Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009

Letters 10/31

Can't afford to help

This is in response to letter writer Neil Horowitz when he referenced the Good Samaritan to try to prove his point on socialized medical care.

He stated correctly the Samaritan helped a stranger and he paid for the individual's care, paying being the key. One problem: We're broke and don't have any money to pay for a $1 trillion medical program, even if we wanted inferior medical care like in England or Canada.

We are running a deficit of more than $11 trillion and we have an unfunded liability of more than $58 trillion. Tell me how anyone can tax a nation enough to pay for another $1 trillion program without reducing the quality of medical care we now get?

If you are wondering where I got my numbers, just go to usdebtclock.org and you will see in real time what the debt is for this country.

Another wonderful problem with either HR3900 or HR676 is when the additional 50 million new patients start to seek care, where will the medical staff come from? This is one thing I hadn't thought of until I saw a recent ad against nationalized health care.

Garry B. West

Belleville

Captain got it right

After reading letter writer Pauline McCottrell's letter believing that the Belleville school bus incident was not a hate crime, I really scratched my head. On the video, the student needed a place to sit and was unable to because a black student told him he could not sit next to him. Is there a problem with a white student sitting next to a black student? There should not be.

The bus driver instructed the students to take a seat before he could move, prompting the white student to place the school bag on the floor gently, not throw it on the bus floor as so many people have stated. Next thing you see is the student getting pummeled just for wanting to sit down.

I disagree with the police chief (who is black) and St. Clair County State's Attorney Bob Haida calling it bullying. Had they called it correctly as did the police captain in the beginning, Belleville would have looked like L.A. after the Rodney King trial.

For whatever it is worth, Belleville is going to hell in a handbasket.

Kevin B. Woodruff

Belleville

Let's see certificate

I would like to make an offer to all of the liberal Democrats, including the one who wrote into the Sound-off column on Oct. 12. I offer $100 to the first one who will furnish a copy of Barack Obama's long form birth certificate to the News-Democrat for publication. I'm sure they have one, since they demonize me for asking for one.

I only want the birth certificate, not a "certificate of live birth." I have relatives who were born in Hawaii in the 1960s who have birth certificates, so I know they exist.

I will further offer $100 to the charity of choice of the News-Democrat if the paper will publish this birth certificate.

I do not want letters that demonize me, because that just proves my point; I only want a copy of the long form birth certificate.

Do I have any takers? I will be waiting for this publication, and if it doesn't happen, it will only go to show on which side the real lunatics reside.

OK, liberal Democrats, have at it; here is your moment to shine.

Daniel Wayne

Columbia

In giving we receive

I would like to pay honor to Betty Vahlkamp, the president of the Belleville Council of Catholic Women, and the ladies who attended our fall meeting at St. Joseph's Church in Freeburg.

Vahlkamp requested we bring baby items to donate to the Pregnancy Care Center. It was such a joy opening a thank-you letter from the center saying its empty bins had been refilled for mothers of newborn children.

I thought I had everything planned for a lovely luncheon, but the ladies put the icing on the cake.

Patty Rose Borowy

Freeburg

Faith reinforced

I'm writing to thank the kind person who found my debit card and turned it in at the QuikTrip in east Belleville. I was running errands and using my debit card. While at the grocery store I discovered my card missing. Of course I panicked and started backtracking and returned to QuikTrip as the last stop where I used the card.

I was sure that my card would not be turned in. What a relief I experienced when the cashier handed over my card and said it was found at the pump.

What could have been a catastrophe for me turned into a blessing and gave me strength in my faith that there are many good people who chose to do the right thing. Thank you to the kind individual and to the employees who made my day.

Peggy Gronemeyer

Belleville

Same old satire from cartoonist

OK, Mr. McCoy. We get it. You don't much care for President Barack Obama. The best satirists are those who lampoon both parties. But if you want to live with the legacy of a one-trick pony, have at it.

I am happy that our president is being thoughtful and listening to all sides of the debate, unlike President George Bush's rush to war in Iraq. I can't help but wonder what would have happened had we committed the resources of more than 150,000 troops in 2001 to Afghanistan when we had the world at our side instead of his myopic, just to avenge his father, in the continuing fiasco that is Iraq.

McCoy remembers al-Qaida, doesn't he? The ones who actually attacked us in 2001? No matter that our best and brightest have had to do three or four tours of duty, depleted our military to the breaking point, and severely limited our ability to respond to any additional crisis, like the potential of a nuclear Iran, or a complete breakdown in Pakistan, a country that actually has nuclear weapons.

McCoy let Bush and his vice-puppeteer off the hook for eight years. No matter. That's what Democrats do. We clean up the mess his heroes leave behind. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Dennis M. Gilbert

Waterloo

History of negativity

For those News- Democrat readers who, like me, do not appreciate Glenn McCoy's consistent negative editorial cartoons about President Barack Obama, I would recommend a trip to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield where one section displays political cartoons.

Viewing some of the almost obscene cartoons about one of our greatest presidents gives one a perspective toward cartoons like McCoy's.

In the past, people wearing conservative blinders like McCoy's were against Medicare. They thought Social Security was a radical idea. And today, they talk about death panels.

Maybe some of McCoy's drawings will deserve a spot in the political cartoon section of the Obama presidential library that Chicago will build.

Roy Hollmann

Fairview Heights

Way to go, McCoy

I, for one, very much enjoy nearly all of Glenn McCoy's editorial cartoons. There are a few that I don't necessarily agree with, but, for the most part, I find them very insightful and entertaining. Keep up the good work.

Gerard Luebbers

Carlyle