Readers Write 10/13

ELECTIONS

Atlanta needs more choices for City Council

I am very impressed with all of the candidates for mayor — so much so, that I’m not certain which one gets my vote. But the mayor is only a symbol of Atlanta, and can’t do much. What I am not impressed with is the lack of candidates for City Council.

I believe the incumbent council members are the ones responsible for the financial ill health of the city, the fear caused by street crime and for the decisions which have caused higher taxes and lower expectations.

Until many of those members are replaced, there cannot be much change for our city — and the sooner the better, for all of us who still want to call Atlanta home. Richard Klinger, Atlanta

POLITICS

Georgians can decide what’s best for them

Jay Bookman’s “GOP once embraced what it now condemns” (ajc online, Sept. 11) skews the facts to suit his own liberal tendencies. Georgia’s proposed constitutional amendment will preserve the rights of individuals to make their own health care choices, whatever they may be.

States are better equipped to reform health care. Congress should create an environment so the free market can flourish by removing regulatory and legal barriers that restrict states developing more competitive insurance markets.

Bookman chose to attack legislation that no longer exists. There is a huge difference between a state-based voluntary exchange, and a national health insurance exchange. States are the primary regulators of health insurance. Several years ago, a few states considered offering a health insurance marketplace to offer portability of insurance, and avoid denials for pre-existing conditions. SB 28 merely allowed private companies to come together in a common marketplace to sell insurance products with no government involvement. The national health insurance exchange combined with the public plan creates a scenario where the government plays regulator and competitor.

Georgians want the freedom to choose their health care providers and insurance, as opposed to some bureaucrat deciding what’s best for them.

Sen. Judson Hill (R-Marietta)

POLITICS

New standard seen as
somewhat hypocritical

Kudos to Thomas Friedman for his call to civility (“American political divide turns deadly,” Opinion, Oct. 4). Now, where has he been during the Bush administration? Where were his worries when Harry Reid, Jack Murtha and Nancy Pelosi were seriously undermining our previous president — in the middle of a war, no less? Isn’t it just a little hypocritical to call for a new standard when his man is in office? With all due respect, instead of preaching at us “fringe,” I would suggest Friedman and the rest of the liberal media elites take a long, hard look in the mirror, and remember this adage: you reap what you sow.

Larry Taylor, Marietta

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Take humanitarian approach in Afghanistan

The solution to Afghanistan is humanitarian aid, and not military occupation. Stop killing and destroying everything in sight. Let’s stop putting more military lives, and the lives of the Afghanistan people at risk.

Dianne Proctor, Atlanta