LETTERS

Posted: July 29, 2009 at 6:32 a.m.

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What happened to Dana?

BENTONVILLE — This story ("A mother's nightmare," July 26) is very sad for me because Dana Stidham was my cousin. And I wish that if there is anyone out there who knows, please let the family know what happened to Dana. She should never have died that young; she had her whole life ahead of her.

If you don't want to identify yourself, just let us know the other details, like how, why and when she died so it can go on the headstone.

Of course, anyone who kills someone is a lowdown coward. And when your time comes, you'll stand before God and have to answer for your actions. Then you will be cast in the burning lake of fire with the rest of the murderers.

Nelldina Laxton / Piedmont, Mo.

A fresh idea for America

So many angry, critical op-ed articles and letters to the editor have poured into The Daily Record lately criticizing President Obama and his policies. The rhetoric rings ruefully in my ears.

Opening the opinion page to many is like feeding raw meat to a hungry lion. So many of the pieces are written by people quick to judge and far too certain of themselves. They wander off in all directions searching for coherence. Fallibility, humility it seems, is a lost art. Most of the criticism centers around fear of our new "socialistic state." Alas, the idea bank has become insolvent. The writer of Ecclesiastes was right: There is nothing new under the sun. Wait. Here's something fresh:

I lived in a northern European social-welfare state (socialism, not communism) for several years in the 1980s. I paid huge taxes but received many benefits, including free medical care and education, seven weeks of vacation per year and monthly stipends for my sons. These Scandinavians seemed more relaxed, at peace with themselves. They molded their work around their lives rather than their lives around their work. Compassion trumped commerce. They prized harmony and the greater good for all rather than wealth and achievement. The ethic of self-service was trumped by a wonderful altruism that resulted in a guileless, less competitive and peaceful society.

It's a new world. I for one, embrace it.

Rick Burns / Bella Vista

Self-responsibility is key

Your July 5 editorial about obesity prompted me to wonder whatever happened to self-responsibility. Most adults feed themselves. Shouldn't they be responsible for their obesity, and the increased cost of their medical care? In our present system, there is no penalty for a lifestyle that jeopardizes one's health. That increased cost is spread (pun intended) over the entire population; thus healthy people subsidize the medical-care costs of those who live unhealthy lifestyles.

Obesity is a battle people must fight on their own. But people don't change because you tell them they should; they change when they tell themselves they must.

Fortunately, I have the solution to help obese people make a change. It is simple, easy to apply and easy to understand. Whenever you go to a doctor's appointment, you get weighed in. If your body-mass index is higher than it should be, you pay a higher-than-regular fee for that appointment. There are actuarial tables that assess the increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and strokes for obese people. These could be used to determine the increased fees to be paid by obese people.

I suppose this is all too simple, or too much self-responsibility, to be implemented, but it has been my observation that when you touch people in the pocketbook, you get their attention quickly. Wal-Mart built its business on "always low prices, always." It should work for medical care, too.

Ed Pugsley / Bella Vista

Staying in the kitchen

In response to Mr. Lange's letter (July 15) about "getting out of the kitchen":

Your response to my letter (July 9) was in reference to Ms. Farish's letter (June 28) to me, which was in response to my earlier letter (June 22), which did not at all contest the pro-life philosophy. That letter was about life, once started in utero and allowed to progress to birth, deserving appropriate care while in utero and continued care after birth, which should include the support of the "father," which I called the sperm donor. No reference was made to the pro-life aspect, so Ms. Farish's letter did miss the point.

However, I contrasted her response, which expressed a definite point of view - though not relevant to what I stated - with Mr. Hill's response to that same letter, which was simply a little character-assassination piece. My point was that Mr. Hill's "letter to the editor" was not a letter, had no relevant point of view and was simply hate spew and should not have been published in the paper. My letter was as much a notification to the editor of the paper as a letter to the editor.

I get "heat" all the time and don't mind it. As a Democrat I like debate, exchanges of points of view. I know I am at a different end of the spectrum than many here in Bella Vista. And when it comes to deciding when life starts, I disagree with the opinion that it starts at conception. Potential life, yes, just potential, taking into consideration that 50 percent to 80 percent of fertilized eggs never make it beyond very early development. I also consider existing life to have importance and be deserving of consideration.

Silly arguments, indeed.

Vivian Michaels / Bella Vista

System needs change

I support health-care reform and would especially encourage Congress to stand up to the insurance lobby.

Our family has had personal experience with an insurance company refusing to pay a claim for my mom. After she had brain surgery for cancer, the insurance company asserted that it was a pre-existing condition, although we had multiple letters from her physicians, including specialists, stating that it was not. Even after litigation and a court order to pay the claim, the insurance company did not pay.

Since the health-care debate started, I have learned that many people are denied treatment on a regular basis; then their health insurance is canceled. In a House subcommittee hearing, insurance leaders denied that these people were denied and canceled just because the treatment was expensive. But it seems to me there is little doubt that profit, even at the expense of sick people, is the insurance leaders' only motive. I want my physician to make decisions about my care, not a clerk with an insurance company!

I know that I am in the minority in Arkansas, but I favor a government plan. In Bella Vista, 30 percent of the residents are 65 years or older, and I venture to speculate that most of them are receiving Medicare or veterans benefits. These are government plans, and the vast majority are satisfied with their coverage and would be in dire straits without it.

In world standings of health-care systems, the United States ranks 37th, just below Costa Rica and just above Slovenia. We must do something now to fix what's broken with our system and build on what works. We, the American people, and Congress must put partisanship aside and get something done.

Sandra King / Bella Vista

Opinion, Pages 6 on 07/29/2009

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