to Red Willow County. Mike Sahm

Mountain View, Calif.