www.roanoke.com

Everyone should have access to health care

Hurrah for Greg Brizendine's July 27 letter, "America's medical system puts profits over patients." I could not agree more.

Those not fortunate to be wealthy enough to afford health insurance suffer, especially seniors, who sometimes have to choose between meals, rent and medicine. This nation must depart from the old, worn out, employee-based health system as well. This does not work anymore. Many cannot work full time, which in most cases is a requirement to receive health benefits.

Even then, insurance companies are asking individuals to pay more out of pocket for coverage, which puts a squeeze on them financially. And in many cases, claims are denied for questionable reasons. Insurance companies want their premiums but do not want to pay claims.

I've been a part of many spirited debates over America's health care system and those such as Canada's, the United Kingdom's, etc. My main argument is this: We have the greatest technology and physicians around, but if one does not have access to them, what good does that do an individual or struggling family?

Everyone should have the inalienable right to quality health care. It should not be a commodity, but a basic human need.

Dental care appears to be a choice

In your article "Health care road show" (July 26 front page), you ran a picture of Randall and Ashley Mullins, who had not had a dental checkup in more than a year.

Now, I am not a tattoo expert, but it would appear that Randall Mullins had enough tattoos on his arms to have paid for several dental checkups.

I will be first in line to tell you that this is America and everyone has the right to choose his priorities. It would appear that Randall Mullins would prefer to spend his money on tattoos than dental care.

That's fine, but don't write some bleeding-heart article about how he can't afford dental care. Apparently he can. He chooses not to.

Question the claims about HPV vaccine

I hope your readers are smart enough to question the information provided by Drs. Oz and Roizen in "How talking about sex can prevent cancer" (You Docs column, July 29 Extra).

Their first statement, "If you could give your child a 70 percent likelihood of preventing cancer, would you do it?" is clearly meant to open eyes and drop jaws -- unfortunately their insinuation is misleading.

Gardasil is intended to prevent four types of HPV, two of which are supposedly responsible for 70 percent of cervical cancer. Unfortunately, this would fall well short of a "70 percent likelihood of preventing cancer," which of course would include all cancers.

The good doctors are welcome to their pharmaceutically funded opinions (check out RealAge's corporate sponsors), and their statistics come straight from the Gardasil Web site. I hope any family would do their research (pros and cons) before subjecting a member to an undertested vaccine that already may be responsible for several deaths and thousands of adverse reactions.

I find it unfortunate that these doctors employ such Orwellian tactics to attempt to send parents rushing to their doctors' offices, preteen daughters in tow, for a vaccine that may prove more risky than beneficial.

Don't abandon your pets to die

To the folks who abandon their pets on my mountain property: I'm the one who watches your pets die. They come to my front porch after you throw them out because they're kittens, puppies, in heat, too old or too much trouble.

They find the food I always have out for them, and they return morning and night, hungry, afraid, dirty, hurt. Often I cannot catch them to take them to the pound, so I feed them and hope they make it on 311, one of the busiest and most dangerous highways in the area.

I offer them outdoor shelter and all the love they can take as long as they live, but I've learned to memorize the appearance of your pets' back legs because, usually, that's all that remains after they're hit by a careless or cellphone-distracted or angry driver.

I cry and bury them when they're killed. No animal lives long in "the woods" because roads are close by. So, please, if you think so little of your pet that you throw it away, give it to a shelter that will let it die without pain and fear. I cannot watch many more of your pets die.

Choosing the right pastor is complex

Focus on Faith columnist Rob Johnson's offering "Minister at home in Radford Church" (July 12 Virginia section) is an interesting story about the Rev. Marie Lane, newly appointed pastor of Grove United Methodist Church. As a light-hearted piece about a young woman in ministry, Johnson's column is fair enough.

But the process of matching pastors with congregations is far more involved than training, financial success and popularity, as the article suggests. The presiding bishop of the Annual Conference and the district superintendents go though many months of prayerful and careful evaluation of pastors and local churches.

The skills and graces of ministers and the special needs of the churches are seriously discussed in cabinet meetings invested with the awesome responsibility of making decisions they hope and pray will fulfill God's purposes for both churches and clergy.

Sometimes the system fails. But, in its appointment-making process, which includes consultations with the local churches, it can be safely said: The United Methodist Church does well in its endeavors to place the right pastor in the right church for the right reasons, evidenced in pastor Lane's appointment to Grove United Methodist Church.

The world's oil is running low

Now that the price of gasoline has reached $4 a gallon everyone has finally noticed that we have a really big problem. And all of the politicians (Democrats and Republicans) have promised that they (and only they) have the solution.

Unfortunately, they continue to vigorously avoid telling you the hard truth. The problem is not dependence on foreign oil. It is dependence on all oil.

We will become independent from foreign oil as certainly as the sun rises, even if we do nothing. The nations that export oil to us will eventually stop doing so. And that day isn't far off.

The U.S. was once the leading oil exporter in the world. Our domestic consumption increased while our production decreased, and here we are. Oil production in most of the world's other oil-exporting nations is flat or declining. There is not, and will not be, enough new production to make up the difference.

The Oil Fairy isn't going to save us. (Reference: energybulletin.net/primer.php). These are the good old days. We will be independent of foreign oil, and won't like it at all. It's called fossil fuel for a reason.

U.S. can't keep pouring money into Iraq

John McCain and the Republicans will say the surge has worked. Of course the surge has worked. AlQaida is smart enough to know they can't stand toe to toe with a superior U.S. force and win, so they have moved back to Afghanistan.

The objective of al-Qaida is to ruin the American economy. They have succeeded. Common sense will tell you that you can't continue to borrow money and spend as the U.S. is doing.

McCain wants to cut social programs in the U.S., but continue to spend billions every week in Iraq. It is time the taxpayers demand that U.S. citizens come first.