Republicans cavalier toward sick people
Regarding “GOP floats own ideas” (News, April 17), Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens’ question, “When does your medical condition become my problem?” illustrates why citizens of this country will never trust Republicans to design a health care plan that serves the needs of all people.
I hope Hudgens never wakes up with a twitching finger that ultimately turns out to be Parkinson’s disease. I hope he never experiences the fear that he will become too ill to work and risk losing everything that he worked so hard to acquire.
I want nothing from Hudgens except the right to be able to buy insurance, regardless of a pre-existing condition.
Let me give him the answer to his question: My medical condition becomes your problem when I have depleted my savings and have to go on public assistance.
Jim Wildermuth, Atlanta
Society doesn’t value men’s work in the home
Lori Kilberg’s article showed that she is part of the problem she is trying to help correct (“Get beyond same-sex sponsors,” Business, April 15). She assumes women are the primary caregivers of children and, as she says, “household leaders.”
She needs to promote the idea that men can advance in the homefront. I’m a divorced and remarried father of four just ending paternity leave. I just got my sons off to preschool and I’m writing this before I go to my job.
I’ve butted against the glass ceiling of parenting that fathers experience all the time. During my divorce I was explicitly asked, “How can you take care of the children since you will be working?” The question ignored the fact that I was already taking care of the children and working.
I can give more examples, but the bottom line is that women will hit a glass ceiling in the workplace as long as women promote a glass ceiling on the homefront.
Kilberg should re-examine her statement that women are “household leaders.” That idea is an obstacle to her advancing in the workplace.
Mark Shumate, Roswell
Water is bigger worry than transportation
The estimated billions that T-SPLOST would raise to build a slate of transportation projects around the Atlanta region would be better spent on water supply projects.
We have long contested the usage of the limited amount of water available with Alabama and Florida.
We have long been asked to conserve water through bans on outdoor watering, washing cars, etc. Our local and state politicians have long promised to do something about the water supply problem — yet nothing of significance has been done.
We have been told by experts that building reservoirs will be very costly. The money necessary is far beyond the financial resources of the area’s counties and towns. Solving the water problem is a regional issue, yet it appears that relieving traffic congestion is a higher priority for the Atlanta Regional Commission. An inadequate water supply will place a harder limit on the growth of the Atlanta region than traffic congestion. I cannot vote “yes” for T-SPLOST until the entire region has a year-round, adequate supply of water.
George Whitley, Marietta
Response to “Come back, Sarah Palin; ‘SNL’ needs some laughs,” Opinion, April 15
I was bemused by Maureen Dowd’s column — but also was taken aback that this type of journalism has enabled so many bad politicians to make it into office. With her typically liberal “I’m-smarter-than-you-are” quips, she is surrendering to the fact that politically there is nothing she can write to bolster her own opinions. Unfortunately for our country, we’ve been watching a comedy play out for real over the past four years — and it’s a tragic one. With President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Harry Reid playing Curly, Moe and Larry, America has been subjected to a real-life “Three Stooges” and the results aren’t very funny for most of us. But I’m certain Dowd would love for Tina Fey to reprise her role so she (and other liberals) can again resort to ridicule — instead of reason — to debase their enemies. PATRICK BELDEN, ATLANTA
