All deserve health insurance
Thanks to The Daily Star and Tom Grace for reporting that the Otsego County treasurer had dumped same-sex couples from the county's health care plan.
The Otsego County Treasurer's move was obviously discriminatory and also cruel. Republican County Board Chairman James Powers was right when he said: "Gay people get sick, too, and when they do, they need medical attention."
The same is true for all of us _ no matter our color, gender, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, income, disability, health or immigration status. People who are sick need health care, period.
Unfortunately, our health care system is not set up to ensure that we get it. Instead, it is driven by hundreds of private insurance companies all chasing the bottom line, with a bunch of government programs trying unsuccessfully to fill in the gaps. Neither of the major presidential candidates is proposing to alter this basic set-up, which almost all the experts acknowledge is the most-expensive and least-effective in the industrialized world. (For more about this, come hear Donna Smith from the movie "Sicko," who will be speaking at Oneonta's Foothills Performing Arts Center on Friday, Sept. 12, from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.)
My heart goes out to the partners of gay and lesbian Otsego County workers who have suddenly found themselves without health care coverage because they are gay. That decision should be reversed. And we need to work together for a new health care system that guarantees everyone high-quality, publicly funded health insurance: Everyone in, no one out!
Laura McClure
Bovina Center
McClure is a member of the Healthcare Work Group of the Coalition for Democracy based in Oneonta.
Movie more harmful than ad
Regarding A.J. Bodnar's recent letter: A parent who takes his impressionable children to see "The Dark Knight" should rethink his priorities before lambasting Zurich Cinemas and a U.S. Navy ad in the previews. Your outrage would be laughable if it weren't so twisted and kids weren't involved.
The Navy ad is a 30-second, retro-style spot about unmanned drones. It is a clever display of technology containing three explosion of inanimate objects; no bloodshed, no death.
"The Dark Night" is more than two hours of jaw-dropping violence. Its most compelling character, Joker, is a psychopath who slaughters enemies and innocents on a whim. Children witnessed explosions, crashes, burnings and maulings, all resulting in death or maiming. You called this "mindless fun," yet felt assaulted by a short recruitment clip?
Zurich Cinemas sells ad space, and the Navy bought space. You did not "pay for the privilege of being blind-sided," nor did the ushers lock you inside the theater, so drop the captive audience nonsense. Why didn't you leave immediately and demand your money back? That certainly would have sent a message to Zurich Cinemas and to your children.
Children who are "not in the position to think rationally" about the military are less capable of processing a violent movie. They have difficulty separating fantasy from reality, especially when the fantasy is set in the real world. This is why children need parents to use adult discernment and protect their fragile psyches. While Joker was leaving "bloody boot prints" all over their hearts and minds, you were busy fuming over a harmless ad. Shame.
Glenda Pierce Hoffmann
West Oneonta
SUNY should help citizens first
With the cost of pursuing scholastic endeavors after high school as expensive as they are, I was utterly irked after reading the article "SUNY to host Chinese students," published on Aug. 7. My irritation comes about as I read that 22 foreign students are attending area SUNY schools for free. SUNY is paying tuition, room and board and other expenses for these students.
I understand that SUNY is paying for these students to attend through fundraising programs. However, what I do not understand is why non-citizens are receiving a free education, whereas only some of our citizens receive partial aid from the government to attend a college or university. In the article, the president of SUNY Delhi stated that it is helping these students because they are in need.
Well, I guess the people who work for SUNY have poor eyesight because there are many people in this area alone who are in need of monetary funds to attend a college or university. I am one of these. Knowing that, I, a resident of this state and citizen of this country, will have to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars in loans after my schooling is completed, even though I receive excellent and generous scholarships from the Clark Foundation and Hartwick College, along with financial aid, I feel I am right to be annoyed by the actions of SUNY.
We need to educate our own, for it is they who are the probable future of this country. Whatever happened to putting our citizens first? If I were running the show, foreigners would be at the end of the need line with our citizens ahead of them. May glory forever shine upon this nation!
Christopher James DiDonna
Schenevus
An agenda behind decision?
This letter is in regard to Myrna Thayne's recent decision to take it upon herself to dis-insure the same-sex partners of county employees. Thayne, in order to do this, you must either be heartless or have an agenda, so which is it?
You told The Daily Star that your reasoning behind your decision was to "contain costs," but according to James Konstanty and Betty Anne Schwerd "this will not affect more than a couple people." When looking at the county budget as a whole, this doesn't appear as though it will save us too much money, does it?
Therefore, in regard to my question, it appears the answer is "both."
Dave Rissberger
Oneonta
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