Letters to the editor – Monday (2-9-09)

Published 12:00 am Sunday, February 8, 2009

We can’t spend way out of trouble
I don’t understand the belief of so many people that we should just spend our way out of trouble ó spending money the country doesn’t have on ideas of the past that have been proven not to work.
For example, there’s President Lyndon Johnson and the “Great Society.” I remember him expressing the idea that if we just spend a few more dollars, we could eradicate poverty in America. Years later, with trillions of dollars spent on this welfare plan, what do we have? We have more people on the dole, even generations of welfare citizens, mothers, then daughters, than granddaughters.
The politicians have created a new Democratic voting bloc, the assisted. Have these ideas assisted the poor out of poverty and into lives of self-reliance, or have these ideas instead made slaves of those they were meant to help?
Can a tax break for the middle class create jobs? Can someone who is poor hire anyone? If you want to help our economy, start a business and hire people. It is the small-business owner who will lift the economy out of this mess. The small-business owner is the backbone of this country upon which the economy floats.
For some reason, there is a belief, mostly among Democrats, that if you throw enough money at a problem, it will disappear. Of course, it’s not their money; it’s your money, taxpayer money. Until recently, I believe the government didn’t have any money except that which they take in taxes, but now I know that’s just not so. They are the government, and they can print all the money they want.
You voted for Obama. You voted for change, and you’re getting it. If the Democrats have their way, about all you’re going to have left is the change in your pocket.
ó Richard Roberts
Kannapolis
A second opinion
on glaucoma storyRegarding Dr. Gott’s Feb. 5 article on a far-fetched glaucoma remedy:
I’m a fellowship trained glaucoma specialist practicing at the Cabarrus Eye Center in Concord. I wanted to help clarify some things for your readers.
The patient claimed her pressure became normal after drinking her own version of a stroke “cocktail.” First, the patient does not specify the spatial relationship of her doctor visits with normal eye pressure to when she consumed her glaucoma potion. Unless she drank her potion within hours of her appointments, the notion that it would have long lasting affect on eye pressure is highly unlikely. Intraocular pressure fluctuates from day to day and throughout the day. Most people have a diurnal rhythm of intraocular pressure where it typically is highest in the early morning hours and slowly decreases throughout the day. In patients without glaucoma, these fluctuations may be 3-5mmHg or points, while in glaucoma patients these variances may be as high as 10-15mmHg on the eye pressure reading device. Therefore, this patient’s two normal readings at her visits may simply be due to good control of her eye pressure from her presumed treatment, or due to the time of day she was seen or normal fluctuations.
It is known that alcohol can reduce intraocular pressure by a diuretic phenomenon as well as other potential mechanisms. Marajuana has the same effect. Both of those reductions are very short lived, lasting one to three hours typically. Exercise can have a similar effect.None of these would be appropriate treatments for glaucoma as one needs to control intraocular pressure all day long for the rest of the patient’s life. Caffeine has been shown to have the opposite effect by actually increasing intraocular pressure in some patients when taken in excess.
The take-home point is open communication with your treating physician should help each patient make the best decision regarding their care.
ó Kurt Lark, M.D.
Concord
Abortion, religion and the hereafter
For years, I have listened to the various arguments concerning abortion, from the “pro-life” side and from “abortion rights” factions. The Post published a number of letters from them during the elections and more recently due to President Obama’s platform on abortion. So, here’s my view.
Most of the pro-lifers appear to be born-again Christians who believe that when a baby is born, it has only one of two possible destinies awaiting it.
First, once it is old enough to think and choose for itself (having free will), if that thinking does not coincide with their religious beliefs, then at death it is off to burn alive forever, no matter how morally upright the individual may have been.
Christians also believe that when they die, they will abide in paradise. They also believe that if a child dies before it has free will, than he or she goes off to heaven.
Supposedly, every human being who has ever lived or will live is going to suffer eternal torment unless they are Christian. A man who was trampled to death by a wooly mammoth thousands of years ago is in hell. When the Mongols invaded Russia in the 13th century, thousands of Russian women committed suicide knowing what would happen if the Mongols got their hands on them. Are those women in heaven or hell? What about all the U.S. presidents? Some of them hit the bottle. Some were womanizers.
Are the 30 million fetuses aborted since 1973 in heaven? If they had all been born and lived to adulthood, a good many of would have been murderers, child molesters, drug dealers and others whom Christians believe will not be their next-door neighbors when they move into that mansion in the sky. Narrow is the way, you know.
ó R. Howard Andrews
Kannapolis
Someone needs that overdue item
In a recent letter to the editor, published Feb. 5, a citizen wondered what measures Rowan Public Library staff take to encourage people to return overdue library books and other materials. This issue is as old as public libraries, and we are sure that Ben Franklin had to deal with it, too!
Since our aim is to make taxpayers’ dollars go as far as possible and to do our best to get library materials to those who want them, we do take several steps to get materials back: borrowers with overdue items are not permitted to check out anything else until materials are returned and fees paid; over time, four bills for the overdue items are sent to the borrower; and when these measures are not successful, accounts are referred to Rowan Business Alliance for collection.
This is a good time to remind everyone ó if you have overdue library materials on your shelf, or even under your bed, please do return them as soon as you can so that others may enjoy them.
Also, we encourage everyone to visit any of our three locations (Salisbury, China Grove and Rockwell). Our friendly, knowledgeable staff members are anxious to help you obtain the item, service, or information that you need.
ó Melody Moxley and Suzanne White
Rowan Public Library