[October 15, 2008] EDITORIAL: Readers' views Tweet Oct 15, 2008 (The Lexington Herald-Leader - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Make lung X-rays routine part of health care My cousin was just diagnosed with lung cancer. She had had an infection in her breast and was given a chest X-ray because of it. She had smoked for 30 years and had just quit last spring. When we found out about her, my partner, who had also just quit smoking after 30 years, decided to get a lung X-ray to be safe. She saw her primary-care physician, who needed to order the X-ray. The physician congratulated her for quitting and asked if she was coughing up blood or had lost any weight of late. The answer to both questions was no. Since she was showing no signs of anything wrong, the doctor said, a lung X-ray was not necessary and would likely not be paid for by her health insurance. And then he added that coughing up blood etc., usually means that the cancer has spread and that there is no hope. Lung cancer is the No. 1 cancer in percentage and one of the deadliest. We get mammograms and Pap smears. Why shouldn't lung X-rays be mandatory for all who quit smoking? This part of a health care system needs to be revamped. Jessica Bollinger Lexington Equal health care My partner had cancer and had to go on Social Security disability. Yet she is unable to get insurance, no medical card, no Medicare until she has been on disability for two years, no food stamps and no help anywhere. So, if we are going to provide free care for illegal immigrants, couldn't we at least care for U.S. citizens, too? Debbie Rickerd Lexington Policy advising pays A recent article in the Herald-Leader discusses the hiring of a policy adviser by Gov. Steve Beshear. In a time when Kentucky's budget is extremely tight, Beshear has found more than $1,400,000 to hire loyal Democratic Party activists to policy adviser posts. Instead of providing safe-school training for teachers, Beshear has hired those loyal to him with hefty salaries as policy advisers. Close to 1,000 public school employees lost their jobs to make room for policy advisers. Schools now can provide a set of textbooks for a classroom instead of one for each student to make room for policy advisers. Teachers can no longer travel to receive good professional-development training to make room for policy advisers. Students cannot be bused home from Extended School Services to make room for policy advisers. Then-Gov. Ernie Fletcher cut the education budget only to give raises in an attempt to win a second term. Beshear is on his way to making a similar attempt. Kentucky's slogan is "Education Pays." Teachers are losing jobs, the student to teacher ratio has gone up, and services that were a standard have now been cut. Where does education pay? If teachers knew that donating money to the Democratic Party or to Beshear would get them a job, Beshear could restore 1,000 policy advisers across Kentucky. John Darnell Russell End food insecurity Food is one of the essential needs for life. However, the number of people who go hungry daily, weekly, monthly and yearly is staggering and will possibly increase within the next four years. It is not only the homeless, but also those who work one to three jobs, have excessive amounts of debt, are in school full-time, with families, etc. As with most negative things, the Southern states rank in the Top 10. Kentucky ranked ninth in the nation for food insecurity in 2006, defined as limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. Grass-roots efforts have sprung up across the nation, including Kentucky, by people who want to positively impact and help close the food gap. Oct. 16 is World Food Day. There will be a three-day conference in Lexington to address the issues and the people and organizations helping to close the food gap. It will provide resources and network to create local food policy councils. The hope is that it will spread regionally, so family members in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and other nearby states can also attend. To learn more go to www.sustainlex.org. Obiora Embry Lexington Vote against greed Why don't America's expert economists address the root cause of our perplexing economic situation: greed? ("Vote to eradicate greed?" Sept. 26 Herald-Leader-editorial). Greed is always the chief culprit when the economy goes sour. Pervasive greed is the engine that drives the economy in our free-enterprise culture, and deregulation greatly increases its pervasiveness. Greed is a sin/issue that preachers, politicians, pundits and the rest of us avoid tackling. Will a $700 billion bailout of some of our financial institutions lessen greed in our country? If America ever declines the way other great nations of the past have, immoral greed will be one of the main reasons. If it were possible to have a national referendum on greed, how many voters would vote to eradicate it? When we vote to send deregulating supporters of trickle-down economics to Washington, like U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-Hopkinsville, we show how pro-greed we are. Paul L. Whiteley Sr. Louisville Turned off by HDTV We are among those who still use an antenna to receive TV. We are not interested in wasting our money on cable or satellite. And it is looking like the idea of switching to HDTV from analog is a plot to get everyone to pay for cable or satellite TV. With our rabbit ears, we can get channels 18, 27, 36, 46 and, unfortunately, 56 in analog. Lately, the signal had been pretty good for all of them. With our rabbit ears and a converter box to receive HDTV, we get nothing. We went through a lot of work to take down our rotating roof antenna, put on a new cable and fix the rotator. The result: We can get channel 18 sometimes, and, unfortunately, we can get 56. When February comes around, we will be able to watch only tapes and DVDs. That isn't all bad, but we would at least like to watch Jeopardy! and the weather. I've spoken with others who have tried the converter boxes as well, and they have not had any more success than we have. To top it off, we bought our two converter boxes from a government-approved Web dealer. One was defective. We got approval to return it, but in spite of numerous contacts, they will not respond nor have they sent us a new one or a refund. We will not be coerced; we are not paying for cable or satellite. We will have to do without and chalk up another one to a government that is out of control. Brad Bigam Wilmore To see more of the Lexington Herald-Leader, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.kentucky.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]