Letters to the Editor for Sunday, September 7, 2008

Published: September 6, 2008

Editorial’s indignation was misplaced
In your editorial of Sept. 2, you chastise Michael Moore, Don Fowler and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann for stating “Gustav is proof that there is a God in Heaven” as Republicans were scrambling to reconfigure their convention because that hurricane likely would reach land at about the time of the 2008 Republican National Convention.

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Gustav was sighted weeks before the convention. The aforementioned gentlemen did not state they wished or prayed for Hurricane Gustav. You question where were the editorials in The New York Times and other like-minded publications demanding immediate apologies and recantations?

Let me remind you of an article that appeared in your newspaper prior to the Democratic National Convention. It was a reported surrogate of the Rev. James Dodson announced that he was praying that a violent storm would strike the open stadium at the time Barack Obama was to accept nomination for president. There were in excess of 80,000 people in attendance. The weather was perfect. Had that violent storm struck, possibly a large number of people may be been injured. He did not beseech his mythical God to spare those in attendance.

I do not recall your paper chastising that Jesus freak for praying for such a storm. In fact, I believe that you would have gleefully announced that the evening was a washout.

If either Sen. Larry Craig, Rep. Mark Foley, Sen. David Vitter or the Rev. Ted Haggard were nominees for president, I am positive that you would heartily support any of them rather than any Democrat, especially one that is partly African American.
PATRICK KILLEEN
Monroe

National health care
A national health care plan for the United States is long overdue. All of Europe and virtually every other democratic nation have evolved to providing such programs for their citizens, with the overall results being a healthier populace.

Opponents insist there will be new problems. But that is no argument at all, for there always is with change. The point is, for 50 million Americans the improvement will be like night versus day.

The issue is a matter of general principle and about our national character.

When a nation as great as the United States has 50 million citizens who face bankruptcy in the event of serious illness, then the greatness of that nation is in jeopardy of being in the past.

Other democratic countries have come to understand that its citizens comprise a family, to use an analogy. As such, they extend certain guarantees to every member. Even the youngest children, who contribute nothing to the upkeep of the home, are extended basic minimums. Or put another way, have you ever known a good neighbor who didn’t provide his loved ones with at least basic health care?

Many Americans earn millions of dollars each year, and they do it with our help, directly or indirectly. In light of this, simple fairness dictates that the wealthy should pay a higher percentage of taxes so that every regular citizen can live without fear of poverty caused by the cost of a serious illness.

It’s a national disgrace that the United States is the only democracy on Earth whose highest leaders have voted themselves free health care, but not those they govern. Our politicians, elected the parents of our national family, so to speak, have betrayed our trust, having cared for themselves while abandoning their guardianship of the children.

And it’s also an international embarrassment, for the entire free world to see this American injustice for the selfishness and self-righteousness that it is.
DAVE GRESHAM
Moneta

A bit of respect
Recently, I returned to my hometown for a funeral service for my daughter’s fiancée. The disrespect shown by some of the citizens of my hometown was very disappointing to say the least.

On the way from the funeral home to the cemetery several cars broke into the funeral procession and continued on until they came to their destination and politely turned off. In addition, several cars broke through the procession to get to the outside lane so they could continue on without the hassle of being a few minutes late because of the funeral procession.

This may not seem like a big deal to many of you but I think their actions were very rude and made me ashamed of how disrespectful they were to the family of the deceased.

I guess I have been spoiled by how respectful people are of funeral processions in my new hometown of Burlington, N.C. Here when a funeral procession is in progress oncoming traffic stops until the last car in the procession passes. In some instances people have been known to exit their cars and place there hands over their hearts or simply bow in prayer as the procession passes. I just wanted to express my disappointment in how some citizens of Lynchburg acted on such a somber day. Remember, one day it could be your family on the way to the final resting place for your loved one.
BENNIE KIDD
Burlington, N.C.