URL: http://www.abqjournal.com/riorancho/opinion/328958westoped03-26-05.htm

Saturday, March 26, 2005
Letters to the Editor
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    Budget Talks
    Need To Be Here
    AN OPEN LETTER TO THE SANDOVAL COUNTY COMMISSION:
    You have chosen for the second time in three years to hold budget meetings away from the constituent base. These are bad practices. I understand that it is cumbersome to deal with the public on such a bulky and weighty issue. Too bad. You have been consistent in avoiding the voice of those who have put you into office.
    I have personally been to meetings with regard to the money from the Intel bond. I watched others make requests. What I saw was that those monies were already spent before there was a single word spoken by a member of the public.
    These are the practices that diminish credibility in the budget process, not to mention county government. The excuse of interruptions and distractions are just that: excuses. The people of Sandoval County have not forgotten the days of state officials issuing cease-and-desist orders to treasurers. We have not forgotten audit notes that go unanswered or attended by only those who have the checkbook.
    Come back to the sunshine that public hearings inside the county provide. Come back to credibility. Come back to respect for those who voted for you.
    Todd R. Hathorne
    Rio Rancho
    'Crisis' Isn't
    A Crisis Yet
    I HAVE FOLLOWED WITH KEEN INTEREST this president's forums being held around the country on the alleged Social Security "crisis." President Bush can only see the need for one kind of change to Social Security, as he has described it here and elsewhere on many occasions.
    Describing something that will occur in 2041 as a "crisis" is strong language, indeed. I was further amused— but not much— by John Trever's cartoon in the Journal that showed the Democratic "donkey" with no comments about possible solutions to this "crisis." I am not a strong supporter of that donkey, but I can readily understand that some people in Congress fail to get excited by the things that seem to excite this president.
    I attended a breakfast in Albuquerque recently where AARP's president described two easy federal law changes that would increase the date at with the Social Security system would be "in crisis" to the 2060s. If Congress were to be interested in her proposals, I might be interested, too.
    By the way, I am a Social Security recipient, as are a number of senior citizens I know.
    Daniel F. O'Connell
    Rio Rancho
    Free Health Care
    Is Far From It
    THIS IS IN RESPONSE to the informative article describing the Canadian health care system.
    I thought it was humorous to have the words "free" and "budget crunch" in the same sentence. It is obvious that all the taxpayers of Canada are paying big time for the right to not have a "pay as you go" competitive health care system. They are also paying support for "low cost" medicines. They are stuck supporting a huge government health care bureaucracy. ...
    A quote by a professor of health policy at the University of Toronto demonstrates their university leaders are as left-biased as in this country: "I don't understand how (Americans) got to this worship of markets, to the extent that they're perfectly happy that some people don't get the health care that they need."
    I believe everyone in this country, including illegal (immigrants) and the uninsured, has access to needed health care. I don't believe the statistic that only 33 percent of American people had same-day access to a doctor when sick or in need of medical attention in 2004. I'm confident that 99.9 percent of those who must have same-day health care can get it. Needed health care is just a phone call away.
    It is too bad the Canadian government's near-monopoly on health care (allows it to) feel it must rig the rules to handicap private enterprise competition. What are they afraid of?
    Ralph Kant
    Rio Rancho
    Bush's Take Was
    Different in Texas
    PRESIDENT BUSH VOWED, AFTER SIGNING THE EMERGENCY LEGISLATION TO KEEP TERRI SCHIAVO alive, "to stand on the side of those defending life for all Americans, including those with disabilities."
    While this sounds admirable on the surface, it should be pointed out that George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gives hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient cannot pay and there is no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just last week. ...
    Gary W. Priester
    Placitas
    Politicians Use
    Schiavo Tragedy
    OUR HEARTS GO OUT to the family of Terri Schiavo. ...
    Shame on President Bush and his ilk for using Ms. Schiavo as a political football.
    Bush is a man whose insensitivity to life has made him infamous around the world. Whether it is the countless thousands he has slaughtered in a needless war or his desire to inflict the death penalty upon children and the mentally retarded or his weakening of clean air and health standards for his corporate supporters, the list of his deadly acts toward human beings can only speak against his professed concern for Ms. Schiavo.
    Let her rest in peace.
    Doug Long
    Rio Rancho
    Take a Lesson
    From Fla. Case
    TO ALL OF YOU WHO WISH TO DIE with dignity, the Terri Schiavo case should be a wake-up call.
    Unless you want to become a cause celebre for right-wing celebrity nuts like Mel Gibson and Patricia Heaton, make out a living will/health care proxy today.
    Richard Mason
    Rio Rancho