Health care costs are just too high

I am not a Democrat, but I did vote for change. The cost of health care is too high, and that needs to change. I believe the answer is socialized medicine, not to be confused with socialism/Marxism. It is called universal healthcare. The government regulates and subsidizes the health care industry, i.e., doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical and insurance companies. We the people benefit with lower costs, better care, and we are all included.

For those of you opposed to this concept, I suggest you go to the next tea party and publicly burn your or your parents' Medicare card. The next time you need a cop, call a gun-toting friend instead. If you need a paramedic, suck it up and drive yourself to the hospital.

If your house catches fire, get a bucket brigade and a garden hose. These are just a few examples of programs regulated by government and subsidized with tax money. I don't feel any closer to Marxism or communism as a result of these programs. Stop the name calling and embrace the need for change. Do not be afraid.

Bill Thomas

Cardiff

Purpose of Tea Party

As an attendee at the Oceanside event, I had a sign that had pictures of my grandkids saying "Who will bail us out?! … Govt. spending is child abuse!" We all know that we'll always have taxation - therefore most of our concern is about bills that are being recklessly signed before being read … full of trillions of dollars being spent on bailouts, "pork," etc. How will it be paid back? Obviously, it will have to be more taxation.

The primary purpose of the events (I'm hoping there will be more) are intended as a "wake-up call" to the president and all politicians to stop creating a historical record-breaking deficit that is being left behind for future generations.

Pay attention America -- stay informed. Is this really the change we wanted? God bless America!

Andrea Byrnes

Oceanside

Oceanside Tea Party drew thousands

I just visited your Web site at 8:30 p.m. April 15 and the only article was one that said "About 70 protesters gathered to protest taxes at Oceanside City Hall." I just came from the 6 p.m. gathering and there were thousands. Several city blocks shoulder-to-shoulder filling the street from City Hall all the way to the pier and spilling on the beach. Young parents with their children, teens, young adults, more mature and older citizens, all in all very peaceful and fun-loving.

No one was angry or violent. We came together, made our point and went home to our families.

In short, a very representative cross-section of North County. I hope you go back and write something better and befitting real newspaper reporting.

Mark Gohl

Carlsbad

His global warming view has no gravitas

Frank Thurlow attacks Mr. Dunn for supporting Al Gore putting forth the theory linking CO2 levels and human activity to global warming. I would just like to point out that the vast majority of real scientists support Vice President Gore. The world's scientific community thinks enough of his work to have awarded him a Nobel Prize for his efforts.

A theory, after all, is an explanation of the meaning of known facts, and there is more than enough factual evidence to support the Gore theory of global warming. Mr. Thurlow, on the other hand, presents a less-than-feeble litany of "facts" to support his nontheory, a sort of backwards approach to science.

I suggest that Mr. Thurlow's view on global warming has the same gravitas as a flea residing on the butt of an elephant trying to describe the Earth as he knows it.

Max Savin

Escondido

Real political reform still needed

I have studied our political system for many years. … I have come to the conclusion that the systems are badly broken and need reform. However, reform cannot come from within any longer. … Even five years ago, I could not imagine an administration ramming a $3.5 trillion-dollar budget through the House and Senate with little or no debate, especially since the Treasury will have to borrow $2 trillion of it.

The folly of this budget and the accompanying bailout bills is how much money is going to "stimulus" and how much is going to "agenda" spending, not needed at the present.

Nothing will change … until two things happen, and soon. One is giving the president a line-item veto, where he could veto specific items in any appropriations bill and eliminate much of the pork and then power of the Congress to pass massive and sometimes stupid bills. This is not the case now. The president can only sign or veto any bill put before him by the Congress. President (Barack) Obama's announcement that he will go over spending bills line by line is empty rhetoric unless he vetoes the entire bill.

Second, massive campaign finance reform is needed. A new law that would cap contributions from any legal person (individual, corporation, political action committee, nonprofit, etc.) to $250 per candidate per race would go far to blunt the influence of the special interests and lobbyists. Anything short of these measures will result only in rearranging the deck chairs while the ship of state sinks into an oblivion of debt and bad decision-making.

Bill Schurmann

Escondido

Your neighborhood could be next

Years ago, the Carlsbad City Council commissioned a famous artist to design a monument in the park by the ocean. When the artist was finished his work, it looked like a prison. It soon was named "The Bars." Over the years, city personnel have had difficulty keeping the area free of sleeping transients, graffiti, beer bottles and other nuisances. The bars also blocked the view of the ocean. The council then paid the artist more money in order to remove the bars. It was a fiasco.

Last year the City Council, in closed session, decided not to buy the 60-acre Village H (Enchanted Forest), at Carlsbad Village Drive and Victoria Street in the Calavera Hills, for open land. The new owner has been very aggressive and is installing 6-foot wrought-iron bars, without surveying the land, as well as putting up signs discouraging people from walking on the property, as they have been doing for decades. The police have been called to stop individuals from entering the Enchanted Forest. Rumors and hearsay have been flying as to the intentions of the new owner. One thing we know: The City Council failed to buy the property at a horse and buggy price.

Now we view the forest and open land through bars. The new bars look like a prison, which is conducive to feeling confined.

I urge the citizens of Carlsbad to get involved. The City Council reneged on their promise to purchase open land for all to enjoy. Your neighborhood could be next on the chopping block. Visit savevillageh.com.

Walt Meier

Carlsbad

Constitution addict, not a gun addict

I would like to respond to Mr. Harry Titus's letter of April 7 that implies that I am a "gun addict."

No, Mr. Titus, I am a "constitution addict," not a "gun addict," and as such believe in the Constitution with all my heart.

The rights granted to us in that document are more valuable than money, free speech, the right to defend yourself, freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

How can you refute a person's belief in the Constitution and still feel like a citizen? The Constitution was drafted by men wiser than you or I to guarantee that American citizens would be truly free.

I respect your right to free speech, but I have a right to speak my mind also, and I do not agree with you.

I do not use armor-piercing ammunition for target practice, as it's illegal in California; but I do use whatever ammunition I feel will get the job done.

Fox News is not the only place I have found information on guns going to Mexico, and the government's attempt to lay the groundwork for further restrictions on the right of citizens to "keep and bear arms." The mainstream media has ignored this issue.

Gerald T. Reaster

Escondido

Basic human rights are spelled out

Steven Holman said my claim that access to education, health care and a secure old age are basic human rights was wrong "since our government hasn't granted such rights." On Dec. 10, 1948, the U.N. General Assembly adopted and proclaimed (with support from the U.S.A.) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 25 of this declaration states that "Everyone has the right to a standard of living … including food, clothing, housing and medical care … and the right to security in the event of … old age …." Article 25 states that "Everyone has the right to education."

Mr. Holman has the jejune, very short-sighted notion that using his tax money to support education, health care, etc., of others is a type of theft. I doubt Mr. Holman would think using tax money on jails to house real thieves to be a theft. He doesn't realize what the majority of Americans realized in the 19th century. Schools are cheaper than jails. Educated citizens are less likely than ignorant citizens to commit crimes, with the possible exception of the denizens of Wall Street. Similarly, it is cheaper to provide everyone with preventive health care, than the emergency-room, stop-gap measures we now provide.

Margaret McCown Liles

Escondido

Shameful treatment from both parties

Mr. W. Arnold Allsop: You forgot to mention "Dubya" in your "Treatment of our president is shameful" letter on Friday. Senior moment or double standard …? With all due respect.

Jean Fisher

San Marcos

Real Tea Party not about taxes

I watched the "Tea Party" (on Wednesday), and heard demonstrators at venues across the nation voice their grievances on TV. It was not what I expected. Taxes were hardly mentioned -- let alone "taxation without representation." The demonstrations seemed more about too much representation -- too much government, too much spending, too much micro-management.

It reminded this senior citizen of a 1964 political rally and these plain-spoken words of Barry Goldwater: "I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is needed before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents' interests, I shall reply that I was informed their main interest is liberty." The "Tea Party" was about liberty, not taxes.

Grant Kuhns

Carlsbad

Who mourns a killer?

Last month, a parolee, wanted in connection with a rape in February, was stopped by two Oakland motorcycle officers for a traffic violation. This poor excuse for a human being (this is the kindest description I can give) opened fire, killing the two officers.

Approximately two hours later, the killer, Lovelle Mixon, was confronted in an apartment building where he shot and killed two more Oakland police officers. Thankfully, Mixon was killed in a subsequent shootout with police. Justice was done. What makes this horrific event more disgusting is that a few days later, dozens of people in the community gathered at a makeshift memorial to Mixon to mourn his passing.

Wow! Have some U.S. citizens sunk so low morally that they openly mourn the death of a mass murderer who was a disgrace to their race, community and nation? Hope they don't start a movement to have a Lovelle Mixon holiday in Oakland. Wouldn't surprise me if they did.

Leon Smith

Oceanside

Illegal immigrants take up resources

President (Barack) Obama mentioned in his speech March 24, 2009, that he wants to decrease health care costs …. so does the rest of the nation.

It's a simple step. Stop the (deleted)! What other country allows a woman to cross a border (illegally), give birth, and automatically that baby now has all the benefits your children and mine do not have? My family came here legally, worked, paid their taxes and their way in society. We would all love to know the actual cost they have created for those of us who have paid their way with health costs, schooling and the welfare systems. I've heard that after birthing and doing paperwork, they return to Mexico, and we are stupid enough to send them checks in Mexico.

These illegals have taken many jobs that others have had. … We have personal friends who have had to go on some assistance, watching daily what they eat or spend for necessities; their families are in dire straits. Our son, a tree trimmer, has had little work for months. Without our buying food and paying bills, he and his son would be on the street with many others. How sad, how pathetic!

The president and his political peers have got to stand up for what is right and not fear the Latino vote. Our family, our friends, many are Latino. Do what is right, for all. Help us all. Stop the (deleted); it will decrease health care costs. How simple can it be? I truly do not want my grandchildren having to bear this cost the rest of their lives, do you? Call your congressman. Our voices need to be heard, and now.

Suzanne Hecht

Oceanside

Simple solution against pirate attacks

Pirates sneak up to the ships at night and toss grappling hooks to the railings to board the ships. A simple solution is to weld large brackets all around the stern of the ships. The brackets have lights and air horns attached and will break away with 20 pounds of pressure. This will give the crew a first-alert warning.

Moet Hodson

Vista

A scenario for the year 2012

Now that it is December 2012, and President-elect (Sarah) Palin will soon be in office, we can all breathe easier. Who knew that Obama would not change the policies of Bush? I voted for Obama because he promised change, and instead he refused to talk to Iran. Now, four years later, Iran has its nukes focused squarely on Tel Aviv, and I just paid $148 to fill my pickup. Why didn't Obama just talk to Iran? And why did he refuse to bail out the banks? Now the Dow has been stuck at 1,300 the past two years, and as we all know, unemployment is pushing 30 percent.

I just turned off Fox News, because I am tired of them telling us that Obama did not live up to his promise and change. Fox screams daily that Obama should have learned the lessons of the Great Depression and the 1930s and stimulated the economy. I know that President Palin and (Vice President Rush) Limbaugh will perform better than this do-nothing Obama administration of the past four years. I know, because the "fair and balanced" network tells me so.

Mark Martin

Vista

Fairness doctrine all about politics

The fairness doctrine isn't about fairness; it's all about politics. The Democrats want to use political power to establish rules, regulations, or laws to silence their only effective opposition, conservative talk radio. The Democrats may require locally produced programs as the format for talk radio (localism), or demand that equal time is given in some disruptive means to discourage stations from carrying syndicated conservative radio shows. Legislating the left's Air America as equal time would be an effective tool to destroy conservative talk radio; Air America has ratings only slightly higher than local high school radio shows.

Dolores Welty ("Fairness Doctrine Promotes Truth," March 29) doesn't realize that the Fairness Doctrine will apply only to radio, where conservatives have carved out a niche. The Democrats won't touch Hollywood, the news services or ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC or newspapers. Why? Because they are all liberal and slant news and stories toward the liberal line, even spiking stories detrimental to Democrats. The only goal of the Fairness Doctrine, or any rule like it, is to silence conservative talk radio. Who will question and investigate the Democrats? Certainly not the liberal media who have abrogated their responsibility to the people.

Thomas English

Oceanside

North County Times strives for balance

Nearing the end of a long, satisfying and hopefully productive life brings to my attention the need to express appreciation for things and people important to me through the years. During those years, I have read many newspapers and feel that the North County Times is one of the best. In a deeply Republican area, the North County Times strives to retain a balanced, reliable information source. I do not agree with all of the articles on the Opinon page, but I get to know the writers and their positions and can go back and analyze and evaluate with confidence. The political cartoon runs the gamut from good to bad -- in my opinion -- not one-sided. Concise, reliable source of a broad spectrum of our national news. The demise of newspapers is and will be a catastrophe for our nation.

John McGowen

Fallbrook