> SOUTHERN INDIANA — Former New Albany employee upset over process



I would like to comment on an article featuring information from New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan in the News And Tribune dated Feb. 22, 2012, in reference to three new hires by the city.

I was reading this article and had to stop so I could put my high-top boots on. First, let me say that I am not mad about being terminated. I am a little upset because I was lied to by Mr. Gahan. He informed me that the reason for the termination was that the outgoing mayor, Doug England, had stated to him that I was not needed in a supervisory position over flood control. I checked with Mr. England and he said that was not true, that he did not say that.

Mr. Gahan stated that the transition team said that Christopher Gardner was a very qualified candidate. He supposedly has a lot of navigation experience along the Ohio River. He is in his early 20s. How much experience of anything can he have at that age? How much supervisory experience can he have? What does navigation have to do with a supervisory position over flood control?

If it is a factor, I have at least 30 years of navigation experience. I have eight years as flood control supervisor, not four years as Mr. Gahan stated, and I have 15 years supervisory experience in civil service.

It is my opinion that the mayor’s transition team is a joke. They had no idea what to ask me. All they asked was how much I made and how many employees I supervised. I spoke to a couple of members of the mayor’s other transition teams and they said they were just used as fall guys to get the blame if the candidate chosen didn’t work out.

What really bothers me is the city is pushing to hire veterans and I am a veteran with service connected disabilities received during the Vietnam War. I informed you of this and you turned a deaf ear.

Hiring your future son-in-law would seem to be nepotism. Did you have a team scrutinize him as closely as you did others?

The bottom line is that you lied to me and I cannot have faith in you and you will never be a mayor that will truly represent the people of this city.

Enjoy your next three years and 10 months Mr. Mayor.

— Ron Grangier, New Albany



We need to catch up with the civilized world



The writer who believes that the U.S. has the “best health care system in the world” is living in fantasy land. Or maybe she is like Dick Cheney and has access to the best and most immediate care where others would be dead, due to insurance delays and denials of care.

The writer of a previously published letter seems to believe that Indiana will benefit from following the model of other states like Texas, which has more uninsured residents than any other state in the U.S. and Arkansas. Really?

According to the World Health Organization and other monitoring groups, the U.S. ranks 37th in the world for health care. We lag behind other countries in availability of health care and positive outcomes, while our costs are far higher.

Fifty million Americans have no health insurance, and others have such high deductibles that they avoid seeing a doctor until their condition worsens and treatment is more costly. In other countries, if an employee loses her job, she does not lose her health care. She does not have the added threat of bankruptcy due to a medical crisis.

Because of the enormous influence of the for-profit insurance and pharmaceutical industries, the American people have been brainwashed to fear (GASP) “socialized medicine,” and yet the one U.S. health care organization with the highest approval ratings is the V.A. system, which is truly socialized, whereby the hospitals are owned by the federal government and the doctors are government employees.

Medicare comes in a close second in customer satisfaction. It is publicly financed — through payroll and Social Security deductions — but privately delivered, i.e. the hospitals, doctors and staff are not run by the government. The administrative costs of Medicare are far below those of the insurance industry, largely because there are no CEOs with multimillion dollar compensation.

With all the millions spent to obstruct and delay the provisions of the Affordable Health Care Act (which is not a “government takeover”), a single-payer, Medicare for all system will be the inevitable result.

 Even the insurance industry believes this. (See Forbes Magazine). There will be some adjustments, of course, to ensure long-term viability. But when the chest-beating and hand-wringing die down, we will wonder why it took us so long to catch up with the rest of the civilized world.

— Ruthanne Wolfe, New Albany