Where's the justice?
Maybe someone can help me understand this. My daughter, who is 35 years old, married with five children, the last two twins -- a surprise at that -- has seizures in the brain and fibromyalgia.
She had a job at the casino for 10 years then took a medical leave. When she came back she could no longer lift and was fired.
She has a specialist she needs to see to help her live with these disabilities but no insurance. It would cost $400 a month to get on her husband's insurance. She applied for Medicaid and was turned down because her husband makes too much money.
They pay rent, utilities, propane, need the snow plowed in winter and buy groceries. Her husband pays child support regularly for two children from his first marriage and pays taxes. He drives an old van that might last two months if he's lucky.
Where is the justice in this? We feed and send medical care to other countries and can't even take care of our own people. I try to help my daughter as much as I can.
No wonder everyone is moving out of Michigan. The prices are too high here.
Colleen Francois
Traverse City
'Celebrating' catastrophe
President Bush goes to the Middle East to celebrate Israel's 60th birthday, but elsewhere in the world hundreds of prominent Jews have signed a promise that they will not celebrate until both Jews and Palestinians can celebrate justice together and media reports of "increasing alienation" among Israeli Jews abound.
Palestinians remember Israel's May 15th birth date as the catastrophe ("Nakba") that resulted in the destruction of more than 400 Palestinian villages and the dispersal of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Sixty years ago, a minority of Jews and a majority of Arabs lived together in peace in present-day Palestine/Israel.
Peace will come again and Israel will be secure within its borders, but not before the United Nations-guaranteed just claims of Palestinians are honored.
For resources on the history of the Nakba and international laws that guarantee Palestinian refugees a "right of return," visit www.badil.org/publications.
For information about selected cases of ongoing displacement, visit www.stopthewall.org/.
For links to organizations working on the growing campaign for "Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions on Israel" to force Israel to dismantle its military occupation and colonial apartheid system in Palestine and end systematic discrimination against its own citizens of Arab descent, visit www.bdsmovement.net.
Mary J. Heffron
Cedar
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