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Thanks for the votes for Medicare improvements; keep them coming

After months of debating how to protect and improve Medicare, the president and Congress have heard from millions of people like me who rely on Medicare for affordable health care coverage, as well as 9 million military families and the doctors who serve all of us.

Our message to Washington, that it's time to finally act on a bill that would allow us to maintain access to our doctors and improve Medicare, has been loud and clear. Thankfully, our Sens. John Warner and Jim Webb heard our message. They joined an overwhelming, bipartisan majority to pass the Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (H.R. 6331), which will improve low-income, prevention and mental health programs, and boost health care quality through national e-prescribing.

We should all thank our senators for their decisive votes. Since the president has announced it was his intention to veto the bill, we are counting on our senators to continue to vote the same way when it comes time to vote and override a presidential veto.

A steep premium on home delivery

Get this. If you order a book of stamps from the post office online, it will cost $1 to have it delivered. Let's see, it costs 42 cents to have a letter sorted and delivered but it costs $1 to deliver a book of stamps minus the sorting. Sounds like a real bargain to me.

Give taxpayers a fair shake

With the passing of the Fourth of July, it is time to honor a true American hero: the American taxpayer. Through the taxpayer's hard work, we support the military, the police force, welfare, prisons, schools, our government and a big part of the rest of the world.

We do all of this, and all we ask for is a fair tax and for our politicians to stop wasting our money. The taxpayers never get a parade or a thank you. All we get is more taxation. So, if you receive any money/handouts from the government, thank a taxpayer for his or her 30 or 40 years of thankless contributions. American taxpayers can unite and log on to FairTax.org.

Give the other side of dog park debate

The July 11 news story concerning the proposed dog park in Roanoke ("Still on the fence") portrayed only those who spoke against the park at the Architectural Review Board meeting. What about the several people who spoke for the park?

The newspaper could have at least given equal time to both sides of this debate so the public wouldn't hear only from those opposed. The writer only mentioned the destruction of a sledding hill, not that Highland Park is full of hills and that Roanoke receives only about five days of snow a year.

Also, it wasn't mentioned that NewVaConnects offers to close the dog park for sledding and events at the stage.

The stage is another matter altogether. It is rarely used except by the homeless who spend their nights underneath. But the stage was considered when picking a site: The fence line is a good 20 to 30 feet away and in no way disrupts the use of the stage. Give us a break, Roanoke Times. Be fair. Include the pros with the cons.

Don't conserve gas; drill for more

Reducing the national speed limit to 55 mph to save fuel is a joke.

On a personal level, the best way to combat the high cost of gas is not to trade in your SUV for an overpriced smaller vehicle. A more rational way to offset a single commodity, as with the price of gasoline, is to look at the broader family budget.

Making cuts there offers many options that will not create more debt or compromise your standard of living.

If you are trying to hang on to your money while navigating around mud puddles of personal debt incurred partly by outrageous fuel cost, easing up on the gas pedal is not the answer. You can bet your little Austin-Healey or motor scooter that members of Congress are not going to such extremes.

To address the energy needs of the present and future, it is imperative that we tell our local, state and national representatives to cease political grandstanding and get on with solving the problem. It would seem drilling for more oil would put several dogs in the energy hunt, but I'm not holding my breath.

Attack on Obama was based on lies

Oh, dear. Mary Pafford apparently has fallen for the smears about Sen. Barack Obama that clog the Internet.

How else to explain her attacks in her July 11 letter, "Obama's 'change' offers no reason to hope"? She calls Obama an anti-capitalist, a strange complaint about a man who began his career working for New York businesses, spending four years there before moving to Chicago and helping revitalize that city's poorest neighborhoods.

She accuses him of "hostility against Caucasians," another strange complaint, considering Obama had a Caucasian mother and was reared by his white Kansas grandparents, whom he repeatedly talks about and obviously loves.

She claims he "plans to dismantle our missile defense system" but offers no proof. His Web site (barackobama.com) shows he supports an intelligently designed, carefully deployed missile defense system.

Maybe she also believes that Obama, a longtime Christian, will take the oath of office on the Quran and fill the White House with Muslims, two of the outright lies circulating on the Internet.

Who believes this stuff? Reasonable people can question Obama's policies on health care or the economy, but personal attacks based on falsehoods are the politics of hate. Americans deserve better.

Different flood, far different reaction

As you watch the flooding in the Midwest, have you noticed that there are no farmers running around with stolen plasma TVs or holding stolen liquor over their heads. There's no looting or yelling "Where's Bush?" "Where's FEMA?" "Where's my check?" or "Why isn't the government out here saving me and my farm?"

Likewise, I've also noticed there are no reports of any other country coming to help or sending aid. And where are the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Shocking contrast, isn't it?

Not one of the reasons to support Rasoul

A recent letter to The Roanoke Times promotes the candidacy of Sam Rasoul in the 6th District House race because he advocates the use of solar and wind power to achieve independence from oil ("Support Rasoul because he supports alternatives to oil," July 13). While there are good reasons to support Rasoul, this is not one of them, and hopefully he has more perspective than the letter writer suggests.

Wind and solar are both used to generate electricity. Oil is primarily used for transportation; very little is used for electricity. Less than 2 percent of U.S. electricity has been generated with oil in recent years, and much of that is refinery residue.

If we are going to solve our energy problems, we need to look at the actual cost and benefits of the available options. Uninformed advocacy is not helpful.

A heartless view of homosexuality

Diane Kees' letter "Acceptance isn't the loving response" (July 10) upset me a great deal. I do not think the majority of people believe they can just say no to their children being homosexual and take care of the situation.

I have had close friends in my life who were gay (I am not) who were kind, understanding, good people. They should have the same rights as everyone else. They aren't hurting anyone, so why can't we just let them live their lives as they wish?

I hope the majority of people are not as closed-minded as Kees. She sounds like she wouldn't even love her own kids if they were gay.