Letters to the Editor: Coal Remains Our Major Energy Source
Coal Remains Our Major Energy Source
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Coal continues to get kicked around even though more than half of the electricity we use is generated from this valuable resource. It would be interesting to see how many people know that fact.
While renewable energy is worth continuing to pursue, we need to focus on what remains the backbone of our country's energy supply. New technologies are being developed, fine-tuned, and implemented throughout the U.S. on an ongoing basis. We need to redirect the attention and public and private funds to perfect clean-coal technologies to ensure this affordable, home-grown resource stays in the energy mix.
As a supporter of coal, I encourage all residents to take some time to learn why coal is a significant part of our lives.
Lee Clemens.
Richmond.
Richmond Rapids Is Perfect Team Name
Editor, Times-Dispatch: If I played for the new Richmond baseball team, I wouldn't want to be called any of the names that were selected for voting. They sound corny and I would want to be apologetic about any of those names.
How about calling the team the Richmond Rapids? Richmond is known for its whitewater rapids. I was in Harpswell, Maine, several summers ago in a kayaking shop. I mentioned to the storeowner where I was from, and he said he was very familiar with the good rapids in Richmond and often takes a trip down there with a group to ride the James River rapids.
How many cities in the United States have a historic river running through them, known nationwide for its beautiful and challenging fall line -- with several high-class rapids? It is a very unique and beautiful thing about Richmond.
If I played for the Richmond Rapids, I would be proud of my team name. It is symbolic of the beauty of the James River running right through the center of the great historic and modernized city of Richmond. The name has a smooth flow to it. It is a much more professional-sounding and enduring baseball team name than the current team names available for Richmond to vote on. Go Richmond Rapids!
Thomas Abernethy Jr.
Richmond.
Prison Isn't the Place For the Mentally Ill
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Recently, Ken Cuccinelli, Republican candidate for attorney general, stated, "We need to acknowledge our jails have become the mental-health institution of last resort."
He's right. Roughly half the prison population in the United States -- more than 1 million people -- suffers from mental health problems. Serious mental illnesses exist in prisons and jails at rates three times higher than in the general population.
The situation doesn't get better after they are released. Funding for community mental health and addiction recovery programs has been slashed by many state legislatures searching for ways to reduce budgets. Not only are rehabilitation options few and far between as a result of budget cuts, having a prison record means that ex-offenders are often barred from receiving public welfare benefits. As a result, many re-offend and are put back behind bars.
Prison simply is not the place to deal with this problem. Many states have established alternatives to confinement for felony offenders with mental illnesses, such as mental health courts, which divert the mentally ill to community programs. By providing treatment instead of incarceration, these states are transforming the mentally ill into productive members of society instead of repeat offenders. An added benefit is that court-provided oversight protects public safety better than allowing someone with mental illness to go untreated and come out of prison in worse shape than when he entered.
Add it up: Treating rather than incarcerating mentally ill offenders equals lower prison populations, lower corrections costs, safer communities, and transformed lives. That's an equation Virginians can live with. Kathryn Wiley, Prison Fellowship.
Lancaster.
Cubans Live Better Than We Do
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I read with interest Tim Loughran's letter, "Cuba's Biotech Is World Renowned." What prompted this letter was Robert Ohanesian's response, "Slave-Like Labor: Just Another Factoid." I visited Cuba in 1990s and was fascinated by the progress made there in both biotech and medical research in a nation most Americans think is still behind the times.
I learned that health tourism is thriving in Cuba and that many people, mostly from South America, visit Havana, noted for curing various medical ills, particularly of the eye, at much lower rates than other areas.
What Cuba spends on medical care per person seems beside the point. Isn't this rhetoric for those who still see Cuba "keeping its slaves alive so they can labor for the communist state," rather than give the government some credit for being able to provide free health care to all citizens?
As Cuba opens and more Americans visit the beautiful island, perhaps reality will prevail. I remember meeting a group of American sociologists from New York who were surprised that the Cubans they visited were living better than we do.
Slaves?
George Cole Scott.
Richmond.
Reader Reactions
Perhaps officially there is no death penalty; however, 3 black young men who hijacked a barge to escape were caught and executed the next morning. Their mothers were called to come pickup their bodies. So, they apply it as they see fit to make an example. Che is famous for saying “give them a ‘fair’ trial, then execute them”
As for how good they are at hiding their intentions, they are not that good, but they don’t have to be. Our press and Hollywood (and Mr. Scott) buy it or at least promote it as if it were all true. The majority of the Cuban people know better, but they have to live the lie.
As for medical discoveries, perhaps it is true that they are in fact discovering great new things, but we can’t confuse that with their health care system. The two are totally disconnected. When we debate our health care system we should not compare it to Cuba’s, unless we want to take a giant step backwards.
I don’t know if you were serious or not but officially they do not have the death penalty in Cuba.
Fidel Castro IS that good at it as you say. Probably better than we know.
Actually it was Che and Raoul Castro who were the true communists. They were passionate about the ideology. Raoul still is. Fidel was more of the charismatic figurhead. He got the applause and eventually the condemnation.
They all imagined a perfect socialist state. When that did not emerge and the population became disenchanted and wanted to leave the leaders feared that their failure would be exposed. So they closed their citizens in. That brought world disapproval.
They have been trying to hide the mess tha Cuba became for decades.
Hence the sophisticated and all encompassing propaganda agenda. It is the main governmental agency and the most active. That and chasing down and silencing the dissidents.
The Cubans are genetically geared to medicine.
If the government were to get out of the way. They would be world leaders.
Laughing at the Castro brothers in Cuba could get you life.
What a great system.
But on the other hand, there is little crime?
I guess if you get put to death for stealing an apple you think twice, but I for one would do without paper clips for the rest of my life if it would prevent the weird random killings of late across OUR country. There are two sides to every story, except in Cuba? I don’t believe it. I suspect everything that comes out of Cuba , good and bad, I don’t think any one is an idiot about that, but why use that to disparage what may be a real medical advancements they have made?
Could there be “some” truth? I can’t believe it is ALL made up, all show.
Yes, I know he’s Castro, he’s bad, you see what every he wants you to see…but I also believe he’s not THAT good at it. You are giving him a huge amount of credit for deception, but not any credit for possible medical improvements? Is he really a typical villain out of a James Bond film? I guess that’s all part of his deception: to leave a question in your mind….man he’s good at this stuff..he thinks of everything. Such an evil genius. (Note: cue the evil laughter)
I have gotten myself in hot water by using the term “useful idiot.“
But sometimes it is such a perfect term to describe an individual or a group that have been hoodwinked by masters of propoganda like the Castro brothers.
The US does restrict travel to Cuba.
Cuba restricts travel to the US and everywhere else in the world. Their laws are written to keep their citizens IN. This where they differ from the other impovetished Latin American countries.
My Cuban friends have told me that they were strongly “encouraged” to report tourists who had wandered off the official path. There are parts of Cuba that have not been visited by foreigners in decades.
As far as the evil “embargo” goes, the one who has always put up the biggest barriers to its removal is Castro himself. His reasons are varied but when reviewed make perfect sense. It is a useful tool and has helped to keep the regime in power.
There is a new book out called Without Fidel by Ann Louise Bardach which is a difinitive one about the private life of the man and gives a lot of insight into what makes him and his island tick.
The average Cuban lives a daily life deprived of most of the basics of life.
Things like toilet seats and toilet paper. Where women rinse out and reuse plastic grocery bags. Not because they are into environmentalism but because thry have to. Where a visitor will bring things to a friend not to be had for love nor money in Havana.
A staple remover, paper clips ink cartridges, film for a camera. Light bulbs ,batteries a can opener vitamin pills and aspirin. These not to a poor family but a professional man and his wife.
So many are talking through their hat here. Or acting like useful idiots.
If Cuba is such a paradise why aren’t American’s trying to get to Cuba on inner tubes lashed together for asylum?
“I believe that Americans traveling to Cuba under different circumstances would be less likely to follow the mandated path and would cause problems for the regime. It’s about the only reason why I think that perhaps it’s time for us to reconsider our position on travel.“
I can agree with that!
As for your other point, I really think that is an extreme point of view. You are welcome to take the extreme, but frankly, that is what causes arguments, not solutions. I believe this letter, is just pointing out that there is more to this health care issue than simple old agruments about Communism and Capitalism. But until our countries start getting along, we’ll all be suspicious.
Blackbird; Mr. Cole was responding to a letter that made the point that Cubans are all slaves. So I believe his message insinuates that all Cubans live better than Americans.
As for the travel restrictions; we don’t allow Americans to travel to Cuba, although those restrictions are not what they used to be. However, Cuba does not allow its citizens to travel anywhere. I also believe that if we lift the travel restrictions the Cuban government will immediately set its own. Americans moving through Cuba with free ideas would be too much for a restrictive regime to handle.
Most Americans who travel to Cuba today are either supportive of the regime or have family there that they don’t want to put at risk, so they behave and stay on the assigned path.
I believe that Americans traveling to Cuba under different circumstances would be less likely to follow the mandated path and would cause problems for the regime. It’s about the only reason why I think that perhaps it’s time for us to reconsider our position on travel.
“give the government some credit for being able to provide free health care to all citizens”...
this is the main point I take away from he letter.
“were surprised that THE CUBANS THEY VISITED were living better than we do.“
I reread the letter we are discussing, and the letter itself only states the “Cubans they visited” were living better, it doesn’t say ALL Cubans. So this argrees with everything you have said, maybe they were only allowed to visit certain Cubans. Maybe I am reading to closely, but maybe you are reading between the lines. Don’t get thrown off by the title of the letter, those are always slanted by the Times Dispatch editors…the letter itself never says ALL Cubans live better only the ones they most likely were “allowed” to visit. I have no love for Castro, but I also believe there is something going on in Cuban health care that requires more information to reject as outright lies.
Ok, I’d like some clarification from some expert here. Which country has the embargo on travel?
To me it looks like both the US and Cuba do not allow travel between the two countries, but only for their own citizens. I understand Cubans are not allowed OUT of their country, but will they allow Americans IN? In other words, who is stopping Americans from visiting Cuba? Seems to me it is the US Gov’t, but I am curious.
From US Dept of State Web Site:
The Cuban Assets Control Regulations are enforced by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and affect all U.S. citizens and permanent residents wherever they are located, all people and organizations physically located in the United States, and all branches and subsidiaries of U.S. organizations throughout the world. The regulations require that persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction be licensed in order to engage in any travel-related transactions pursuant to travel to, from, and within Cuba. Transactions related to tourist travel are not licensable. This restriction includes tourist travel to Cuba from or through a third country such as Mexico or Canada. U.S. law enforcement authorities enforce these regulations at U.S. airports and pre-clearance facilities in third countries. Travelers who fail to comply with Department of the Treasury regulations could face civil penalties and criminal prosecution upon return to the United States.
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