Letters to the Editor, Cont’d: Increasing Awareness Will Conquer Cancer
Increasing Awareness Will Conquer Cancer
Editor, Times-Dispatch: November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and I am writing because, so far, I am one of the 5 percent of pancreatic cancer patients who have survived. Ninety-five percent of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer die within five years of their diagnosis and 76 percent die within the first year of their diagnosis. I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer early in 2009 and after surgery and treatment am now fortunate to be cancer-free.
Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest cancer and the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. During 2009, it is estimated that 880 Virginia citizens will perish from this disease. The incidence of pancreatic cancer is 50 percent higher among African-Americans than any other racial group in the U.S. It is time to increase awareness and research into early detection, causes, and effective treatment.
The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (http://www.pancan.org) is the first and only patient advocacy organization that serves the pancreatic cancer community in Richmond and nationwide. The network and its affiliates focus on public policy, research funding, patient services, and public awareness and education related to developing effective treatments and a cure.
For your own sake, and the sake of many others, learn what you can do to increase the survival rate of pancreatic cancer. Elizabeth Lytle-Rupp. Richmond.
Republicans Do Require A Bit of Self-Sacrifice
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Letter-writer Alison Koerner ["What Does GOP Offer Me?"] raises a good question. Let's see if I can help:
- Unfortunately, the Republican Party cannot make her a business owner, or independently wealthy. This will require some effort on her part.
- Republicans are not in the business of finding wealthy men willing to take care of her. She has to do the looking.
- The Republican Party does not insist that Koerner have children. Although, for public health concerns, she might want to reconsider the celibacy issue.
- Her religion is strictly a personal matter. This is not a Republican requirement.
What do Republicans have to offer for someone such as Koerner? Not much. L.H. Hayward. Richmond.
We Are Winning War on Terror
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I am constantly dumbfounded as to why the left thinks if we leave Afghanistan and Iraq, life in America will be safer. Do they understand that our security depends on the stability of those nations? It is simple. If the terrorists believe we will come and kick their butts no matter where they are, they tend to (and smartly so) stay away from direct attacks.
The left has tried to compare Vietnam to what we are facing now. We are winning the war on terrorism because we learned that if we put our full might up against any enemy, we will win. Our enemies will not go away. We must eliminate them. As for Osama bin Laden, does anyone really believe he is orchestrating anything at this point? We can bring peace to the world through strength, because we are the beacon of freedom in this world. If we fail, God help everyone.
John Aaron.
Short Pump.
Plant Report Used EPA-Approved Models
Editor, Times-Dispatch Joan H. Solari's letter, "Did Report Skew Coal-Plant Facts?" questions whether the Chesapeake Bay Foundation's recent report on mercury pollution from a proposed coal-burning power plant is "another example of environmentalists ignoring or even distorting the facts of a situation to shut down the economy of our country in order to further their agenda."
No. Our report is based upon data provided by the plant's builder, Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC), and uses an EPA-approved model to predict the amount of mercury pollution that will fall from the plant in the local region. The report's findings assume the plant will be subject to state and federal permit requirements. In fact, the pollution data used in our report assumes the plant will have what ODEC says will be the maximum achievable control technology on the power plant.
Nonetheless, the report concludes the plant will add 336 pounds of toxic mercury to the Virginia countryside, 296 pounds to the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and 81 pounds to the James River watershed over the next 20 years. Studies have found that even small amounts of airborne mercury pose human health risks.
The 2007 Virginia Energy Plan concluded that energy efficiency, conservation, and use of renewable energy sources are the quickest, most cost-effective ways to meet Virginia's future energy needs and to sustain a robust 21st-century economy. Building another 19th-century polluting, coal-burning power plant is not. Ann F. Jennings, Virginia Executive Director, Chesapeake Bay Foundation. Richmond.
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Reader Reactions
Since a week has passed and the T-D has not published my response to L.H. Hayward, I will post it here:
Since L.H. Hayward wants to be helpful, perhaps I should clarify a few things for him.
“....the Republican Party cannot make her a business owner, or independently wealthy. This will require some effort on her part.“
I don’t want to be a business owner. I want to work for somebody else and be treated fairly. This means safe working conditions, reasonable hours, and reasonable compensation. Being independently wealthy would be nice, but I won’t be miserable if it never happens. Besides, some independently wealthy people got that way with no effort on their own part at all. Paris Hilton, anyone?
“Republicans are not in the business of finding wealthy men willing to take care of her. She has to do the looking.“
You’re making a big assumption here - that I WANT a wealthy man to take care of me. I’d prefer, as I said above, to work at my own job and be fairly treated by my employer. Then I can be in a relationship with anybody I please - and his ability to support me doesn’t have to be a factor.
“The Republican Party does not insist that Koerner have children.“
Really? Then why do most Republicans scream and rant against abortion, or even birth control? I can understand some people being against abortion, but birth control can PREVENT abortion. Yet the more Taliban-minded Republicans don’t like birth control either.
“Although, for public health concerns, she might want to reconsider the celibacy issue.“
Condoms are up to 99% effective in preventing STDs, when used consistently and correctly.
“Her religion is strictly a personal matter. This is not a Republican requirement.“
Maybe not technically, but Republicanism and extreme religiosity are linked in the public imagination for a good reason.
richmonddad-Of course you are absolutely correct.
It was a senior moment.
I got my divided norths and souths muddled.
sorry about that.
Thanks for pointing it out.
Greta,
Your comment only makes sense if you replace the word Vietnam with Korea. Could you have your geography mixed up?
“Today the whole Vietnam is one of the most thriving economies on earth.“
I think that the North Vietnamese if they were allowed to know any differently would disagree with that statement.
South Vietnam which IS thriving could have been a communist country too. Without American intervention.
Sometime check out the internet photo with a aerial of both countries after the sun goes down.
One half is dark the other filled with light.
It serves as a very graphic illustration of the difference between democracy and communism.
China has a communist government and a capitalist economy.
Such an unholy alliance will not work forever.
We can bring peace to the world through strength, because we are the beacon of freedom in this world.
“War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.“
Considering that we’ve been in near continual warfare since WWII, is it surprising that our freedoms are compromised? Do you honestly believe that the USA is a “beacon of freedom?“ That’s quite a leap if you ask me.
James Madison:
Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.
War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.
In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people.
The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both.
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
So Mr. Aaron, we are winning the war on terror are we! I guess that killing all those Iraqi’s and Afghans that took part in the planning and execution of the terror attacks on America, like 9/11, has helped us to “win”. Oh wait, there weren’t any - just folks from “friendly” nations. I guess that firing remote controlled missiles into impoverished Pakistani villages will win us a lot of support too. Afghanistan has never been under stable rule, either by it’s own people or by outside forces, so how long do you see it taking for us to get a stable government there? and how many of our brave young folks do we want to die to achieve that? It’s strange that we can’t afford healthcare, but we can pay billions to fund wars that do nothing practical to promote our safety. Bring the troops home and use the money saved to strengthen our true front line of defense which is our borders and our points of entry.
“we are the beacon of freedom in this world”?...
Come come now. Do some people think the Vietnamese people working rice paddies in 1960’s & 70’s felt we were the “beacon of freedom” when millions of them died during those awful years, all because we tried to push our form of government, our form of freedom? 3.5 million Vietnamese civilian dead, 1.4 million Vietnamese military dead. God only knows the number wounded, arms and legs blown away, and so on. Then, there we the #’s of Cambodians and Laotians. Finally, the American dead and wounded. One thing the Vietnamese people knew…they were there, we were there, and as long as we were there, they were suffering. Today the whole of Vietnam is one of the most thriving economies on earth, same as another communist country; China.
People of Afghanistan? They are also there, we are there, and they don’t know why we are there. Do we really know why we are there? Sure hope President Obama knows fully well why, before making a decision on whether to it is worth our being there next 10-20 years. Perhaps 8+ years have been enough.
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