LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Hawaiian trip leaves public blue

1/27/2014

Your Jan. 11 editorial “Blue Hawaii” described the misuse of an Air Force plane to fly First Lady Michelle Obama back from Hawaii after her extended vacation.

This trip was only weeks removed from President Obama signing a budget bill that reduced veterans’ benefits and eliminated extended unemployment compen-sation for 1.3 million long-term unemployed Americans.

The President preaches income inequality, but he should realize that every time he steps onto Air Force One, it takes $180,000 to keep the plane in the air for one hour.

WILLIAM NICHOLS
Whitehouse

Obamacare not that affordable
My health insurance carrier canceled my policy, which I was happy with, because it did not meet Obamacare standards (“Obama the oblivious: Rhetoric vs. reality,” op-ed column, Dec. 15). My carrier has issued me a new policy that meets the standards of Obamacare, because it includes maternity coverage, which my old policy did not have.

I do not need or want maternity coverage, because I am a single, middle-aged man. There is one problem: My new health insurance rate has increased by 55 percent.

There is nothing affordable about the Affordable Care Act.

RAY STRASSNER
LaSalle, Mich.

 

Drop hunting, write on welfare
Blade outdoors editor Matt Markey wrote about a young woman who killed a bull moose and a black bear (“Big game not toughest challenge for determined hunter,” Jan. 10). I find all hunting stories repellent, having an aversion to the killing of wild animals to fulfill an individual’s need for blood sport.

“Hunting” should be called what it is: the killing and butchering of wild animals. Any other word for it softens what hunters are doing.

Why doesn’t Mr. Markey report on animal welfare topics as much as or more than he does animal killing sprees? He could go to Nature’s Nursery Center for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation Education in Whitehouse. Its mission is to rehabilitate animals that are injured or orphaned — sometimes because of hunters.

MARY ENSMAN
Holly Hill Drive

 

Outdoors columns way too graphic
Within a recent week, Mr. Markey’s columns included a picture of a moose that a local high school girl killed in Canada, and a story and picture about two young area boys who each killed a deer.

According to Mr. Markey, these animals were not killed or slaughtered needlessly, but rather “harvested.” Oh, please.

The pictures are graphic, disturbing, and disgusting.

DENNIS DiSALLE
River Road