Letters To The Editor

HEALTH CARE

Insurance `expert’ utterly clueless

Re: Lu Caudill’s Sept. 12 letter, “No reason for uninsured children,” which implies that families which can’t afford health insurance party or buy products instead of paying premiums. She also implies that such families are neither hard working nor tax paying.

Mine is just one story that blows Caudill’s theory. I was a social service professional for the past five years. My full-time employment provided health insurance and benefits for my family. After much consideration, I terminated my employment to direct my energy and time into full-time parenting of my toddler. My generous COBRA benefit allowed our family of three to continue medical insurance coverage for 18 months at the bargain price of $625 a month. That’s nearly as much as my house payment.

In researching alternatives, I discovered that there are no independent health insurance plans in the state. The only other alternative is Washington Basic Health, if one’s family is eligible and approved. What a choice.

My husband continues to work and pay taxes, and I have certainly paid out my fair share clear through the summer. I have a new appreciation for families where parents work without the benefit of an employer-sponsored insurance package.

Perhaps Caudill should consider the possibilities of choices for such families, instead of being so simplistic and resorting to stereotypes. Holly M. Ferguson Spokane

National health care does work

Why is it your guest columnist, Cheryl Pflug, has such a firm grasp of the causes of the health care collapse yet flatly refuses to see the obvious cure?

Fact: America is the only industrialized nation without a socialized national health service.

Fact: America is the only nation where health care is not available to a very high and rapidly growing section of the population simply because they cannot afford it.

As a 45-year former resident of England, I can assure readers that the national health system works very well. I also have many friends and family in Canada who all report that their nationalized health care system also works very well.

Pflug would have us believe that “Government run socialized medicine will never be able to provide high quality, personalized care at affordable rates.” What a crock.

The only reason that a national health service is not yet adopted in the United States is that huge profits are still being made and some of these profits are diverted through the corrupt political action committee system to ensure the status quo is maintained. Roger Slater Mica

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Don’t speed on our residential street

Living in the North Indian Trail neighborhood, I’m just as frustrated as the next guy about the seemingly endless construction, dust and inconvenience related to the Indian Trail construction.

Living on Farmdale Street, the pseudo Indian Trail Bypass, or as it’s more dangerously known, the Farmdale Street Speedway, has become a nightmare!

I’m referring to you who repeatedly speed down our street because you didn’t plan that extra five minutes to get to work in the morning and to you who speed down our street to get to your quiet Cul-de-Sacs in the late afternoon and evening.

I’m also referring to you moms speeding in minivans who would be livid if this speeding was happening on your street.

Please slow down and observe our 25 mph speed limit! This is a residential street with lots of children, just like the street you live on. Please take a moment and think about the impact on your life and ours if you were to strike one of our children by carelessly speeding down our street. The construction will eventually be over but the anguish over the loss of a child would be forever.

Please heed our gestures to slow down and kindly refrain from the obscene responses. Slow down and save a life. Tom Marszalek Spokane

You were just addressing a stereotype

Your recent editorial regarding the “elderly” and driving, following the automobile-related death of an older woman who was disabled by Alzheimer’s disease, is both biased and shortsighted.

To lump everyone age 70 or 75 in an “elderly” bracket in need of testing shows a complete lack of understanding of this age group as a whole. You appear to be at least 10 years off in your judgment.

These modern 75 year olds, who, by the way, are the combat veterans of World War II, the “greatest generation,” are for the most part an active, sharp, intelligent group with a mountain of experience.

Personally, I am an active driver, both day and night, with no violations. I also fly my own airplane, both day and night, regularly. To give you a firsthand definition of “elderly,” this 75-year-old veteran would be happy to match his driving or flying skills with yours at any time. Al Ryan Coeur d’Alene

Test the young and reckless also

The editorial, “Driving tests must be given to elderly,” didn’t actually make me have a good day!

I do agree that some elderly should not be driving. But while we are doing this testing, let’s include these young teenage females, of which a large majority drive like maniacs. They do not realize they have the power to kill someone or themselves.

I had the experience of telling my late husband, several years my senior, that he could no longer drive - one of the most difficult tasks of my life. When the day comes that I, too, will have to give up the keys to my car, this will tell me I am no longer independent. How I hate to think of that day. Marie E. Yates Spokane

BUSINESS AND LABOR

Kaiser perpetrating an atrocity

We sat and watched while an army moved into the hills of Idaho, attacked a family and killed a man’s son and wife. We heard about Waco and there must have been a reason why we sent another army to attack and slaughter helpless children.

Now, we sit and watch what happens to the families of the striking Kaiser workers. These are hard-working people who kept giving concessions to help when things were tough for the company. Kaiser kept taking and taking, so they fought back and went on strike - all legal.

This company, knowing the lowest of tricks, did not send in an army, just busloads of scabs and had mobile homes for them to live in - not all legal.

Kaiser has no concern for the misery it has caused the workers. Children are again affected. They cannot go to college or even get medical attention.

Kaiser hasn’t sent an army but what it did send is just as lethal. It has destroyed our way of life. When you can no longer see your injustice to others, you become no longer human. Justice will come when those in control must explain their behavior to a higher being. Mary Mallory Veradale

OTHER TOPICS

School for terrorists must close

Spokane is not as isolated as it used to be, and losing our isolation, we are drawn into knowledge we used to be able to dodge.

We know about government complicity in atrocities at home and abroad, the School of the Americas catering to dictators and terrorists, the sanctions against Iraq killing hundreds of children every day. Human rights wackos are no longer the only Americans who know about Indonesia’s genocide in East Timor.

The media admit that scores of innocent defendants have been sentenced to death in this country and that racial violence is not limited to the rural South or North Idaho. Soon, the public will realize our country is on the wrong side in Colombia’s and Mexico’s wars against the poor.

Unwanted knowledge drives some to seek more isolation. But others are driven to confront evil and defend the values that make our country great. Hundreds here have found they can make a difference in the lives of the oppressed in Latin America by joining the movement to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas. Congress is catching on, and we’re close to ending the training of terrorists at Fort Benning. At least a dozen citizens from this area will join thousands of activists in Georgia in November to demand SOA’s closure.

Those who want to be a part of this important project may contact the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane. Rusty Nelson Spokane

They’re skipping by next-to-last

I was very pleased to see the letter from John Slaughter regarding the silly statements made by so many supposedly intelligent people such as news anchors and announcers of various sporting events.

The Kentucky Derby was announced as the “last of the Century.” The Masters Golf Championship announced as the “last of the century.” Several other such events have also been announced as the last of the century.

It makes one doubt the intelligence of these people. Elton K. Replogle Spokane