Letters to the Editor: 07/01/2009

July 01, 2009 07:15 am

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Do the job

Dave Camp's June 20 forum article concerning health care reform is underwhelming in its goals. Republicans -- and many Democrats, for that matter -- only want to wring more efficiency out of the present corrupt and bloated system. They are not working for coverage for all our citizens, a benefit most developed countries in the world now enjoy.

Universal coverage would be expensive, without question. Who would pay? Those with the means. Who would receive the benefits? Those with need. Is that socialism? No more than the state police, the fire department and the public library. The idea is as American as baseball and apple pie.

We should not tolerate the necessity for a bake sale to pay cancer surgery costs for a young child or a house foreclosure caused by a catastrophic health problem of the owner. Let's ask Washington to do the job rather than make tiny, grandstanding measures that fall way short of what needs to be done.

Richard Fidler
Traverse City

Park is a shame

The condition of the Interlochen State Park is a shame. I took my three children to play and swim there recently. I found the smells bad, the entire beach shoreline caked with flies, so many my daughter would not walk through them to swim.

Then I heard that swimmer's itch, a treatable parasite, is as heavy as ever. We heard remedies of putting baby oil or Vaseline on over sun screen so the parasites cannot penetrate the skin. Gross.

The experience was hard to swallow after a day at the village of Empire's beach the day before.

I spent an hour fretting. Then I took my children home and bathed them ... and we moved on to the bay.

We were looking forward to and excited to camp at Interlochen this year. Now we will be traveling somewhere farther away where we feel good about the children's experience and health.

Lori Tulppo
Kingsley