It appears that seniors will have a low priority for health care under the Obama plan. The reasoning is that members of this vital group are at the end of their lives and therefore it is not cost-effective to provide them some items of health care.

This is an unreasonable conclusion based on all seniors do.

Some are raising their grandchildren, while many help with the care of grandchildren. Seniors provide their time and financial support to our local churches. They participate in many organizations that provide assistance to those in need.

This includes helping at Good Shepherd Community Center, Storehouse Community Food Pantry, Salvation Army, Red Cross and First Baptist Church medical and dental care facility, just to list a few.

Many work as volunteers at River Region. Some are tour guides at the military park. They support cultural events, participate in theatrical productions and help with the Conservatory of Music at Church of the Holy Trinity, Episcopal. They support the United Way and a multitude of other local organizations. They support the YMCA and both the Bovina and Vicksburg Country Club golf courses.

In many countries seniors are held in high esteem as they are a vital link with our past. Should we not do the same in the USA! Don’t euthanize (encourage end of life counseling!) a valuable resource vital to our community.

Samuel B. Heltzel

Vicksburg

Give plan a chance

“The president and liberals in Congress hate America and are trying to destroy it.”

I know these flaming conservatives (“Dozens Turn Out For Vicksburg TEA Party,” The Vicksburg Post, Aug. 8) are getting upset thinking that the health care plan is going to push for euthanasia and other crazy ideas.

This group of people is so upset about change, but to say that the president and liberals in Congress hate America is so off base I almost didn’t want to write this letter because such words as that don’t deserve a rebuttal.

Wake up, you flaming conservatives, everyone in America deserves that chance to have health care!

Mickey Loyacono

Vicksburg

Health care a basic need

Vicksburg Tea Party? I don’t think so. The members of that group should take a refresher course in U.S. history. The Boston Tea Party was about “taxation without representation” and unless I’m mistaken, we just had an election in which the majority of Americans voted for change in America. You don’t like it? Then you can voice your opinion and you can vote in the next election.

You have representation; you just don’t like what you have. This group might be more appropriately named the “Let Them Eat Cake Party.” They have what they need, so to heck with everyone else. I don’t know if the current proposed health plan is the best, but what I do know is that at least we’re trying to do something. Will it change the America we now have? I hope so! How can a “developed country” be one of the few that doesn’t provide for this basic human need? How can it live with itself when it does not provide health care for the poor, elderly and more recently, its out-of-work middle class? How does anyone let the elderly go without their prescriptions because they can’t afford them? How does any human let a child die from a preventable disease?

Their opposition to this would fade once a loved one died needlessly because he or she couldn’t afford treatment. If you’ve been there, if you’ve walked that road, then there is no more debate. It is happening to more and more Americans through no fault of their own, which is one reason America demanded something different. So how about we try for a little more empathy and little less blame for a change? Whatever happened to, “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”?

Connie Soballe

Vicksburg

Complaint report disturbing

I found your report on the possible disbarment of attorney Marshall Sanders very disturbing. Not only is Mr. Sanders a good friend of mine, but he has also been one of my main sources of support for the community activities that I have either sponsored or been involved with since I first moved back to Vicksburg from California in 1983.

Having been arrested in January 1962 for my involvement with the civil rights movement in Mississippi and again for my work as a probing journalist in Moss Point in 1985, I know what a terrible blow to one’s pride and self-esteem an arrest can be, no matter the cause or justification.

As long ago as 2001, during the time of the lengthy controversy resulting from the special meeting set up for black political candidates only under the auspices of the United Black Men of Vicksburg, I urged attorney Sanders to be very careful of his personal interests. It seemed at the time that an undue amount of attention of was being paid him by the local media, although his was only a minor role in planning the blacks-only meeting. That meeting, however, was soon followed by the issue of the city’s sponsorship of the Southeastern Black Bass Fisherman’s Association fishing derby held here that summer. Marshall Sanders was a member of that organization also and took an undue share of the heat for that.

It would be easy for me to point out the long string of arrests and casualties falling upon black athletes and other public figures and accuse the white-owned media for their racial bias for highlighting these events. But that would be unfair of me to do so.

Instead of pointing a finger at the media and the predominantly caucasian Mississippi Bar Association, I prefer to extend my sympathy and heartfelt concern to the family and close associates of Marshall Sanders, knowing what a trauma this case must have brought into their lives.

I also want to extend my best wishes and hopes to Marshall Sanders himself. He is facing still another year in federal prison. And from my own experience, I recall that just one night behind bars can seem close to a lifetime. Even though there may be those around him who want to establish a friendly relationship, Mr. Sanders will have a feeling of being alone and isolated for most of the time that he is incarcerated. I hope he comes through it with his head held high and his spirits as jovial as they were the last time I talked to him in his office.   

Earnest McBride

Vicksburg