Health care experts not credible
When the Affordable Care Act was first passed, we were assured by the proponents that it would lead to greater coverage, lower costs and better care. These assurances proved wrong on every count. The end result is that tens of millions still have no health insurance, there is less choice for those who do, and skyrocketing costs all around. Many of these same experts are now asserting that the replacement bill recently passed in the House will result in dire consequences — “people will die” among them. The real question is: why should we believe these experts and advocates now, when they were so wrong before?
GARY O'NEILL, MARIETTA
Campus Carry worries college teachers
For the last couple of days I woke up in the morning feeling violated. I have troubles sleeping at night as I do not know how to approach teaching on a weaponized campus because of Campus Carry. I have always loved teaching, the passionate discussions we have in my classroom, the moments when I can see a student’s mind literally open up, or the occasional handshakes at the end of a semester connected with the simple words: “I enjoyed taking your class.”
How will I teach in the future and carry on with unimpeded and passionate discussions? What will be the best way to approach the meltdowns of students we all experience at some point in our classrooms? Will I have to move everything online to feel safe again, by offering “virtual office hours and classes,” knowing full well that online advising and teaching is a two-dimensional and poor substitute for the advising and learning experiences that take place in a three-dimensional office and classroom?
The situation my colleagues and I now find ourselves in is utterly crazy, and all because our elected representatives, from Southern Georgia all the way up to Atlanta, have prostituted themselves to the NRA. They have absolutely no integrity, no common sense, and they willfully ignore the evidence provided that guns on campus are a bad idea.
MICHAEL G. NOLL, VALDOSTA
Congress takes from poor, gives to rich
I’m a nurse with a specialty in public health, and I know that the old ACA has some weaknesses that could stand fixing. But now our House of Representatives has passed the AHCA, which is a misnamed and well-propagandized tax cut for the richest Americans. They cut Medicaid, they offer giant loopholes for charging more for pre-existing conditions and for coverage of essential benefits. And the real purpose is to give a giant tax cut to the people who need it the least, about $765 billion in taxes over 10 years, according to NPR. And there’s not yet even an official estimate of the cost or how many will lose coverage under this stinker.
Before we had unlimited and untrackable money pouring into our elections, members of Congress at least pretended to listen to the people and what they needed. With the AHCA and the subsequent pretense — that they actually have the gall to say out loud and in public — that it’s to “cut costs” and “allow more choice,” it’s quite clear that they don’t even pretend anymore.
Our Congress has become the reverse Robin Hood, taking from the poor and middle class to give to the rich.
PATRICIA YEARGIN, LILBURN
Decreased prospects for minorities suprising
I grew up in the 1950s and ’60s and attended college in the 1970s. I was very supportive of minority students who could now attend college with the aid of scholarships and Pell grants after being denied a college education for many years.
So reading the article (“Prospects dim for black America,” News, May 5) surprised me. After 40 years, somehow the opportunities have dissipated. Maybe the issue is not the “prospects” but the lack of discipline and work ethic in some of those seeking them.
MARC O'DELL, ALPHARETTA
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