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Give all Americans the health care enjoyed by a few

Socialized health care, now available to political leaders and a few million other Americans, should be offered to all U.S. citizens.

Two commendable basic systems are in place. They but need tweaking to ensure skilled care is efficiently given and health care providers are better compensated.

Most socialized and taxpayer-paid care is offered to active military and veterans. A typical recipient is John McCain, GOP presidential hopeful. Except for time as a prisoner of war, McCain has enjoyed taxpayer coverage all his career.

Semi-socialized are federal and state programs for other public employees. Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are eligible. These plans are taxpayer-subsidized. Health care providers compete to become plan partners.

These approaches are fair and worthy. Expanded, they would unburden private employers from health care costs and level the world's playing field.

Membership would be voluntary. Government costs would be placed on the national credit card -- public debt. We are doing that for massive Iraq war spending, despite promises by White House and Pentagon war planners that the war would be paid by Iraqi oil revenues.

Why not for better American health care?

Insurance costs weren't exaggerated

Thanks to Nancy Lewis for her commentary "After insurance premium, not much is left" (March 7). What a well-written and pointed article. I agree wholeheartedly.

I also carry a high deductible and still pay almost $4,000 a year. After co-pays, prescription co-pays and deductibles, it comes to one-quarter of my annual income.

I'm afraid to not have insurance, but with increasing prices and no increase in income, I may have no alternative but to live in fear of losing my home to medical bills one day.

Bush presidency's negative worth

Here is the result of seven-plus years of the Bush presidency:

Linear regression of the Dow Jones average shows a gain of about 5 to 6 percent a year during the Bush years, contrasting with about 20 to 26 percent a year during the Clinton years.

One euro cost us 88 cents in March 2002, the time of the euro's introduction, and $1.55 in March 2008.

A barrel of oil was priced at $23 in the first quarter of 2001 and is now above $100.

The housing market has collapsed and a recession is in sight due to lenient bank practices encouraged by the White House.

The spent and approved cost of the Iraq invasion so far is above $600 billion. Has it improved our security? It is arguable that the effect has been negative.

Casualties of the Iraq venture: 4,000 U.S. dead, 29,400 U.S. seriously wounded, violent-death body count of about 85,000 Iraqi civilians. The end is not in sight.

To paraphrase another overrated ex-president: "Are we better off today than we were eight years ago?"

DAVID de WOLF

No getting angry over stolen wheelbarrow

This morning, shortly after dawn, I walked down to the mailbox to pick up the newspaper. As I walked back across the street, I noticed a pile of twigs and sticks lying beside my two old trash cans, neatly perched on their rolling rack filled with twigs and sticks. To my surprise and shock, my old yellow-gold wheelbarrow had been emptied and was nowhere to be seen.

My old yellow-gold wheelbarrow was not anything special, other than it had been a gift from my dad shortly after I bought my first home back in 1978.

This wheelbarrow had been with me at three prior residences here in Roanoke, taken two transfers with me and returned with me when I retired and moved back to Roanoke last year.

I read my horoscope that morning, something I seldom do. I needed to laugh. "Don't let your emotions get the better of you. If someone makes you angry, don't retaliate." After all, this was Holy Week.

I have lived in this neighborhood since last June and have noticed a red wheelbarrow sitting haphazardly in a yard, same spot, same position. Many times as I have gone for a walk, I have had the mischievous thought of letting it roll right down to the golf course. Guess I best not be angry over my missing old yellow-gold memory.

Wright isn't alone in his denunciations

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama's longtime pastor, may have generated a political firestorm with the revelation of his unabashed denunciations of America ("Barack and the bigot," March 19 Cal Thomas column), but it turns out he has some high-minded fellow travelers.

At age 93, British philosopher Bertrand Russell attended an ill-fated attempt by Europe to put America on trial for war crimes in Vietnam in 1967 in Copenhagen and Stockholm.

"In every part of the world the source of war and suffering lies at the door of U.S. imperialism," Russell declared. "Wherever there is hunger, wherever there is exploitative tyranny, wherever people are tortured and masses left to rot under the weight of disease and starvation, the force which holds down the people stems from Washington." Amazing how history repeats.

A depressing view of Patrick Henry

I'm glad the public can see how the school is treating our children ("Boxed-in lunch," March 15 Extra section feature on Patrick Henry High School). What kind of teacher calls students animals? Teachers are here to teach education not depression.

Also, the state is worried about an extra lunch or stolen milk. Come on, if the kids are that hungry at least they will be getting nutrition. The school has enough money to pay guards to check the kids' coats and leave them on a bench where anyone can pick them up, but doesn't have money to suffer an extra milk or tray.

I go to that school every morning to drop off my niece. Where were the guards or teachers when I had to stop a fight at the front doors? I could've gotten hurt, but took the chance when help was needed.

Kids are shooting each other in schools all across the world. Yet they want to keep P.H. kids locked in with nowhere to run. This is another way to try and show who is boss. What other school does anything this awful? When will teachers start acting like teachers and not parents?

Biking isn't just for fun anymore

With all the discussion over the cost and space to provide car parking downtown, Emery St. Cyr's March 20 letter ("Businesses, get behind biking") is particularly appropriate. It would seem that providing safe parking for bicycles would not only be more cost-effective, but would be an incentive to use a cleaner, healthier transportation option for shopping and recreational trips.

St. Cyr's appeal to merchants may be misplaced, though. Much of downtown's pedestrian space is in the city's right-of-way, meaning it is up to the city to install and maintain the racks. And, to be fair, there is already quite a lot of bike parking downtown; for example, a few of the parking garages have large grid-style racks that provide ample space and protection from the weather. Not all available racks are convenient to destinations like the market, however.

The Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission has provided resources such as printable maps and interactive tools on the Web site of its RIDE Solutions program. This is just a start: Air quality challenges, gas prices and concerns about physical fitness should drive more Roanoke area residents to consider their bicycles as a transportation option.

Expanding safe, accessible accommodations for cyclists will make Roanoke a cleaner, healthier place to live.