Letters to the Editor

Another freedom bites the dust

7/4/2012

The Blade's June 29 editorial "Surprising, good outcome" celebrates a Supreme Court ruling that says that when it comes to buying health insurance, what a person wants is not among the options.

While the court was defining "tax" so creatively, and ObamaCare supporters are dreaming that government involvement will lower costs, I find this ruling appalling for reasons that cannot be measured in dollars and cents.

Come November, Americans will have one last chance to decide how high a price they are willing to pay for "free" health care. I fear the true cost will not become clear until after America has been remade into a once-great nation whose citizens lost their freedom one freebie at a time.

Margaret Proulx

Defiance

Court added a form of taxation

Our Constitution is being chipped away. Congress argued that the mandate to buy health insurance was not a tax, and that everyone had to put money into the system so everyone could have health care ("Health law upheld; Ruling means Americans must get insurance coverage; Chief justice's swing vote blindsides conservatives," June 29).

So now the Supreme Court has ruled that the mandate cannot stand on its own, but it is OK to tax people for health care.

It sounds as though the court has done what Congress wanted but was afraid to do: call it a tax. Some in Congress said they would not tax people for health care. I guess they were right. The court did it for them.

Some people don't carry health insurance because they don't want to. Nobody is turned away from a hospital for lack of insurance. Either the hospital or charities will help defray the cost.

The court should not legislate from the bench.

Paul Herzig

Waterville Township

City should rethink Family House issue

For 10 years, I have worked at Family House, an emergency shelter in central Toledo ("Dozens plead for homeless funds; 2 measures put forth at meeting could be before city council soon," June 14).

I have seen the hopelessness and sadness on our residents' faces, along with gratitude and thankfulness on others'.

Family House is a safe haven for many families. If it closes, where will our people go?

How can Mayor Mike Bell and Toledo City Council members look these families in their eyes and tell them that they will no longer have a warm bed or food? How can the officials sleep at night knowing they will have put children on the street?

City officials should take another look at Family House before they force our closing.

Carolyn Hicks-Anderson

Brookview Drive

Let's hear it for the postal service

I don't use a computer, and I don't want to learn ("Let's hear it for snail mail," Readers' Forum, June 17). I'm 59 years old and I've been pen-palling for more than 25 years. I love my mail and my post office.

Why would anyone want to do away with the U.S. Postal Service? Do those who want to close post offices want even more unemployment and unhappy people?

Kathy Roth

Wauseon