VOICE OF THE PEOPLE | Oct. 22, 2009

From sraff reports

Vick should be barred from football

I'm glad Judy Rough brought up the Michael Vick issue. How can anyone even consider letting this liar play football again? Miss Rough also mentioned a female dog of Vick's whose teeth were pulled so she couldn't bite anyone while being bred. Well, as we all should remember, that was by far not the most horrible deed done to many dogs by Vick.

He also mercilessly electrocuted them, smashed their heads against a wall, hanged them and committed other tortures too gruesome to mention. The question is, what society are we to let a monster like Vick come back and be a sports figure who our children look up to? The commissioner of the NFL, Roger Goodall, should be ashamed to let someone of Vick's character back into the NFL!

One might say, give him another chance; none of his helpless victims had one. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “The more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”

Inge A. Smith

Rock Hill

It's time to pass health care reform

Mojo found me shaking my head the other day. He knew I was upset. As he usually does under such circumstances, he lay down next to me and said, in his own way, “Tell me about it.” And so I did. I read Mojo a portion of a letter.

“I am writing to you because of my personal crisis with unregulated health insurance costs — a crisis facing many Americans. Fourteen years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. As a direct result of this diagnosis, I am unable to consider alternative insurance providers. I am literally at the mercy of my insurance provider who may assess any fee at random for my coverage. My health care policy is becoming increasingly cost prohibitive. I, along with other citizens who have been diagnosed with disease, lose the privilege of looking for more reasonable health care packages.”

The letter went on to describe how, in five years, the writer's premium had gone up over 200 percent and her deductible over 300 percent. She described the “Catch 22” she was in. Even though she was employed, she couldn't be a member of her employer's group plan because she could not receive a guarantee of coverage as an individual should she terminate her employment.

I asked Mojo, “Do you know where this letter came from?” Mojo shook his tail sideways. “I've been cleaning out the attic. I saved some of the correspondence from the congressional office I once worked in. Mojo, this letter was written to the congressman I worked for on March 11, 1992. Can you understand why I'm shaking my head?”

Mojo understood. I wonder if others understand that it is time to finally reform our health care system, beginning with insurance reform? There is some good news on that front. I read with interest a Time magazine interview with former Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a heart and lung transplant surgeon. When asked about health care reform, he said that were he still in the Senate, “I would end up voting for it. As a leader, I would take heat for it. … That's what leadership is all about.”

Aside from all the technical talk in the interview about bending cost curves and the description of the medical necessity of covering the uninsured, my hunch is that my fellow Presbyterian Bill Frist sees the issue as much a moral imperative as anything. Situations such as those described in that long-ago letter are just not right.

It is time to pass health care reform.

The Rev. Jim Watkins

Chairman

York County Democratic Party

Smoking bans infringe on rights

Dr. Alan Nichols and his freedom-robbing band of cronies have pushed their anti-smoking agenda on us all. But I wonder, how many in the good doctor's own family are preparing and serving foods high in saturated fats, cholesterol, calories and sugar? How many are obese? Should that be monitored as well and should the resulting obesity, heart attacks, cases of diabetes and strokes be blamed on those individuals who are preparing and serving those foods?