Reader’s happy Hill supports veterans



Baron Hill made veterans a priority during his last term in Congress, and I’m pleased to report he’s doing the same thing this time around.

During the last Congress, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs experienced its largest funding increase since the agency’s inception. And it was much needed. This Congress has outlined an almost 12 percent increase for veterans‚ programs and an expansion of health care eligibility and research.

The president, with the support of Congress, wants to end the previous administration’s ban on enrolling modest-income veterans in the Veteran Affairs health care system. This would only apply to veterans who are barely over the poverty line, but are not currently eligible to take advantage of Veteran Affairs health services.

Particularly, during this time of economic downturn, I’m glad Baron Hill is making sure our veterans have the benefits they need and deserve. Thanks Congressman Hill for the support.

— Steve Mennemeyer, U.S. Army (Retired), New Albany



National health insurance system is necessary



“... we need — and we must have without further delay — a system of prepaid medical insurance which will enable every American to afford good medical care.” — President Harry Truman, State of the Union Address to Congress, Jan. 5, 1949

Sixty years later, we are still waiting. The United States is the only country in the world that allows a for-profit health insurance system. Yet our for-profit system has resulted in lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality rates than most other developed countries, and costs more than twice as much.

Why do we regard health care as a commodity to be marketed as a “product” like Coke or Pepsi? Private insurers make their profits by raising premiums and denying claims. They are in business not to provide health care, but to provide profits for their shareholders. This system is unsustainable and reform is inevitable.

Medical and political experts will be at Indiana University Southeast on May 30 to present the case for single-payer as the most cost-effective solution to providing comprehensive universal health care. The seminar is free and the public is invited.

— Ruthanne Wolfe, New Albany



Reader: There’s more to the Theatair X story



In Clarksville Police Chief Dwight Ingle’s recent Opinions column, he spoke of investigations of Theatair X “about 26 years ago.” Twenty-six years ago, I was a year away from graduating high school. We will call that yesterday.

In 2009 — we will call this today — we have had laws in place for four to five years that haven’t been enforced. The chief didn’t mention the current situation, today’s situation. Why?

WAVE-3 TV and ROCK have footage that may be of interest to the Clarksville Police Department, if enforcing current laws of today and protecting citizens is of interest to them.

Ask the citizens — oh wait, the council had absolutely no interest in ROCK’s findings, nor what the citizen voters had to say at the last council meeting.

It is very apparent to me, and many other voters, that there is much more going on that hasn’t been uncovered yet, but it will be, and I bet it won’t be pretty.

— Mike Wheatley, Jeffersonville



Reader says there’s a hearin’ problem in Utica



Here we go again. There must be somethin’ in the water up at the Utica Town Hall that causes hearin’ loss.

For years, residents here put up with hard-headed councilmen who wouldn’t, or maybe couldn’t, listen to people’s concerns about our infamous former town marshal.

They were convinced they were doin’ “the right thing” even tho’ public opinion was overwhelmingly against’em. So we took a stand at the polls and elected nearly a whole new council. Good people who promised to send the marshal packin’ and stand behind us.

Well, here we are, barely a couple years in, and sure enough most of these folks’ve already lost their hearin’ too. Just like the last council they went stone-cold deaf in no-time flat. It’s gotta be the water.

I say they went deaf, because I go to a lot of the council meetings and I see what happens when people try to talk to ’em.

The councilmen, most of ’em anyways, don’t hear the people. I know they don’t hear ’em, because after a person stops talkin’ the councilmen just go on starin’ at ’em for a spell, sorta like the way a cow looks at a passin’ train.

Then, without so much as a howdy-do, the councilmen just pick up right where they left off, makin’ up silly rules an’ such, like nary a word was said and with no popular support for their ideas outside the hall.

Now, it’d be easy at first look to think that the councilmen just don’t understand the things bein’ said to ’em, that the arguments and the points that’re bein’ made go right over their heads like a wild pitch. But I know these people and they’re usually fairly smart folks, so I’m pretty sure they don’t hear so good.

Then again, now that I think about it, I guess the councilmen can hear each other well enough. Otherwise they’d never get a second on any of their motions — although that’d probably be a good thing.

And I notice they seem to be able to hear a few people in the audience, too. Near as I can tell, mostly people with real deep pockets.

Hmmm, I wonder ... Do y’all reckon maybe some o’ those ol’ fat-cats bought our councilmen some fancy new hearin’ aids that only work when rich folks talk?

See y’all at the polls.

— Kenneth Hall, Utica





Mega-farms to blame for flu outbreaks



Everybody has heard the term, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” yet nobody seems to be applying this philosophy to the threat of bird flu or swine flu.

Recently, there was a bird flu outbreak at a Kentucky chicken farm. This was nothing new and has happened at other mega-poultry farms, but little was said in the news, because the disease was detected and the birds euthanasied before any people were infected. However, the threat remains and will occur again.

Swine flu made the news because people became infected. Swine flu originates on hog mega-farms for much the same reasons that causes bird flu — animals being raised in filthy, overcrowded conditions in large buildings where they never see the light of day and fed antibiotics to combat any diseases. However, the bacteria keeps mutating to become antibiotic-resistant.

Therefore, instead of telling people to wash their hands while the Center for Disease Control scrambles to find a “cure,” these animal mega-farms need to be shut down. Congress has been warned about the potential dangers of raising animals this way by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production.

Shutting down these mega-farms doesn’t mean there won’t be any meat available. Meat is available under the “organic” label, which means that the animal was raised outdoors and ate natural foods the way God intended. But I’m afraid Congress isn’t going to do anything to “prevent” this disease until after a major pandemic occurs, so we’ll just have to stockpile all the “cure” that we can.

— James Wilson, Speed