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PrintDon't even the most liberal textbooks admit that FDR's government programs to help faltering businesses during the Great Depression only worsened the crisis and prolonged the recession?
Bailing out these major lenders is not going to help anything ("Treasury to Take Over Fannie, Freddie," Sept. 6). If anything, it will only encourage the banks and other lending companies to take greater risks in lending money, knowing that if they fail, the government will help them out.
As a business owner, I find this screamingly unfair. I took a risk when I bought my coffee shop, and if I don't make my loan payments or pay my rent, nobody comes to my rescue. I have to suck it up and make ends meet, somehow. If I can't, then I have to close the doors. Why is that any different when you're a big company?
It is not the government's job to make sure people don't lose jobs or homes. We are a free-market economy and businesses need to be responsible for themselves, just like people do. I hope, somehow, this decision can be reversed and that the government will go back to managing what's already on its too long to-do list.
VICTORIA GREEN
Bellevue
Rationing care
Kudos to Clarke Thomas on his analysis of our broken health-care system and how to fix it by means of a universal, single-payer, publicly funded but privately delivered health-care system ("A Health-Care Mystery," Sept. 3). The column is must reading for anyone who wants to understand the problems with our health-care system.
Why is our privatized health system so badly broken? Because the incentives of "for profit" insurance companies inherently conflict with our needs to receive health services. The primary goal of private insurance companies is to maximize profits and accumulate operating surpluses. How do insurance companies do this? By charging the highest premiums that the market will tolerate while at the same time providing minimum benefits.
If you have existing health problems, many policies exclude coverage of existing conditions for a year or more. If you are not covered by an employer's group policy, your premium is set at exorbitant levels on the assumption that you will probably need a higher level of medical services. If you have a serious medical problem where the best treatment is some state-of-the-art-therapy, then you are told that your policy does not cover "experimental" treatments.
In other words, private health insurance is just great if you are not sick or injured. But the moment you or a member of your family really needs extensive care, your insurance company has an incentive to ration or deny care.
Under a universal, single-payer health system, such "cherry picking" gamesmanship would be eliminated.
NORMAN WIEN
Regent Square
Yes, puzzling inertia
Clarke Thomas ("A Health-Care Mystery," Sept. 3) has it exactly right: It is indeed a mystery why business leaders are not pushing for universal single-payer health insurance coverage. In this respect we are behind Canada and western Europe, and it has not been a matter of contention between different political parties.
As for "socialism," conservative heads of state like Margaret Thatcher in England and Nicolas Sarkozy in France have been supportive of their national health programs. And, of course, we have our own successful government health program in the Veterans Administration. I recently learned from a friend temporarily in Taiwan that it has a national health program that made it easier for him to see a medical specialist in a modern hospital there than in his HMO in Colorado.
National single-payer health systems are more efficient than multiple insurance companies because they do not have expensive advertising costs (have you been seeing the TV ads?) or expensive salaries and stock options for top administrators.
A good start, which will not happen until we get a new administration in Washington, would be to reduce the age of eligibility to Medicare from 65 years to the date of birth, or maybe even to two months before birth to pay for intrauterine surgery. The change would be less costly than it looks at first sight, because the younger group uses, on the average, less medical care than the over-65 Medicare beneficiaries (like me), a group that is becoming an increased fraction of the population.
Nobody in this country should be driven into poverty by a catastrophically expensive illness.
MILTON MANES
Shadyside
Flawed, but a start
Although I am looking forward with delight to the Sept. 11 initiation of most Pennsylvania public places becoming smoke-free ("End Is Nigh for Smokers as State Ban Takes Effect," Sept. 7), the shortcomings of the law are already evident in the confusion that exists as to whether certain facilities are covered and in reviewing the significant number of establishments that are clearly not subject to the prohibition.
This law is riddled with exemptions, perhaps most notably the one that permits smoking on 25 percent of gambling casino floors. While New Jersey has placed public health and safety first in completely banning smoking on its casino floors beginning in October, Pennsylvania's "esteemed" elected officials believed that casino profits would suffer in a smoke-free environment; thus they decreed that some individuals are not deserving of protection and that casinos may remain smoking dens, patrons' gambling and nicotine addictions going hand in hand.
In a bizarre and convoluted facet of Pennsylvania's law, Philadelphia will be permitted to enforce its stricter smoking prohibitions while other areas must adhere to the more tobacco-friendly provisions enacted.
As is generally the case, the General Assembly has converted good legislation into flawed legislation. I shall be thankful, though, that at long last, most of us will be protected from ingesting a Class A carcinogen and that the strong message will be sent that a potentially lethal nicotine addiction is not so hip and sophisticated after all.
I shall retain some hope that the law's quirks and imbalances will be corrected in the next session of the General Assembly
OREN M. SPIEGLER
Upper St. Clair
Give parents a seat
I hate standing on the bus and the subway. The sudden stops and starts while holding a purse or briefcase make standing treacherous, not to mention being elbowed or stepped on as people exit. Now imagine going through this while holding a diaper bag and small child.
I am outraged that people will sit and read their books or newspapers while a parent struggles a few feet away, trying to remain balanced, holding additional bundles, trying to interact with an excited child.
Come on, people, if that was you, wouldn't you want someone to offer you a seat? Whatever happened to "Do unto others"?
We are all tired and want to sit and unwind, but, please, give that parent your seat!
AMY HASAN
Baldwin Township
Palin should learn about, not mock, an important profession
Vice-presidential aspirant Sarah Palin laced her Sept. 3 convention address with demeaning assumptions and charges vilifying the humble but historically significant occupation of community organizing. Doesn't this bright and lively young woman know that St. Paul the apostle was a community organizer who first made Christianity an international faith, as he sailed around the then-known world spreading a powerful new vision and recipe for happiness?
Right here in Pittsburgh, Tom Murphy, a mayor who started out as a community organizer, helped to provide our town with flourishing PNC Park and Heinz Field before the curse of underpopulation weakened the vigor of our city center.
Right here today throughout the neighborhoods and nearby towns of Pittsburgh, dozens of community organizers help residents preserve and build their small communities. A prime example is Carl Redwood, who has put a lifetime of energy into his own Hill District.
A heroic trio of organizers, Rick Swartz, Aggie Brose and Richard Flanagan, have spent an unbelievable 25 years patiently bringing renewed energy and stability to once-hopeless Garfield.
The Post-Gazette almost daily celebrates the work of this profession, although those doing the work are not always labeled as community organizers. In the last 50 years, thousands of community organizers have been turned out at Pitt and other colleges in our region as well as in other regions of America. We can only be hopeful that in the next 60 days, Sarah Palin will be educated to the important and productive roles played by members of this profession.
JAMES V. CUNNINGHAM
Professor Emeritus of Community Organization
School of Social Work
University of Pittsburgh
Oakland
The work of Jesus
Sarah Palin and her narrow-minded supporters, when disparaging Sen. Barack Obama's experience as a community organizer, should remember this: Jesus was a community organizer, Pontius Pilate was a governor.
D. SWOAGER
Brighton Heights
I was more than a bit surprised and disappointed to hear Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin dismiss Barack Obama's work as a community organizer. One would hope that someone seeking the vice presidency of the United States would have more respect for those who work to improve the lives of those in their communities by working at the grass-roots level. For the typical community organizer, the work put in never matches the recognition received.
Moreover, one would hope Mrs. Palin would show a greater understanding of history and the contributions that have been made by community organizers and activists. Let us not forget the role played by community activist Samuel Adams and the "Sons of Liberty" in educating the citizens of Boston to the increasing tyranny of the British crown. Nor should one forget that Martin Luther King Jr., Susan B. Anthony, Dorothy Day, Margaret Sanger and Mohandas Gandhi were all community organizers.
Most important, given Mrs. Palin's deeply held religious beliefs, perhaps someone should remind her that Jesus Christ was a community organizer and it was a hostile Roman governor who put an end to his work.
DAVID MANEL
Shadyside
Not family first for Palin
As someone who puts family first, I am appalled that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is choosing to neglect her 4-month-old baby to run for vice president. A child's first year is the most precious and precarious time, when his or her emotional blueprint is developed by bonding with and being nurtured by his or her mother. Yet Gov. Palin is putting her own ambition first by agreeing to run for national office, where the travel and time demands of the campaign are all-consuming.
How can I trust her to protect my children? I cannot vote for someone like that.
PATRICK CONNELL
Castle Shannon
VP requires a huge commitment, and so do kids
John McCain's pick for his running mate, Sarah Palin, was chosen and is running as a pro-life candidate. I question this. She has opted to leave a 4-month-old baby in the care of his father, siblings and possibly other help in order to campaign across the country for two months. And above this, the child has many special needs and still needs his mother.
If you choose to have a child (and, believe me, I do applaud her for doing so), then you also must be committed to the care of this child. This is part of pro-life. Yes, this does sound sexist, but it is true. Any mother can have a career and work outside the home and still care for a special-needs child -- just not this kind of commitment. So for this child's sake and the country's, I hope this ticket does not win.
You play the hand you are dealt or you do not play the game.
M. CATHERINE GREISINGER
Clinton, Butler County
Sarah Palin: a politician with a spine
Can Sarah Palin's critics please explain how she's less experienced than Barack Obama? How a two-year governor is less experienced in decision-making than a 143-day, part-time senator (143 is the number of days he worked in the Senate from the time he was sworn in to the time he announced he was forming a presidential exploratory committee), who's spent most of his rookie term campaigning to quit his job?
How one of the few American politicians with a spine, a woman who fought her own party to install ethics reform, is less worthy of leading America than the jellyfish who voted "present" (no choice) 130 times as an Illinois senator just a few years back?
Tell me again how the woman who refused to accept federal pork dollars, vetoed a third of the state budget due to more pork, gave her constituents gas tax relief and negotiated the best natural gas pipeline deal for Alaska is lacking when compared to a man whose primary skill is teleprompter reading.
For his VP choice, the change agent tapped a Washington insider who thinks commuting on Amtrak between a Delaware mansion and Washington, D.C., makes him blue-collar.
It was the tired old war hero who changed everything. Not because he picked a woman. Because he picked a politician unafraid to say she trusts individuals and private industry more than government solutions -- a "for the people" decision-maker with a servant's heart, placed in the exact spot on a presidential ticket that Barack Obama isn't even close to qualifying for.
ROBERT SZYPULSKI
Penn
No need to hunt moose
It is truly amazing that Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin enjoys killing moose. I don't recall reading that her family is poor and needs to rely on moose meat for food.
It's quite admirable that Mrs. Palin is pro-life, but apparently that does not include defenseless animals.
SHARON ANDERSON
Renfrew
Smear-ocracy
It seems that we are no longer a country of intelligence and character -- of Americans who have the "freedom" to engage in honest debate about real issues. Our "democracy" has been hijacked by groups and individuals who know how to use our media in smear campaigns to accomplish their goals -- and the media is complicit -- both to make a big buck, e.g. Jerome Corsi's Obama smear book "The Obama Nation." Added then are small groups that purchase enough copies of the books to get the fiction on the best-seller list -- giving the appearance of legitimacy.
Where are our media with their responsibility to inform Americans, to aid in critically thinking through the heightened volume of political trash that is heaved in this day of 24-hour news coverage? Americans need to wake up and realize that you are continuously being manipulated by these campaigns -- and our electoral system is hijacked in the process.
When some begin to lose the war of ideas, they turn to fiction and smear. The result: "Smear-ocracy" -- a system that puts people in power who need smear to manipulate and win because they lack the winning ideas and character.
PAULA CELLINI
Mt. Lebanon
'Don't ask, don't tell' doesn't work
Regarding the Democratic National Convention in Denver: For the first time since the "don't ask, don't tell" law was implemented for the U.S. military in 1993, a major political party adopted a platform that calls for the replacement of "don't ask, don't tell" with a nondiscrimination policy.
This accomplishment went largely unnoticed during the convention excitement, but it is a moment too important to be ignored.
The Democratic National Committee knows what we know: that "don't ask, don't tell" doesn't work. At a time when our military has a desperate shortage of troops and our national security is still at risk, our country should not be discriminating against lesbian, gay and bisexual service members.
According to a Washington Post poll, there is a resounding amount of public support to overturn "don't ask, don't tell." This is a major signal to Washington that the citizens of the United States are fed up with bigotry, no matter where it occurs, and want a change now!
KATHERINE KAPLAN
Mt. Lebanon
Why bar Barr?
I read with interest the story of how a Pennsylvanian Republican Party official wants to have Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr removed from the November ballot ("Pa. GOP Wants Libertarian Off Presidential Ballot," Aug. 19 Web).
My question is, why is the Republican Party afraid to give Pennsylvania voters a choice? Is it because in Bob Barr, former U.S. congressman and former U.S. attorney, people might actually see a candidate who can make a difference? Nothing else makes any sense to me.
I am a recent convert to the Libertarian Party because I am tired of high taxes, big government and the erosion of our basic rights. Sen. John McCain wants continued big government. Sen. Barack Obama wants bigger government. Only the Libertarian Party is pushing for smaller government, the abolishment of income taxes, the right to privacy in one's personal and business affairs and the passage of a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, among other things.
Come to think of it, I do understand why the Republican Party would be afraid to let Pennsylvanians have a real choice -- they might just take it.
JOE HIGGINS
Wintersville, Ohio
Police have limited options
The unfortunate events by police using Tasers are tragic, but when faced with confrontational situations, there are limited options available. They include physical force, which can cause bodily harm or death, not only to the perpetrators, but the police as well. The last resort is the use of their weapons which increases the chances of someone dying far beyond a Taser.
When police officers are faced with violent situations, they have the authority and power to protect themselves. Faced with split-second decisions, they are trained to respond, but sometimes events require instinct, not training. No police officer wants to harm another human being deliberately.
DON OPACIC
Franklin Park
We welcome your letters. Please include your name, address and phone number, and send to Letters to the Editor, 34 Blvd. of the Allies, Pittsburgh 15222. E-mail letters to letters@post-gazette.com or fax to 412-263-2014. Letters should be 250 words or less, original and exclusive to the Post-Gazette. All letters are subject to editing for length, clarity and accuracy and will be verified before being published.
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