Opinion > Political Opinion

Posted on Mon, Nov. 02, 2009

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Letters to the editor on health care reform, legalizing drugs, casinos, Fox News, criticizing the poor

Obama not leading on health reform

Triggers for a public insurance option, limited access and all the rest of the options for health care are certainly change of the absolute smallest kind. I expected the president to take the lead on this issue, even if it was politically risky.

I've been following most of the important issues of the day, and days gone by, and I've yet to see the president put himself out there, as I expected of a true leader. As a matter of fact, I still don't know where the president stands on true health care reform. Talk is cheap — let's see how badly the president wants the people of the United States to have an affordable, efficient health care system.

If I and all of my friends don't see some real guts on the part of the president, we will believe it is more of the same — lots of talk and no real bold action.

DARRELL SCHMIDT

Wichita

Legalize drugs

Kathleen Parker's column "Will women help bring sanity to drug laws?" (Oct. 23 Opinion) pointed out the hypocrisy, piety and small-mindedness that reverberate through the United States.

Brilliant thinkers across the United States have been advocating the legalization of marijuana for decades. This select group includes Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts and the late ultraconservative thinker William F. Buckley.

When Prohibition ended, bootlegging ceased to exist, and gangsters such as Al Capone began to fade away.

We are losing the war on drugs at an alarming rate. We will win only when we legalize all addictive drugs and control their use by eliminating the demand.

GARY DAY

Wichita

Casinos harm

Why is our former mayor, Bob Knight, pushing so hard to bring casinos to Kansas? Casinos do not in any way help our economy, nor do they stimulate money. They take money that should be spent paying off loans, feeding the family and paying for health insurance.

Sure, people are not forced to go to casinos, but their impact is left on more than just the people attending. Yet our former mayor is pushing so hard for them. Why? The thought of a casino upsets me greatly. I hope one day Knight will stop his push and settle down a little.

COLIN C. HIEBSCH

Wichita

Biased network

I read Cal Thomas' wonderfully ironic column "White House trying to 'jam' Fox News' signal" (Oct. 28 Opinion). I don't know if Thomas considered it ironic or not, but I'm used to that from conservatives. I keep waiting for them to crack a smile, jab me in ribs and shout, "I got ya! You thought I was serious, ya big lug!"

Comparing Fox News to Radio Free Europe is fantastically fantastical. It makes almost no sense whatsoever.

I find it hard to imagine that so many people watch Fox News and don't instantly recognize that they are watching, by far, the most biased and sensationalist network on the air. But to understand the mentality of those who call the yammering of hosts Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck "the truth," we must examine the alternate reality known as "the mainstream media are liberal."

Did I miss a cosmic shift in the political paradigm in which giant multinational corporations have become the new bleeding-heart liberals? Since when did billionaire CEOs like those of General Electric, owner of NBC, or Disney, owner of ABC, become liberal? How limber does one's sense of logic have to be to perform such a feat of mental gymnastics?

That Fox has become the champion of the Moral Majority I find endlessly amusing. Does anyone remember how Fox began? These were the folks who built an empire on the idea that they could bring us the sleaziest programming on TV. They were the ones who first lowered the bar to its current levels. It's their lead that the rest of the media have followed.

SONNY LARACUENTE

Wichita

Criticizing poor

To the Opinion Line contributor who thinks that the "poor" designation should only be for children who are homeless or living on their own, I submit the following quote from Herman Melville: "Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed."

J. KEVIN CHISHAM

Wichita