Public health insurance will not compete with private
Health care competition.

Racing horses at fairgrounds is a thing of the past
Horse-racing at the Western Montana Fair is a luxury the county can no longer afford; the main reason is that the racetrack takes up a lot of prime real estate that is used only two weeks out of the year. Can anyone afford to run a business that operates only two weeks a year? The insurance issue may have been bogus, as many believe, but it’s beside the point.

Proposal to pay off retirees miscalculates true cost
In reply to John Valentine’s letter of July 5:

Americans must learn more about single-payer
There has been so much debate about health care, its reform, and opposition to a single-payer health care system.

Far fewer need health insurance than Obama believes
Why do we need President Obama’s big-bang health-care reform at all? If the government wants to cover the truly uninsured, a much cheaper, targeted, small system approach would work. If we want total government control and a takeover of the U.S. health system, we will get screwed from the top down.

Follow U.S. tax money to Canada and beyond
Galloping globalism, Batman! The Western Area Power Administration (a federal power marketing agency) is negotiating with the Montana Alberta Tie transmission line owners (a Canadian company), to provide up to $161 million in “stimulus” money (American tax dollars) so Spanish-owned wind producers can sell Montana wind power to California markets.

Health care reform must start with our children
The people of Montana are really trying hard to make their voices heard on health care. About 80 people showed up Monday evening, June 29, Montana State University-Billings downtown, and that was only Billings! Eight other Montana cities attended the statewide teleconference as well: Bozeman, Havre, Helena, Libby, Miles City, Missoula, Great Falls and Kalispell. Two more, Glasgow and Wolf Point, were on line just to listen.

Public needs to hear the truth about ranching
Sustainable grazing preserves habitat. A recent High Country News article (May 18) tells how the cattle grazing on Coyote Ridge in California keep non-native grasses under control and encourage the growth of dwarf plantain. This feeds a threatened checkerspot butterfly. On neighboring lands where grazing has stopped, Italian rye grass has taken over the range and destroyed the butterfly’s habitat.

A complaint about letters of complaint
This is directed to all you whiners and complainers writing your inconsequential letters to the editor complaining about that which cannot be complained about.

Social Security worked before politicians borrowed funds
A letter writer asks: “What government-mandated program is efficient?” Well, I would say Social Security, which I depend on and would hate to see “tinkered” with. The personnel are a pleasure to deal with and the system would be solvent for many years except for the fact that administrations (Democrats and Republicans) “borrowed” from the Social Security Trust Fund and had no intention of paying it back!

Letters against abortion reveal desire to control women
Those strutting fowl who’ve found a roost at the Missoulian, whose peacock cry is “Women are murderers! Women need to be controlled!” aren’t aware that they’ve long been defeathered, that that weight at their rear ends isn’t feather, and that their strut displays their bareness and barrenness.

Road reconstruction projects must consider history
Russell Street should be expanded to the west rather than toward the Pink Grizzly. The Pink Grizzly is a part of Missoula’s charm (and history). Our city planner’s must be more creative to save such sites. Russell is one of the busiest streets in the state and if money must be spent to effect its expansion in a good way, so be it.

Baucus must explain why US is not providing health care
I sent this letter to Sen. Max Baucus:

U.S. should stay out of Iran’s demonstrations
Just musing over the demonstrations in Iran and the calls for our nation’s leader to “get more involved,” “be tough on Iran” and “show some toughness.”

Moral relativity is causing a shift in society
In our society I see two major mindsets as pertaining to morality.

Real change would mean health ‘assurance’
How about health assurance?

Courageous Blue Mountain Clinic staff deserve support
I would like to thank all the medical personnel and staff at the Blue Mountain Clinic for continuing to provide quality reproductive services, including abortion. They are courageous folks who face the risk of violence every day simply by going to work.

Dissension in the U.S. appears to be inevitable
So the feds are taking notice just now?

True pro-lifers are no threat because they do not kill
In response to Dan Evans’ letter of June 5: You’re right. The murder of Dr. George Tiller has pushed the abortion controversy back into the spotlight. There was no excuse for Scott Roeder’s actions. I have no idea what was in his mind to make him do such a terrible thing. As a pro-lifer, I cannot condone the killing of anyone who does not believe the way I do. As for pro-lifers being a threat to the community and country, that is probably the most idiotic remark I have ever heard. It would probably be laughable if it wasn’t so pathetic.

What MT really needs is a jobs forum
Honestly, I’ve held my tongue for the longest time now and even as I write it seems pointless.

Conservatives must make voices heard
We read an article this morning (June 16) in the Billing Gazette concerning a group of about 60 Ravalli County residents who went to stand at the front door of the Missoula office of U.S. Sen. Max Baucus with a single message from more than 700 people they represented in Ravalli County: “Explain yourselves.”

Government-run health care will only cause problems
Living under government-run health care for 20 years while in the military, I can tell you, you don’t want it. The problem is, you are subject to the whims and failings of the politicians. President Obama even said his grandmother should not have received her hip replacement due to age.

Tiller’s murder should not be used to silence anti-abortionists
This is in response to a letter on June 5 by Dan Evans.

Congress must allow workers to sign up for unions
What a difference a signature makes. A signature is needed to vote. To join the armed services, a signature is required when a person “signs up.” To qualify for a loan, a signature is needed. So why isn’t a simple signature enough to say “I want to join a union?”

MT governor’s remarks before Virginia primary not acceptable
If the quote is true, as reported by the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/06/AR2009060601103.html?hpidmoreheadlines), it is sexist and not acceptable from anyone, much less a sitting governor, period.

All U.S. citizens should have access to health care
The health care system in the United States is broken. Insurance companies are in the profit business, not the health care business, and yet we allow them to decide who gets health care and who doesn’t.

Government should provide health care just as it provides roads
The government builds us roads but we don’t call it “socialized”; the government runs the space program and again we do not call it socialized. Those are big, complex tasks that the government should do for us. The fact is that every western industrialized nation provides health care for its citizens.

Report exposed relationship between politicians and elite
I want to commend the reporting efforts of Michael Jamison in his piece, “State firms cry foul over stimulus projects” (May 31). His is the type of reporting that provides our citizenry with information we can use to counter a growing political tendency to give everything over to the corporate elite in this country n those that partner tightly with the “good old boys” on Capitol Hill.

Bicyclists want to keep trails open, not open more
Regarding Greg Schatz’s guest opinion (June 2) on the appropriateness of mountain bikes and wilderness: