Let's get real

By: Letters To the editor | Winston-Salem Journal
Published: November 07, 2009

I've been listening to all the hate from the right and becoming bored with it. President Obama is just this black guy; get over it. Like Bob Dylan said, "Cease all this weeping, swallow your pride, you will not die, it's not poison."

I think all the right-wingers ought to move to Russia. No blacks there, it's almost pure white, unfettered capitalism, lots of wide open land, hunting, vodka, no liberals at all. What else do they want? Love it or leave it, that's what I say.

The left is little better. It seems to have just figured out that Obama is a politician. From Chicago, no less. Oh, my God. Because Obama has not ended the wars, rebuilt the economy and passed gay marriage in a year, he is a failure. The left can all move to Canada, where everything is perfect.

He inherited some of the biggest messes in American history: two stupid wars -- three if you count Pakistan -- a financial meltdown caused by free market-pattern greed, abetted by the Republican lust for unfettered campaign contributions.

Let's get real. Obama's style is becoming evident, if not visible. It is quiet; subtle; no banners, no bugles. He has tamped down Iraq, is taking a long look at Afghanistan, is using predator missiles to decapitate al-Qaida, will have a medical reform bill, defused medical marijuana and is quietly easing the immigration mess.

All without a single "Mission Accomplished" banner. It's almost like he understood the definition of "hubris." Who knew?

STEPHEN T. WISHNEVSKY

Winston-Salem

Poor health-care bill

When the government with eight months' notice can't provide an adequate amount of flu vaccine, why would we want to turn over to it the entire health-care system? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would like to change the name of the public option to the "consumer option," but the scary truth remains. This bill is a 1900-page fiasco the puts another one-sixth of our economy under the control of the central government.

We need a 200-page bill written in plain English, not legalese, that addresses the needs of the truly uninsured without wrecking the whole system. If the current bill were worthy, its authors would value, instead of ignore, the opinions of the American people. There would be provisions for tort reform. There would be no manic rush for passage when nobody has even read the whole convoluted document.

The country we love is slipping away in a sea of debt already. This health-care bill will ensure our demise.

MARY LOU WILSON

Winston-Salem

Not embarrassing enough

I guess it wasn't embarrassing enough for conservatives to be caught spreading lies about "death panels" and such. Now they're doubling-down on the hysterical rhetoric.

On Nov. 1, Sen. Orrin Hatch said that providing health care for Americans will lead to the end of the two-party system. On the same day, our own Rep. Virginia Foxx stated that health-care reform is more threatening than "any terrorist right now in any country."

Come on. We're not that gullible.

Are we?

LINDA PATRICK

Winston-Salem