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Our healthcare woes began with group plans
DEAR EDITOR:
As a postscript to my July letter, I'll add that some of us healthcare free speechers believe that employer-paid group health insurance is the likely origin of America's impenetrable healthcare "pancake logic" and "kaleidoscope logic."
Employer-paid group health conquered America through the stealthy and publicly unrecognized "great values swap" beginning in the 1940s, and still at work today. To make group health work, it had to subvert and displace the commonly accepted dictionary definitions of words and infiltrate new definitions that have rarely, if ever, been spelled out.
Words and phrases, such as "family, work, charity, personal responsibility, markets" and many dozens more were stripped of their one-time meanings by the group health money machine.
When a relative of mine sought to have her uninsured mom enrolled in her family plan as a healthcare dependent, she discovered it couldn't be done. My relative was living in "people logic," but group health dictates by "kaleidoscope logic." Group health defeats filial piety, and a whole lot more.
America's leadership organizations, such as Congress, ignore the "great values swap." Blame university censorship and group health's enormous money power.
Some of us health care free speechers regard the "great values swap" as one of the most dangerously revolutionary and radicalizing phenomena of the last 80 years. The healthcare ground had been shifted by group health beneath the American public, elites and working folks alike, and almost no one saw it as it was happening.
JACK LABUSCH
Niles
Why shouldn't we enforce our US borders?
DEAR EDITOR:
We have a problem here: the progressive socialist communist party -- aka Democrats. Talk about wolves in sheep's clothing!
They plan on abolishing the Supreme Court, the Senate, and Congress; defunding the police; and abolishing ICE. Sounds like they should be put in jail for treason. Don't trust a wolf who smiles and puts their hand over their heart -- Mamdani, Talarico, Abdul El-Sayed,
President Obama, the deporter-in-chief -- and no one said a word. You don't like deportation of people who come here illegally? Former President Biden made America a refugee camp.
If you have unrest in your country, you fix the problem and don't make your problem our problem by bringing it here. Why do immigrants from disaster countries promote and bring socialism here? Ilhan Omar, whom we saved from the Somalian war, promotes socialism. Mamdani, who comes from a rich family in Uganda, has never worked a day in his life and knows nothing about the foundations of America -- he probably could not pass a civics test -- and is the mayor of the largest city in America.
Democrats have kept illegals on our taxpayer benefits; that is our money they used, which is fraud and should be prosecuted. This is the law.
Overstaying on your visa or TPS (Temporary Protected Status) is not a permit to stay here. It is time to leave. Since when have the Democrats been on the side of murderers, rapists, child sex offenders, gang members and terrorists? 70 % of ICE arrests are of illegals in our country.
So far, 3 million are out of our country and still counting. All countries have borders. I dare anyone to cross a socialist or communist country; you'll be tortured or never heard from again.
RUTH LILLEY
Niles
Fleeting hope brings a storm in my heart
DEAR EDITOR:
Oh, Lady Liberty, we're losing you. You now appear to be fading away from our country. You came to our shores as a symbol of hope. You have once wrapped our nation in loving fairness, regardless of where we came from; with motherly love, you have taken us in.
By a surrender of power by our government and the conservatives in Congress and the Supreme Court, authority is given to one man having ice-cold feelings for humanity. Creating a radical departure from the past.
A song for the times we're in today (viral AI-generated track) 2026 a vocal impression of the late Elvis Presley.
Storm in my heart.
The sky outside is clear and bright. But dark clouds fill my room tonight.
I hear the distant thunder roll; You took my love, you took my soul
Oh, there's a storm in my heart!
Right from the moment we're apart and the rain begins to fall, Every time I hear you call
Yeah, it's a storm in my heart
tearing me apart.
I walk the streets in pouring rain to hide the tears, to hide the pain
a lonely boy, in Retro Town, waiting for love to come around
Oh, there's a storm in my heart!
Right from the moment we're apart and the rain begins to fall
Every time I hear you call.
Yeah, it's a storm in my heart tearing me apart.
Oh, there's a storm in my heart
Right from the moment we're apart and the rain begins to fall.
Every time I hear you call.
Yeah, it's a storm in my heart
tearing me apart.
PAUL R. LAWSON
McDonald
It has been a year, and my mom is still missed
DEAR EDITOR:
It's been a year since I lost my mom, and her being gone is felt every day. She raised three kids with incredible strength, love and dedication, shaping our lives with care and guidance. I miss her warmth and laughter, that comforting presence that could brighten any day.
Even now, I find myself wishing for just one more time to hear her voice.
Though she's gone, the lessons she taught and the love she gave live on within me, a quiet yet enduring presence I carry in my heart. Today, I remember her fondly, honoring all she was and all she gave to our family, feeling both the ache of loss and the gratitude for having had such a wonderful mother.
It was the hardest thing I've ever endured, but I keep remembering the pain she went through during those long months with cancer. And even though I'm still heartbroken, I stay strong -- just like she was. I am very grateful to have had such a wonderful mother.
NICK ALEXANDER
Niles
'Idiots' in Congress got us to cusp of socialism
DEAR EDITOR:
Everybody wants to win the lottery. What's wrong with that? Unless you've inherited large sums of money, due to some ancestor working hard and investing wisely, you have to work for a living. And all we want to do is play, never having to grow up.
Since nobody in your family tree is wealthy, you play the lottery. And, since your odds there are miniscule, you find the philosophy of socialism appealing. Sounds good; "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." That's the foundation of socialism. But, wait.
Winston Churchill described socialism this way: "Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy." -- Perth, Scotland, 28 May 1948. He also said, "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." -- House of Commons, 22 October 1945.
And, yet, today Great Britain is a cesspool of socialism. Why? Because their LEADERS since World War II have allowed it.
Same with the United States. We now have over 80 federal welfare programs! In England, they call it, "on the dole." The percentage of the population on the dole in the United Kingdom is 22.8%. The percentage of the population on welfare in the U.S. is 21%. Not far behind, are we? Why has this happened? In my opinion, two factors. The deliberate dumbing down of our population since WWII, and selling votes with the lure of "free stuff."
We wouldn't be in this quagmire of socialism unless the Republican Party allowed it. Compromising with liberals, huge bills that nobody reads closely. Party leadership tells you how to vote, don't worry about what's in the bill. There should be fistfights on the floor of Congress, blood on the carpet, but pacifism is much easier. And party leaders will come down on anyone causing a stir.
Mark Twain said it best, "Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself." He also famously wrote, "There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." Likewise, "Our lives, our liberty, and our property are never in greater danger than when Congress is in session."
So, we can only blame ourselves for putting our children on the road to full communism. They will be so happy you voted Democrat.
DONALD ALLEN
Boardman
Where did our parents' Democratic Party go?
DEAR EDITOR:
I have not read the paper all summer and as I return to it, I see all the same names that have been afflicted with Trump Derangement Syndrome. Trump is responsible for all things bad, and the sound off writers are worse. Do these people still believe in the Democrat Party? That party has been hijacked by the Democrat Socialists of America, and they are spreading faster than cyclospora. They currently hold more than 250 elected offices and many more are running for office in the midterms.
The DSA are against everything that America stands for. This is a well-planned and funded movement. The Chinese Communist Party, through Neville Singham, has invested more than $780 million in the DSA, and made people running for elected office under their banner sign a pledge to work with the Chinese government. The indoctrination of our children by the teachers unions, and millions of legal and illegal immigrants started 40 years ago. Dearborn, Michigan's, largest demographic is Muslims who are still loyal to their parent countries, not America.
The DSA is committed to not helping America, but changing everything about America. Throw out the Constitution, the Senate, the Supreme Court, prisons, police and ICE. End aid to Israel and take over corporations. Cut military spending, Welcome Iran and Cuba. Medicare for all at a cost of $3-4 trillion per year. The country will be run by an executive appointed by Congress. Karl Marx, who wrote The Communist Manifesto, believed that socialism and communism are not competing ideologies, but two stages of development that follow the collapse of capitalism.The state takes control of all political power and the executive will prevent the return of capitalism. Mao Zedung did the same thing in China.
The DSA wants to eliminate billionaires like Jeff Bezos, who employs 1.576 million people, or Elon Musk, who employs 160,000 people. Or the Dells who contributed $6.5 billion to Trump's fund for all children to go to college. Without capitalists creating wealth, who pays the bills? Government creates nothing.
If they no longer have the rich to tax they will tax you. They also hate the Jews, people who work extremely hard to be successful. They took a patch of sand in the Middle East and turned it into one of the greatest economies in the world. One of the rising stars in the DSA Abdul El Sayed's wife is a doctor that does not take Medicare; can we say hypocrite?
The Democrats say that the devil Trump, and his supporters, will end democracy. Look at your party, Democrats. Schumer and Jeffries are figureheads. The party is run by Bernie Sanders, AOC, Mamdani and Hasan Piker, who devoutly hates America. The DSA will end democracy and make America another failed socialist country. Be careful what you wish for, Democrats. Your party is soon to be extinct.
STEVE DUNN
Canfield