What’s going on?

Thank you, Ruth Fisher, for your letter about Town Toyota Center’s lack of advertising (The Safety Valve, Nov. 11).

I’ve thought the same thing many times. I have gone to several programs there, and afterward have had people tell me they didn’t even hear about it.

They need a readerboard or something, signs around town and more information in the paper. If we are to support this wonderful building, we have to know what’s going on there.

Jean Towers

East Wenatchee

Free will and medicine

On Nov. 7, the House of Representatives passed a health care bill mandating all citizens purchase a qualified insurance plan as determined by the government. The plan must be worth $15,000 a year with a penalty of $25,000 or up to five years in jail if you don’t sign up. The president said in an interview with Jake Tapper on Nov. 9 that he was OK with penalties to those who don’t have insurance and fail to purchase a qualifying plan. It is not constitutional for our government to imprison anybody for not purchasing insurance. Even car insurance is a choice because one chooses to drive or own a car.

Why not create portability options so consumers can shop across state lines? This would promote competition, lower costs of plans and premiums and allow people to take coverage with them wherever the go. Then, let us create more stringent regulations on the insurance industry, institute tort reform and encourage people to enroll in Medicaid.

I hear I have no compassion if I oppose the bill. I believe the church, under the lordship of Jesus Christ and people who have experienced his grace and want to give away Jesus’ love, can provide better coverage for the uninsured than the little god government ever could. Please check out Samaritan Ministries and Medi-Share, two Christian organizations that allow people to come together through their own will and share the burden and cost of medical care. This is the true model of compassion and community we should be striving for as the resolution of all of our social ills. By the way, under the House bill, these groups will be disbanded because they are not health insurance companies, or the government.

Erik Johnson

Wenatchee

Don’t damage our home

Any mineral that has to be dug up is of a very old idea. We must take advantage of nature in another way, by using the sun, the wind and the natural flow of the planet without damaging our home, Mother Earth.

Peace to All.

Raymond Dispenza

Oroville

Horrible signs

I wrote this to Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers: Your participation in the hateful, traitorous “tea party” anti-health care reform rally on the steps of the Capitol Nov. 5 is “deeply troubling” (your own phrase in e-mail). Members of Congress engaging in this puerile display of ignorance is “deeply troubling.” That you were part of that bizarre gathering is also deeply embarrassing, since you ostensibly represent all of District 5. Did you not see the offensive banners and signs all around you? People covered in blood, signs accusing President Obama as being part of a Jewish plot to bring on the “Antichrist,” signs declaring “Waterboard Congress” and “A Commie is in the House”?

Most offensive to me and many others were large banners proclaiming: “National Socialist Healthcare, Dachau, Germany, 1945,” illustrated with close-up photographs of World War II Holocaust victims, including children. Have you no shame?

I did not hear you pronounce disgust, or distance yourself from these sentiments. Actually, this demonstration of ignorance was an official House GOP event, with one of the most unbalanced people in Congress leading the subtext of blowing up government, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann. Aren’t you part of the government? How contemptible. These actions do NOT represent me, or your district.

Why are you against reforming our unfair health care system? You know what? We want the health care system you and your colleagues in Congress have, that we pay for. Or, we want you to have the health care system we working-class people have in the real world that you disregard.

Susan Freiberg

Wenatchee

Love this city

It has been almost three years since I relocated to Wenatchee from Issaquah in pursuit of employment as well as a reduction in traffic and better weather. With all the added benefits of living in Wenatchee, it has crossed my mind from time to time how genuinely nice people in the valley truly are.

This was solidified recently when I accidently left a pair of very expensive sunglasses at the Columbia Cinema. I went back three days later, depressed they were gone for good, when an employee came from the back room with my sunglasses in tow. Coincidence? Just last year a friend who came to visit, lost his wallet with $200 cash in the East Wenatchee Fred Meyer store. That too was returned intact. I would like to personally thank and commend the wonderful people and employees of this area for being so honest and adding one more item to a growing list of attributes I have come to love about this city.

Thank you, Wenatchee!

Maynard Man

Wenatchee

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