Democrats don't help poor, minorities
The Democrats have always claimed to be for the poor, the working class, minorities, equality. Where are the people the poorest, crime/corruption the highest and the Democratic Party the strongest? Where? Where the Democrats are in control: California, New York, Chicago, etc.; where the map is blue.
Take a long, hard look at that political red/blue map! Tell me if liberals' socialistic big-government policies lift the poor from poverty or improve minorities to social justice?
P.S. Be honest. If the news media would give us unbiased, honest news, this country would not be in the shape it is in. They are nothing more than an arm of the Democratic Party. Shame!
Jean Jones
Afton
Not safe to walk on the sidewalks
Recently, I was knocked to the sidewalk in front of Stevens Hardware by a boy of 11 on a bike. I was hit from behind with no warning. A hit like that to an elderly person could have been fatal. I talked to the boy's mother. Her retort was, "Kids under 12 can ride the sidewalks."
Not much relief for two banged up knees. Two days later it almost happened again, by a 20-something "kid." This time I saw him coming. I jumped aside, "Hey, slow down," I yelled. I was flipped off.
Winter will soon be here and the bikes will be garaged and Main Street will be safe to walk.
Tom Oliver
Oneonta
Health care should be considered a right
Recently on National Public Radio, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a Libertarian by politics and an obstetrician by profession, opined health care in America was a privilege and not a right. His comments, by extension, are also saying his services as a physician were a privilege to only those individuals who could afford them. This presumably would include the countless infants he delivered and wouldn't deliver over the years; infants, who to no fault of their own, were in need of someone to help bring them into this world.
His self-aggrandizement seems to have a disconnect on a couple of levels. As an obstetrician, he was never economically compensated in a true capitalistic mode. To have accepted income from an insurance carrier, where the many pay for the few, a socialistic concept if there ever was one, would not have been in true Libertarian form. If he were honest to his beliefs and self-proclaimed place of privilege, his Darwinian economic ethos would have precluded him from accepting compensation from anyone except those who could afford it out-of-pocket. That did not happen with Ron Paul and it doesn't happen with physicians in the real world, regardless of their political views.
Realities dictate that medicine is expensive and however it is paid for, public, private or a combination, it is a right that, at the very least, children should have access to. Congressman Ron Paul, who now works as a public servant, hopefully sees his present employ as an honor and a privilege.
Timothy Gibson
Oneonta
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