Readers Write 10/7

POLITICS

Obama needs to deal with stopping violence

President Obama went to Denmark as the “frontman,” pleading on behalf of the United States before the International Olympic Committee that Chicago be selected as the venue for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Maybe Obama could spend five minutes addressing the bloodbath happening in Chicago right now.

How about Obama addressing the issue of violence in general? The youth in this country are in trouble, folks, and leaders need to get serious about it, starting with the president.

Geoff Knafou, Hog Mountain

SOCIAL SECURITY

Seniors paid into system and deserve its benefits

Having paid into the Social Security system for over half a century, I take exception to “How did we become an upside down culture that spends lavishly on our seniors but is so stingy with our young?” (“Seniors get benefits babes don’t,” Opinion, Sept. 27). Lavishly, Cynthia Tucker?

The broad difference between young people and us older, and presumably, expendable members of the human race, is that we paid into the system all those years as an insurance premium for that brief period in our lives that might render us unemployable due to age and infirmity. Our young people can still work for a living.

Remember that one day, God willing, you will be in our place.

James Reed Blakeney, Social Circle

JUDICIARY

Hearing new evidence necessary for justice

We share the call for justice made by friends and family of Officer Mark MacPhail. The pain they have suffered is unimaginable.

There would be no justice served in executing Troy Davis for Officer MacPhail’s murder when a court has yet to hear compelling new evidence that surfaced after his conviction.

Knowing that such evidence exists and ignoring it would threaten the very notion of justice.

More than half a million people with diverse views on the death penalty have called for a new hearing for Davis. They recognize that the question of guilt or innocence in this case remains unanswered until a court hears from the witnesses, and several changed their story or recanted after the conviction.

The U.S. Supreme Court has taken an important step in providing for a hearing, and all sides have come together to pray it will be thorough and fair, and reinforce our faith that justice can be served in this case.

Jared Feuer, Amnesty International, Southern Regional Office

HEALTH CARE

Medical bills drive some people to the brink

This letter is in response to Thomas Sowell’s “Not having health insurance not end of the world” (Opinion, Sept. 22).

He says he paid in installments for the birth of his first child. How long ago was that?

The cost of medical expenses has outpaced the cost of living expenses by double. Most Americans can’t afford to get a prescription filled, much less pay for health care costs of a major illness. Why do you think so many people are forced to file bankruptcy when lacking adequate insurance?

So, yes, it is the end of the world for a lot of people.

Angela Albert-Easley, Marietta