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Letters to the Editor, Jan. 10 Tuesday Jan 10, 2017 at 2:00 AM Jan 11, 2017 at 7:13 AM Improve the ACA Have you had cancer? Do you have a loved one or a friend who has had cancer? If so, then you should be concerned about two things: access to affordable, quality health care and a healthy environment to live in, i.e., clean air, clean water and chemical-free food. Contact your representative in Congress and urge him/her to improve the Affordable Care Act, not repeal it, and to streamline the Environmental Protection Agency, not dismantle it. Do not allow the insurance and pharmaceutical companies to control your health care nor the oil, gas, mining and chemical companies to ruin the quality of your life. M. Warrick Grants Pass False news The newest false news story going is that Russia prevented Hillary from being elected. Mr. Obama went on a rant of sorts, claiming Mr.Putin disrupted our election. He explained Hillary's emails were boring insubstantial and irrelevant. What a crock! The only way those emails could have affected our election would be if they were so incriminating that millions of voters were suddenly convinced that, "Wow, she really is an incompetent liar, cheater, felonious obstructer of  justice, etc." As if that hasn't been obvious for decades. You can't have it both ways. Either the content of the emails didn't matter, in which case the alleged Russian involvement didn't matter either, or they really did matter, in which case someone should get a medal for doing the work our apparently inept press corps doesn't seem to have the intelligence for. Jerry Ross Grants Pass The time has come The suggestion of local religious leaders for the Medford City Council to rebuke racism and bigotry was a good idea. However, it's too little, too late. Where were these righteous community leaders during the past 18 months? The king of hate, racism and bigotry, Donald Trump, was preaching his hateful beliefs to the American people during that time, and continues to spew his venom. His words and false promises gave many bigots and racists the courage to act on their hatred, with those acts occurring almost daily. It appears the religious leaders, particularly in the South, chose to look the other way. "Turning the other cheek" put a vengeful, narrow-minded, hateful man in the White House. Many so-called Christians who are bigots and racists sit in the houses of worship of local religious leaders. The time has come for the priests and ministers to rein in their flock and do their share to rebuke racism and bigotry. Glenda Rosenstein Medford The best bear spray The article in the MT Dec. 16 regarding bear spray was somewhat interesting. As Scott Jackson, a U.S. Forest Service representative, said, no method of deterrence is 100 percent effective. the worst scenario is when you have a female with cubs that might bluff charge several times. That's when you want something that will shoot a stream and not a spray. Having been in those situations, I found that Raid wasp and hornet spray worked the best. It shoots a stream between 18 and 20 feet straight out, better than a can thaat only sprays a mist three or four feet out. You might think of how you are going to carry the can of Raid easily. Go to a surveyor supply store and get a belt that holds spray cans. It should work well on human intruders. Harold Saunders Jacksonville