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Leroy and Edna Stanley
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Published: December 1, 2009
Thanks to the Journal for giving space to Scott Sexton's column "Sad so-long: Edna Stanley dies" (Nov. 25), about Leroy and Edna Stanley. And thanks to Scott and the photographer for sharing the details behind the remarkable sight of Leroy Stanley pushing his wife's wheelchair up the driveway of their steep Knollwood Manor home. Many times during the past 10 years, my own challenges paled in comparison to what I saw there. And many times I learned a little more about love by watching the man's patient plodding and his wife's joyful smile.
How fortunate we are to have writers and photographers who notice stories like this and share them with us.
LEIGH SOMERVILLE McMILLAN
Winston-Salem
Based on research
In reference to a recent letter ("Enough of a reason," Nov. 21) in which the writer suggests that the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommendation for reduced breast-cancer screening in women less than 50 years of age represented government rationing of health care, I would like to point out that the members of this task force are primary care physicians (not government employees) from all over the country. Their recommendation is based on the best available research (not political opinion) weighing the benefits of early screening with the potential harms of this screening (psychological trauma from false positives, over-diagnosis leading to chemotherapy without disease, etc.).
Research, not politics, should influence our collective decisions on cancer screening and treatment. Oh, and by the way, we are the government.
BRIAN McCOOL
Lewisville
Smart enough
I wish I was smart enough to understand some of the thinking that has gone into the big health-care proposals. Obviously, the members of Congress who are pushing this are much smarter than I am. After all, most of them have law degrees and some have other advanced degrees, while I'm just a lowly engineer. They must be a lot smarter than me.
One of the things I don't understand is how Medicare, which everybody agrees has deep financial problems, can finance 40 percent of the new plan. One answer I heard was they were going to cut out waste and fraud, but if they could do that, why hasn't it been done already? Of course, they could cut a lot of waste by including tort reform in the proposal, but they haven't. I sure wish I was smart enough to understand it.
Another thing I don't understand is that the taxes and Medicare funding that are supposed to pay for the plan will start in 2010, but benefits won't start until 2014. Supposedly the 10 years of funding and six years of benefits will balance over the first 10 years -- but what about the next 10 years? I just don't understand how that would work.
I am for health-care reform; I just wish I could understand the proposals. We sure are lucky that the promoters of this plan are smart enough to understand all this. Or -- could it be they aren't smart enough?
PAUL L. McELROY
Bethania
Doesn't speak for the majority
To the writer of the letter "Reasoned arguments" (Nov. 19), where it's pointed out that the American Medical Association supports the Democrats' health-care reform, let me point out that according to its own count, fewer than 30 percent of doctors are members of the AMA, and this organization certainly does not speak for the majority of the doctors in this country, just as AARP doesn't speak for most seniors in this country. The only spokesmen or spokeswomen who really matter are our representatives and senators in Congress.
The writer also stated that the public option is just "one insurance choice, not a government takeover of the entire health-care system." How could she for a minute think that our Congress needs to write a 2,000-page bill just to provide "another choice"? And why does it need to be passed in such a hurry without letting the public have ample time to understand it -- or aren't we smart enough to do that?
What we do need is to continue to support representatives like Virginia Foxx who are willing to take a stand against those in Congress who want to take control of our health care.
WILLIAM R. ZWIGARD SR.
Winston-Salem
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