Reader: Congressional cowards



I live in Indiana’s 8th Congressional District and Brad Ellsworth is our representative. I was looking forward to an open-forum, town-hall meeting with Ellsworth, but he is not having open meetings.

Sen. Evan Bayh’s Washington, D.C., office said Bayh was not going to have any open-forum, town-hall meetings in the state of Indiana. Sen. Richard Lugar’s local office said Lugar wasn’t having any open-forum, town-hall meetings in the state of Indiana.

Like Casey at the bat, I and the constituents of Indiana struck out — three for three congressional cowards. Why are they scared to face their constituents, cameras and news media in open-forum, town-hall meetings? Is it because they know what they are doing is changing America from a free democracy to a socialistic-controlled government?

Town-hall meetings make congressional members have to answer to the gigantic spending and socialistic changes they are voting for. The reason the town-hall meetings are difficult for congressional members is they are not saying what the American people want to hear.

If we allow congressional members to avoid town-hall meetings the way political legislative and executive leaders tell them to, then we will have the same situation as dictators silencing their critics and depriving people of free speech.

This is not only Indiana’s problem, but the whole United States’ problem. It is time the American people stand up to our congressional members and say we want to be heard in open meetings.

— Tom Virgin, Newburgh





In fear of a health care dictatorship



I fear the government deciding what medical procedures are available to me. I fear when my doctor is more accountable to government than to me. I fear when government says you should have all the health care that government thinks you should have. I wonder who determines my need.

Can government give away anything it has not first taken from someone else? Where will it get the money to pay for it?

On page 336 of the House Bill “... other measures of outcome and patient quality of life as determined by the secretary. Such measures shall be risk adjusted as the secretary deems appropriate.”

I fear that the level of outcome for me might not be the same as deemed appropriate to the appointed secretary. The word “secretary” appears 1,123 times in a bill of 1,017 pages. It sure gives a lot of authority to one unelected government employee.

Page 424 authorizes the secretary to direct me to have predeath counseling every five years by an agent approved by the secretary. I choose to have my pastor give me predeath counseling.

The bill terrifies me.

Read it yourself at govtrack.us/congress/

billtext.xpd?bill=h111-3200. Then call your congressman and senators at 202-224-3121 and just say no.

— Floyd Coates, Scottsburg





Reader urges others not to become lax on abortion funding



Like many Americans, I am concerned about the health insurance industry’s practices, which too often put profits before people. I understand the sentiment for the administration’s health insurance reform proposals and believe they deserve reasoned debate in Congress.

There is a more important issue at stake, however — the right to life.

Congress has consistently voted to prohibit the public funding of abortion, and this provision should be an explicit part of any health insurance reform that is sent to the president’s desk. This issue is too important to leave in the hands of a panel of bureaucrats or an activist judge. While Congress is in recess, it is expected to listen to its constituents, so I urge your readers to make their views on this issue known to their elected representatives.

I belong to a nonpartisan grassroots organization called the Center for Moral Clarity, which has online resources to easily accomplish this — it’s easy to find on a search engine such as Google. I urge your readers to join me in raising our voices to make sure we do not become complicit in funding abortions under the guise of health care reform.

— Mary L. Murphy, Louisville