Readers' forum: Nov. 7, 2009

November 06, 2009 05:12 pm

— Lawmakers should walk in our shoes

Folks as varied as those who read the Corn Growers Association newsletter or the New York Times have come to understand that President Obama’s call for health care reform, including a public option, is valid. It has sure been a long hard slog through the misinformation campaign by opponents of health care to come to this understanding.

Some media outlets must think we Americans are complete dunderheads. We were told there would be death squads, a huge increase in the federal deficit and decreases in Medicare. Supposedly, we should believe that our present system always works even while we see families having to sell their possessions to pay for unexpected medical bills, or friends no longer able to buy health care insurance. Sure there may be some abuses of Medicaid and Medicare by recipients, but what about the abuses of insurance companies and for-profit health care providers who make money by denying services to people in need.

We need Sens. Bayh and Lugar to walk in our shoes for a day. It would be ever so much better for us as Hoosiers if our representatives knew health care delivery from the average patient’s perspective. I don’t want to believe that our senators are spending their resources hunting for political cover and protecting the support they receive from lobbyists rather than listening to their constituents. Casting health care reform as a liberal versus conservative battle is an insult to our intelligence. Health care reform is about the moral right for Americans to have needed health care and the ethical treatment of patients when they need healing for cancer, diabetes and other diseases.

Friends, please do your own fact-checking from reputable sources before you deny support to the public option. It is key to solving the health care reform puzzle.

— Nancy Swaim

Rockville

Re-creation of radio show nice alternative

Like many, I attended the Crosley Radio Player’s performance at the Indiana Theater on Oct. 30. For those of you who weren’t there, it was a live radio re-creation of the famous Orson Welles’ broadcast of “War of the Worlds.”

The show, complete with a live orchestra and generated sound effects, was very entertaining and even enhanced by the atmosphere that the Indiana Theater provided. I was disappointed though, that none of the local radio stations carried the broadcast. This would have allowed those who couldn’t attend a chance to experience the show just as our parents and grandparents did when the original broadcast was made.

In a small city like Terre Haute, it’s nice to have yet another option when it comes to local entertainment.

— Lee Hodge

Terre Haute