Everyone Gets Equal Time in Letters Section
Editor, Times-Dispatch: On a recent morning, I opened the newspaper. I always start with the Letters to the Editor. On this day, a particular letter immediately caught my eye. It didn’t stand out because of the headline or the length. In fact, it was rather short, and wasn’t even elevated to the level of Correspondent of the Day, despite the name attached to it—John Grisham.

Virginia’s Rest Areas Are Shovel-Ready
Editor, Times-Dispatch: There is much I don’t understand about the stimulus plan. I only know that it’s working as planned, saving thousands of jobs almost daily, turning around the on-the-brink-of-disaster economy inherited from the previous administration, and getting our country back on track for deficit reduction and economic recovery. I know this because my president, Barack Obama, tells us so.

Local Schools Need State Funding
Editor, Times-Dispatch: The editorial, “Too Many,“ dismisses our concern about capping the number of school personnel supported by the state by challenging our reference to Virginia’s low level of state funding for schools. Funding for our schools comes primarily from three sources: federal (less than 7 percent), state (less than 40 percent), and local (about 54 percent). That means that the state, whose constitutional responsibility it is to “provide for a system of free public elementary and secondary schools for all children” and to do so with “an educational program of high quality,“ is already placing the burden of funding our schools on local governments whose ability to generate resources is limited. By so doing, Virginia falls far below the national average in funding schools from state resources.

Health Care Shouldn’t Be a Lifestyle Choice
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I must commend the editors for their choice of Jeanne Boisineau as the Correspondent of the Day. Her letter, more than most, points out, indirectly, the course of conversation we should be having as a nation regarding health care. Also highlighted is who is responsible to pay for such coverage.

As Usual, the Cost Is in the Details
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Much has been made of the issue of requiring home sprinkler systems and the cost of installing one into a new home. Certainly this is an issue that will have its effect on the recovery of our housing industry. Affordability of purchase is already determined by many factors including cost of land, local proffers for schools and roads, municipal and state requirements, zoning regulations, adherence to applicable building codes, materials, and labor.

Fix Our Health—Not Our Health Care
Editor, Times-Dispatch: The debate over health care reform is focused on the wrong thing. Let’s fix our health, not our health care system. Our health care system is the best in the world. We have the best doctors, nurses, facilities, and medicine. What we don’t have is the best health in the world. The major causes of death in the United States are mostly self-inflicted. According to the Harvard School of Public Health press release from April 27, 2009, “Smoking, high blood pressure, and being overweight” represent the top three preventable causes of death in the U.S. It goes on to provide some numbers suggesting smoking kills 467,000 of us annually, followed by high blood pressure with 395,000 deaths, and obesity and weight-related deaths numbering 216,000. If these statistics are even remotely correct, we need to fix ourselves—not the system that keeps us living.

Put Recycling Bins Beside Trash Cans
Editor, Times-Dispatch: I recently attended Albert H. Hill Middle School for my sixth grade year. I live in the Fan area of Richmond and I have noticed that there are many recyclable materials in the public trash bins. I sometimes wonder, as I pass by, why they have recyclable pick-up days every other Wednesday if nobody seems to care. There are so many things that could be recycled that are usually the majority of the items in the trash bins.

As history repeats itself, I have no doubt that this recession will pass. Eventually it will work out and people will be in much better positions than they are now. Jobs will be created and businesses will flourish. I consider myself very lucky to have a full-time job that comes with health insurance. I work with the public, so I see and hear from too many people the horror stories of job losses, loss of homes, vehicles, and the worry that comes along with having little money.

My husband and I, both professionals in the film business, are free-lancers. We cannot afford health insurance, despite the fact that we both work and make a pretty good living and have no previous illnesses or bad health habits. I am 44, my husband is 45. Neither of us gets check-ups, and I have not had a baseline mammogram yet because we cannot afford it. I recently had to make a trip to the emergency room, and if the hospital had not accepted me into its program for those with no health insurance, I would have had to pay an enormous amount of money.

Want to see America in 10 or 15 years? Look to California. Only a few generations ago, California was the brightest of spots in this great country. Millions dreamed of moving there and some believed the streets were paved with gold. Interestingly, California was a conservative state and it lived by conservative labels, as exemplified by Ronald Reagan, the LAPD, and Proposition 13.

Restraint and Discipline Are Required of All
Editor, Times-Dispatch: The political debate over health care is focused on creating change so all citizens are covered without increasing the national deficit. It is a great democratic ideal that needs an upgrade, but it is failing to address certain realities such as the self-destructive choices citizens make in our free and independent country.

Why Isn’t Sheehan Protesting Any Longer?
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Recently, it was reported that four Americans soldiers were killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb. On the same page was an article about a captured soldier from Idaho. Where is Cindy Sheehan when we need her? When George W. Bush was president and our brave men and women were fighting and being killed or wounded in Iraq, the war protesters, led by Sheehan, were front and center in almost every news story by the liberal media. Now that the Afghanistan war belongs to President Barack Obama and the Democrats, I can’t help but wonder: Where is Sheehan?

Winning Suggestions From a Concerned Citizen
Editor, Times-Dispatch: It is my recommendation that Virginia’s Department of Transportation (VDOT) be empowered to privatize state-operated rest stops. As populations have expanded, the many highway access roads have stacked up with service stations, food vendors, and lodging. They handle substantial traffic—or else they would not be in business.

I am retired from my former vocation but now have a new one that requires me to work in my home office most afternoons. I seldom have the TV set turned on there, but recently I had it on and witnessed the first day of Senate Judiciary Committee opening statements for Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s hearings on her appointment to the U. S. Supreme Court.

Bless the Free Spirits—God’s Special Creatures
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Elizabeth Morley’s letter, “Let Black Dog Be the Last Stray,“ was empathetic and just for a reasonable, humane approach to stray animals. In the mid-1960s, I had just parked my Nash Rambler near my apartment east of Belvidere when I noticed an elderly woman, carrying a brown bag in each hand and covering about two inches a step in the freezing, cold weather. I asked if I might give her a ride. She was living in the (I think) condemned buildings at Main and Belvidere, and due to one-way streets, it took a few minutes to take her “home.“ During that time, we talked.