Flu emergency is a ruse

Well, now we have it: Mr. Obama's war.

The government has finally gotten its national emergency. For years the government has been looking for something to put the fear of God in all of us. Our national hero, President Obama, is here to save the day by declaring a national emergency to attack the swine flu.

Have we all lost our minds? Or do we just not know what a true national emergency is?

Here is some historical perspective on this current emergency that has taken 1,000 American lives to date. In 1677-1678 in Boston, a fifth of the town died of smallpox. In Philadelphia in 1792 yellow fever took 10 percent of its population, or 5,000 people. In New Orleans in 1852-1853 yellow fever killed 8,000 people. From 1918 to 1920 over 25 million died worldwide and over 500,000 in the U.S. from the Spanish flu. The Asian flu killed 2 million worldwide from 1956 to 1958. AIDS has killed over half a million since 1981. Each year various strains of the flu kill half a million people. The swine flu has killed a little over 5,000 worldwide. These deaths are not taken lightly, but this is not a national emergency.

Good plan, Mr. Obama. Create the impression of a national emergency and use it to push government-run health care to be our savior.

No thank you, sir. We are much wiser than that.

TINA ADEN, Perryville, Mo.