Letters to the Web Editor

Beth Weaver asks us to "hate her because she is right," referring to Heidi Lockridge. Heidi and I are most times at opposite sides of issues but over a period of time and letters, I believe both of us have come to respect the other as patriotic Americans, both interested in the future of this country.

Hate for one another because of differing political views is not the American way and certainly not the Barack Obama way. His goal is to unite the country for the common good of all. His goals are to change Washington's way of doing things by getting people involved at the grass roots level.

This nation faces many challenges moving forward. Many of our citizens lack health insurance. We are devoting food resources to produce energy because we will not make the hard choices needed to solve our dependency on foreign oil. The diversion of corn to make ethanol is sending a shock wave around the world and causing worldwide food shortages.

Our education is a mess. Over one fourth of our students do not graduate from High School. The TIMM study that compares U.S. students to nine other countries ranks us near the bottom in the areas of math and science. Now our greatest export is technology, but this will not continue if we do not improve education and bring down the high cost of college.

During past elections, our president has been elected usually by one issue, i.e. abortion, security, gun control, etc. Now the current administration has cut taxes while increasing spending to the point that our dollar has lost about half of it's value. The spike in oil and gas prices are a direct result of this economic failure. The increased cost of transportation is trickling through raising prices on almost everything.

Texas leads the nation in the number of Americans without health insurance. McCain's answer is to give tax credits to the individual, but to eliminate the deduction for businesses that provide health care to their workers.

Now what do you think the result will be? I believe it will lead to higher numbers of citizens without health insurance. Reason 1: Without the write-off, businesses will quit providing health care. Reason 2: Tax credits are only given at the end of the year after you have paid out all year long. People will not be able to afford that first year and therefore will not receive either health insurance or the tax credit.

Recently I heard a saying that I thought really gets to the bottom of our current situation: "If you want to live like a Republican, vote Democrat."

Bill Pelland
Murchison