The start of a good day

If you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing “God Bless America” sung by the Cascades Elementary School children, you are missing out.

At 8 a.m. every school day, go outside to watch and see them gather around and sing. It is beautiful to hear and watch.

Thank you all for the start of a good day.

Beverly Troutman, Lebanon

Some may not want peace

I will not use this forum to carry on a running debate with Ms. Forsyth Kenagy regarding the situation in Palestine. However, I want to clarify a couple of issues raised in her letter of Feb. 8 and will then let the matter rest as one that neither of us is capable of solving.

Firstly, Ms. Kenagy’s stereotyping of my views as a military man are presumptuous. I hope the quotes in the first paragraph of her letter are for emphasis because one would not find them anywhere in my letter of Feb. 4.

Secondly, I am a realist and am neither pro-Israeli nor pro-Palestinian. I do believe that left to their own untethered devices, they would solve the problem to the benefit and safety of their respective peoples. Unfortunately, both parties are actors in a political play that involves nation and non-nation actors whose interests are not consistent with a peaceful resolution in Palestine.

The fact that I am a former Marine officer does not mean that I view the world and its affairs through a simplistic prism. On the contrary, I pride myself on a humanism that recognizes and respects differences, including differences of opinion.

Kenneth R. England, Sweet Home

Child mortality: The numbers

Well, the new Unicef Child Mortality Rates are out! We are just ahead of Brunei Darussalam, Chile and Latvia; we are tied with Lithuania, Serbia, Slovakia, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, just behind Cuba, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and 33 other nations! Yes.

I’m really happy to see that we beat out Latvia. In Slovenia, the citizens there have four more living children per 1,000 live births than we do (we have eight that die, they have four). So last year roughly 16,000 American babies died that possibly would have survived had they been born in Slovenia instead of the United States of America (they probably live longer in Slovenia too; Canadians live three years longer than we do). Wonderful.

We could spend what Cuba does per person for health care (I think around $250 per year, compared to our $6,000-$7,000) to save some babies (they have one more baby live per 1,000 than we do), but then the citizens of Cuba also get dental work and cancer treatments through their health-care program too (not to mention great prices at the pharmacy).

When will industry finally realize that better productivity can be had by better health? When will we realize that the richest 1 percent (who control 80 percent of our planet’s resources) could help out a bit more? When will we decide that we should join all other western, industrialized nations and create a better system? We can do better, we should do better, for our own sake.

Cameron Arthur Blagg III, Albany

It was a sexist slam

Joke or no joke, the Hillary-Clinton-can-ride-her-broom letter of Jan. 28 was sexist. In this historic presidential campaign that provides Democrats with a choice between two fine candidates, one an African-American and one a woman, let’s not let racist nor sexist comments or jokes cloud the debate. The issues at stake are much too important.

Dena Minato, Albany

Broomstick: It’s only fair

Recently you were criticized for printing the “Hillary riding a broomstick” letter. You’ve printed many anti-GOP Bush letters. We need to read opinions from both Republican and Democrat sides. I’d say your paper is fair and balanced.

Maryland Johnson, Lebanon

It all depends on wording

A few years ago George Carlin did a skit on how they change words to make things sound not so bad. His prime example was from World War I. It was then called shell shock, then it became “combat fatigue,” then it changed to “post traumatic stress disorder.” Same thing, but now it sounds better.

Then there is the ever popular “toilet paper,” which is now “bathroom tissue,” and torture is now “enhanced interrogation techniques.”

So the question is that if illegal aliens are now undocumented workers, does that mean that drug dealers are now unlicensed pharmacists?

Tom Owen, Lebanon