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Guest forums - There's a plan to bring health care to all citizens, it's called sharing By Mike Ely, Ashland Lately, the letters and opinion pages have been filled with missives from people I have begun to describe as let-them-eat-cake conservatives, who make a big stink at the prospect of a tax hike. These people honestly don't care about the consequences of a growing budget shortfall, as long as their taxes aren't raised one penny. Let's take a look at another point of view. One of the services prominently on the chopping block is the Oregon Health Plan, which was recently referred to as "dead as we know it." OHP is a small-scale version of a nationalized health care plan once espoused by the Clinton administration, until the Limbaughs of the nation used it as an ad hominem attack against Hillary Clinton. (It should be noted that this Republican bent toward misogyny is part of the same Neanderthal mindset that recently landed Trent Lott in hot water, but that's for a different letter) One of the main complaints against government-sponsored health care was that it would create a huge, wasteful bureaucracy. I wonder if any of those objecting to government health care have had to contact their medical insurance company recently. In terms of sheer economics, it's useful to compare executive salaries. This year, the taxpayers of the nation will pay George W. Bush a total of $400,000, plus room and board. I find this a fair wage, considering the breathtaking responsibility that office of the President of the United States entails. But how much is the CEO of, say, Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon paid every year? I honestly don't know, but it is surely much more than we are paying George Bush. What does the CEO of Regence do with that money? Hmm. If he or she is like many of the very wealthy in this country, not much. At least not much that benefits the general public, with the exception of a couple of token and highly-publicized charitable contributions. So where is the waste? Should the administrator of a health insurance plan make more than the president? Should the administrator of RVMC make more than the president? No way. Should they make a reasonable and fair wage? You bet. And so should the dishwasher at RVMC. But that isn't what is happening. Should our health care be driven to care for people's health, or should it be driven to generate a 20 percent annual return for shareholders? That is the essence of the problem with the way our health care system is now. Despite the current mess our economy is in, the United States is still a very wealthy country. Countries with far less wealth still have very efficient and functional national health care systems. The fact that we choose not to is nothing short of immature, selfish, and shameful. The fact that people who wouldn't even be eligible to pay the increased income taxes have been convinced to vote against the increase is asinine. Vote for the increase. If you are eligible to pay it, do so with civic pride. If you don't make enough to pay the increase, keep working to provide for you and yours, and when you make enough, you can help others less fortunate. It's a simple concept we all learned when we were young children. It's called sharing. It's not unpatriotic to oppose war Jason Clark, Ashland If the U.S. goes to war with Iraq, be aware of the carefully calculated spin that will be put on each and every story. You will not see the markets being blown apart while they are full of shoppers. You will not see the children and families burned alive in their homes. You will not see U.S. soldiers picking off Iraqi soldiers one by one as they attempt to surrender. You will see clips of "precision guided weapons" with "surgical accuracy" striking military targets, and if it's anything like the Gulf War, you'll see the same clip hundreds of times. The Pentagon learned their lesson in Vietnam, and never again will coverage of the realities of war be allowed. Each image, each story will be carefully reviewed and sculpted to make you believe that only bad guys are dying. They will package it like a mini-series and keep you tuning in interspersing the regular commercial advertising, including ads for gasoline and gas guzzling autos. They will always underestimate the numbers of people turning out at anti-war demonstrations and downplay their significance. Do not depend on the big networks for your news (see www.indymedia.org and other alternative news sources). Coverage of the Gulf War left people wondering if anyone got killed at all. The only number we ever heard about was the 363 Americans killed. When asked how many Iraqis were killed in that war, Norman Swarzkoff said, "Frankly, that's not a number that concerns me very much." Well, the number is more than 150,000 people dead, many of them civilians, and that concerns me very much. I do not buy into the idea that it is unpatriotic to oppose our nation's reckless, imperialist killing spree around the world. This is the difference between patriotism and nationalism. It is patriotic to do every thing you can to try to prevent the nation from making a horrible decision, a decision that will inevitably increase terrorism and lead to more wars. It is patriotic to resist a coup of our government by the oil and arms industries. It is patriotic to support humanitarianism and respect for all people regardless of race or religion. If you oppose this war, BE HEARD NOW! Do not wait. If Bush goes to war in our name, blood will be on all of our hands. You can express yourself in a number of ways: on the internet (www.nion.org; www.moveon.org), by talking with friends and family, or by demonstrating in the streets. The rest of the world is counting on us to prevent a disaster. Do not let your voice go unheard! Stop the war on terrorism By Hal Jamison, Ashland Has North Korea been studying J. P. Barnum's insights about gullibility? Reading the Daily Tidings today on North Korea's scornful comment about the U.S. proposal that she dismantle her nuclear program in exchange for promises of aid, was she declaring, "You can't intimidate the entire world forever with bluster, hypocrisy, and apocalyptic menace?" In a globalized world, terror however exponentially projected by the world's most powerful country, will not conquer terrorism, in Rumsfeld's 50 -ear estimate, or in 500, assuming such long life is possible for a traumatized world. Ironically, it was the U.S. that did the most to promote globalization and our economy that is most dependent on it now. Yet, Bush rants on, seemingly unaware of the crisis he is leading us into, the contradiction between U.S. domination built on globalization and the fracturing of world order, such as it is, being caused by boastful indifference to world welfare and opinion. George Kennan, only a little over 50 years ago, enunciated a US 1,000-year plan for the globe: We are 5 or 6 percent of the world's population but we use 25 or 30 percent of its resources; the number one priority should be maintaining it. (Thanks mainly to trillions and trillions of dollars spent on militarization, we have up to now in fact increased the disparity.) So we read that the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld axis intends to call North Korea's bluff. I wonder: Is North Korea trumping - reversing the bluff? Is the axis suddenly quaking in its triple boots? There's not only North Korea to worry about. What if the example is catching? Is it imaginable that the war on Iraq, so long plotted, with mobilization of an army that would soak up all previous imperialistic ventures - Britain in India, for example - like the Mississippi draining Ashland creek, could blow up in our U.S. face? Could North Korea's action light a fuse? If so, there may be more risk to our soldiers, who have been so smugly dispatched to the other side of the globe, coming home safe than is within the ken of White House and Pentagon. It is time we ended the war on terrorism, an inexhaustible source for more terrorism, declare Kennan's doctrine obsolescent and take a new course towards human equality, real level playing fields, gradual strengthening of international institutions for promotion of cooperation and democracy. Before the North Korea example catches on. Hal Jamison is a veteran of the 1941-45 war and a military retiree. 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