Letters 01-19-2014

Jan. 18, 2015

HIT SEND!

Love what we’re doing here?

Disagree with something you’ve read on these pages? Share your views with a quick letter to the editor by shooting us an email.

Our simple rules: Keep your letter to 300 words or less, send no more than one per month, include your name/address/phone number, and agree to allow us to edit. That’s it. Email info@northernexpress.com and hit send!

Cancerous Costs

My heart goes out to all those dealing with cancer. Sadly, I think the truth is we will never see a cure for cancer as long as treatment for cancer is so lucrative. True story: A friend had monthly cancer treatments"¦$8,000 per treatment for roughly 2 1/2 years. Estimates say 1 in 3 women will contract cancer in her lifetime. Say there are 21,000 women in Traverse City"¦that is 7,000 women who will be afflicted. And if each of those women has a monthly treatment costing $8,000 for even one year, that is $96,000 per year for ONE woman. Multiply that by 7,000 and it comes $67,200,000. For a very small percentage of cancer sufferers! New numbers would have to be invented to calculate the Big Pharma profits for various "˜cancer treatments’ in the USA alone!

And what of those who have no insurance? Another friend"¦diagnosed with breast cancer. Was actually turned away from the Cancer Treatment Center where she lives because she had no insurance. On the advice of a helpful social worker, in order to get any funding for her treatments, she had to prove impoverishment, move out of her home, and divorce her husband, and apply for county medical assistance, which she then got a month after the diagnosis of a very aggressive form of cancer. This is not the kind of stress someone fighting cancer should have to go through.

People tend to give very generously to cancer causes. Please encourage people to give to LOCAL cancer relief funds"¦they will do the most good.

Sharon Peters, Petoskey

My Favorite Opinions

Betsy Coffia tackles vital but challenging local issues and does her research; her clear thinking and writing about Michigan’s stuggles with gas and oil agendas, both hidden and manipulative tactics, takes brave digging below the surface!

As a landowner with no mineral rights for natural gas development in the once "pristine" Jordan River Valley, we need her voice and superior skills as a writer/ journalist/ non-partisan advocate.

My other vote for fair and balanced columns on national and state issues is Steve Tuttle, who proves that balanced writing and thorough thinking gives his readers gifts of perception and understanding.

Susan Galbraith, East Jordan

You Own Your Health

January 29th, 2007 was the day I made the decision to lose weight and get healthy. The rules on how to do this were always in front of me but I didn’t want to listen to them. Gradually, at the rate of two pounds per month, I lost 45 pounds and have kept it off. My energy soared and a "new me" emerged from the ashes.

You own your health. It was given to you as a gift at birth. Here are the core ideas that I used in my reinvention process:

1. Never trust anyone 100% who stands to profit from your health.

2. Set a goal to get healthy instead of a goal to lose weight.

3. Don’t go on a diet, because you can go off it. Reinvent yourself.

4. Avoid the buddy system. Your friends will affirm bad choices.

5. Eat 12 times per day, but in small quantities.

6. Avoid energy foods such as caffeine, chocolate, and MSG.

7. Move every day and at every opportunity.

8. Your friends will hate you for being successful. Prepare for that.

Believe in yourself. You can to this.

William Scott, Traverse City

Dirty Money Redux

Grant Parsons’ opinion piece highlights the serious issues with the recent Inman campaign. While Ms. Coffia took the high road with her campaign of "She Can’t Be Bought" – not accepting money from PAC’s, Lobbyists or Special Interest Groups, Mr. Inman decided to take the low road using substantial outside funding in the final weeks of the campaign. When I received the first negative post card against Ms. Coffia I called Mr. Inman’s campaign HQ to ask where the money was coming from - and the person answering said, "I don’t know."

Aside from the fact that Mr. Inman chose to bring sleazy and mud-slinging politics to northern Michigan, it begs a far bigger question: To whom will Mr. Inman be beholden in Lansing? Not to the people of our area, I suggest, but to the big money funders to whom he owes the debt. Ms. Coffia wasn’t the only one who lost – northern Michigan lost some integrity along with honest representation.

T, Michael Jackson, Traverse City

Defending Our Law Enforcement

I address this note to the "cartoonist" responsible for fostering lies about law enforcement. To your readers, please look at the facts before making ignorant presumptions.

It’s a shame that you foster bigotry and hatred toward a minority known as public safety. If you would only look at facts and the justice system in our society, you might think twice before perpetuating stereotypes about all of us in law enforcement. I’ve risked my life many a time for nameless, faceless, raceless, people in my career, but you don’t care. Good people are leaving public safety thanks to you, our President, and our corrupt Attorney General. Sad...

Thomas Lennox, Traverse City

Now Who’s Ridiculing Drilling?

Remember when conservatives advocated for "Drill, baby, drill?" And how the left ridiculed the idea? Hmm, the silence is deafening...

RD Johnson, Gilmore Township