Speak out 5/10

I WAS reading where some teachers are complaining about their pay. If they think they are underpaid, look what we are paying our soldiers who are defending our country.

Government health plan

A CALLER criticized the Canadian health plan by saying hospitals there are going broke. The hospitals are going broke in the United States too. To blame the government health plan for hospitals going broke is a poor excuse. With 43 million Americans without health care, the government really needs to do something. We don't want to face up to the fact that health care is too big and out of hand for the government to stay out of it completely.

Driving too fast

I WAS going to St. Louis and was driving a little over 70 mph. A Scott City Police Department car went around me like I was sitting still. We were on Interstate 55 near the Ste. Genevieve exit. Why was he in such a hurry? He had no lights on. I don't think police should be able to drive any faster than anyone else. I think they need to crack down on these police departments running up and down the highway when they don't have to go that fast.

Paying for health care

ALL OF the major industrial countries have a national health-care program that covers all citizens. This program is part of the tax collected in each country. Because of this, your employer does not have to have health insurance as a cost of doing business, and the employee gets a larger wage package to make up for this. Canadians live a year longer than we do, and we spend 45 percent of our GNP to cover health care. Wouldn't you prefer a health-care system that would allow you to change jobs or to start a business and not lose your health care? In addition, there are many companies that use a lot of part-time employees who aren't covered by health insurance. Would you rather have health-care costs hanging over your head if your employer went out of business or, during a recession, laid off most of its employees?

Gasoline on a fire

YOU MUST be kidding. More guns to reduce crime is like more gasoline to put out fires.

The Tombstone lesson

FOR ONE to see how totally illogical the current debate over the right to carry concealed firearms is, all we need to do is examine our own American history. In the frontier time of Tombstone, Ariz., the citizens had unrestricted access to guns. They found that with everyone carrying guns, civil order was destroyed. They were forced to resort to the solution of hiring Wyatt Earp to enforce an ordinance outlawing firearms within city limits. All we need to do is look at our own history to see that this experiment has been tried and failed before.