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Think VA system is bad, imagine universal care

Dr. Steve Huff's March 26 column "Want to thank veterans? Fix the VA" should be required reading for every American, especially every member of Congress, who advocates the "one payer" or socialized system of health care.

Please allow your imaginations to look into a future where every hospital, clinic and doctor's office in America is run in the same manner as the relatively tiny VA system is managed.

Who among us can argue with the certainty that government bureaucrats would reduce our medical delivery system to a true nightmare?

The people must insist that any Congress or president that fostered such a horror on us must use the exact same mess that they force on the rest of the nation. There would be no exceptions allowed for the elite.

Ha! What are the chances of that happening?

Give students credit they more than earned

The recent Roanoke City Schools scholars banquet was designed to recognize all high school scholars and their chosen mentors for a night of celebration.

In an era when young people's actions are often viewed publicly when they run afoul of rules and regulations or possess opinions that are not always popular with an aging citizenry, it was memorable to spend time with such articulate and goal-oriented people.

This type of recognition is critical to our community's stakeholders because we desperately need to replace the community and political void with thoughtful, ethical and dedicated young people willing to make our community more vibrant. For this, I was shaking my head in agreement.

In contrast to this, I felt an abundant amount of exasperation as Superintendent Marvin Thompson alluded to the fact that his "policies over the last two years are working."

Over the last two years? These students began their schooling in 1994, and I find it reprehensible that Thompson has again tried to take credit for events that he personally had nothing to do with.

In the future, I would suggest that he not make these student-centered events an agenda for displaying the "strengths" of his leadership.

Webb gets off easy

Why are you so easy on Sen. Jim Webb? If former Sen. George Allen had been involved with a firearm at the U.S. Capitol, it would have been on the front page of the next issue of The Roanoke Times.

Smoking ban protects the public

I am thrilled lawmakers are helping protect the people they serve by creating legislation to ban smoking in restaurants.

The American Cancer Society statistics state that "tobacco use kills 440,000 Americans each year, causing nearly one-third of all cancer deaths, and $157 billion in direct health care spending and lost productivity."

The really sad part is that many of these deaths are from nonsmokers breathing secondhand smoke. The stats are staggering on the effects of secondhand smoke. I encourage everyone to go to the cancer society's Web site, cancer.org, and read it for themselves.

I am all for smokers invoking their right to smoke in nonpublic places, but I contend it violates the nonsmokers' right of freedom to breathe in public places. It is a joke to think that the smoke does not float over to the nonsmoking part of the restaurant.

The smoking ban will not hurt business. Have you been to Montano's on a Friday or Saturday night since they have gone nonsmoking? There is standing-room only. Their business is booming. Smokers step out front to smoke and come back to enjoy a smoke-free meal.

I sincerely hope this amendment passes.

Bring the war to an end

There is always a lot of talk about how long it will take to end the war in the Middle East. There is little talk about how much in dollars the war is costing the taxpayers, although the press keeps us informed periodically of the amount being borrowed from other countries.

What is blatantly absent from the war rhetoric is how many military deaths, how many military injured are the president, his administration, the Republicans and Democrats willing to allow before deciding enough is enough? How many more military families are to be uprooted before they decide enough is enough?

Please pass legislation now designed to remove our military from harm's way now. It is possible to write and pass this legislation in no more time than it took the president and Congress to pass the Schiavo legislation.

In case you forgot, of the two, war is far more important. That's what the November election meant.

End the war now, not a year from now.