Monday's Letters to the Editor

<p class="bold allcaps">Campaign reform</p> <p>EDITOR: Why argue about health care? The bought-and-paid-for politicians are concerned with getting re-elected, not your health. There will be no meaningful health care reform, economic reform, immigration reform, education reform or prison reform until there is election reform.</p><p>Health care, is when you get off the sofa, put down the cigarettes, shut off the tube, eat right and get some exercise. Sick care is necessary when you have a fever or a runny nose. You take a decongestant, drink fluids, stay in bed and stop hallucinating that 45 minutes waiting in a doctor’s office will make you feel better.</p><p>If you have an accident while water skiing or mountain climbing, you should have your own accident insurance. This country already has a socialized plan for job injuries called workman’s compensation. It works. Birth defects and contagious disease control can be overseen by some government agency. I would gladly have my taxes used to prevent and treat this type of problem.</p><p>In my final days, it should be my business if I squander my life’s savings paying someone to care for me, or take a final pill in my bed surrounded by my family.</p><p>STEVE SARSFIELD</p><p>Sebastopol</p><h3>Sotomayor speaks</h3> <p>EDITOR: Kudos to Justice Sonia Sotomayor for earning her keep on her first working day on the U.S. Supreme Court by asking some tough questions. Contrast that with Justice Clarence Thomas, who reportedly sat through the entire last session of the court as a casual observer and never asked one question. </p><p>NEIL DAVIS</p><p>Sebastopol</p><h3>Just wait</h3> <p>EDITOR: Our national effort to debate health care is a depressing failure. In our defense, we have a lot going against us. We have a new, inexperienced president who has yet to transform brilliant campaign oratory into real leadership, a dying opposition party with enough venom left in its fangs to try to bring him down no matter the cost, a health care industry that owns both parties, and is quite capable of smiling and shaking the president’s hand while undermining him with huge advertising war chests, and a population so poorly educated that a considerable number of them think that sharing a seat on a bus is a form of socialism.</p><p>So what’s ahead? Government-run health care, of course. But we won’t get there the way you think. Inexorable, unsustainable rising costs will eventually strain the private insurance model until meager profits no longer attract shareholders. Insurance companies, whose national importance make them “too big to fail,” will apply for bailout funds or abandon their operations to the government altogether. The nation’s health care system will then be owned by the American taxpayer, like it or not. So if you want single-payer health care, just sit back and wait. Economics and our inability to effectively debate reform now virtually guarantee it.</p><p>SUSAN CHESNEY</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>Saving parks</h3> <p>EDITOR: As chairwoman of the Assembly Budget Committee, I fought to protect our state parks against the governor’s push to shut most of them down to save a small amount of money. As your editorial points out, such gains are illusory because our local economies lose much more in revenues that are generated by the parks (“Keep out,” Sept. 7).</p><p>We proposed the $15 state parks pass, but the proposal failed to gain the Republican support needed to obtain a two-thirds vote. Now, however, Republicans are seeking to exempt parks in their communities from closure.</p><p>With park closures poised to begin, Californians must act to save our parks. We stand to lose national treasures and much of our state history. </p><p>NOREEN EVANS</p><p>Assemblywoman</p><p>Santa Rosa</p><h3>A writer retires</h3> <p>EDITOR: I would like to thank Rich Rupprecht for all he did for high school athletics in Sonoma County. I had the pleasure of working with him for his entire 31-year tenure at The Press Democrat and have the utmost respect and admiration for his work and for him as a person. He covered our football team in a positive way and put high school athletes in a favorable light. When he put together his preseason articles, he always used our input to put together a positive article on the prospects of our team. When he covered our games, his accounts were always accurate and unbiased. Win or lose he would always talk with both coaches and, in many cases, players from both teams to put together a fair and positive account of the game.</p><p>Additionally, I have always enjoyed Rupprecht’s humor in his weekly Major League Baseball rankings. I will really miss him and the work he put into high school sports, and I wish him all the best in whatever the future holds for him.</p><p>STEVE ELLISON</p><p>Football coach</p><p>Petaluma High School</p><h3>A bad gamble</h3> <p>EDITOR: So, Flanagan Family Winery is gone (“A hit to high-end wines,” Tuesday). I am sorry for the workers, not the owners. </p><p>A hedge fund manager is a gambler who is allowed to legally gamble with OPM — other people’s money — whether he has their permission or not. The head of the winery was just that, a gambler. </p><p>President Bill Clinton was hornswoggled into allowing the reversal of financial rulings that were made because of the Depression. The hedge fund people and other instantly legalized gamblers began placing bets on the up and down of our economy, especially the mortgage and housing industries. We all know what happened. The average American family lost 25 to 30 percent of the value of their portfolios through no fault of their own. </p><p>How does it feel to share our experience?</p><p>JOHN A. McDONALD</p><p>Sebastopol</p><h3>Aiding schools</h3> <p>EDITOR: Measure D on the Nov. 3 ballot in the Shoreline Unified School District is a $9.2 million bond act for school facility upgrades. This is a four-school district along the Sonoma/Marin coast, including West Marin Elementary in Point Reyes, Tomales Elementary, Bodega Bay Elementary and Tomales High.</p><p>The moneys would be spent to retrofit Tomales High, replace portables with a multi-use/performance classroom and modernize the kitchen, and to replace the math and music portables and upgrade the old gym in West Marin. Districtwide, facilities and grounds upgrades would occur. Some of the money would be allocated to pay the loan taken out three years ago to replace the portables at Tomales Elementary, which were a safety concern.</p><p>These upgrades are vital for the safety of students and the continuation of state-of-the-art learning that the district has provided for so long.</p><p>As a parent, a past teacher and a home-owning community member, I appreciate the value of investing in local schools, even when times are economically difficult. The decisions that we make now for our schools affect not only the future of all the students, but the future of our property values, too. A small investment now will pay off big for everyone in the long run.</p><p>HILARY THOMAS</p><p>Dillon Beach</p><h3>Immigrant health</h3> <p>EDITOR: I wonder how many folks know that, although the Democrats’ plan will not be giving insurance to illegal immigrants, their bill will be giving it to green card holders. Just wondering.</p><p>LINDA GALLAGHER</p><p>Santa Rosa</p>