LETTERS: Cuts and values; simple economics; home invasion


Tuesday, Apr. 12 2005

Medicaid cuts and moral values

I see an apparent moral contradiction between two articles appearing in your
paper of April 7. One informs us that the Missouri Legislature has cut funding
for Medicaid. The other notes that the Missouri Senate approved state subsidies
for sports stadiums.

It appears this is taking from the poor to pay the rich. As a Catholic priest,
I see the Archdiocese of St. Louis copying this same morality by closing
parishes and schools in the poorer part of St. Louis and St. Louis County and
building a new church and grade and high school in St. Charles County.

I wonder if these are the same "moral values" we voted for last November?

Fr. William L. Forst
Florissant

Let me get this straight: Missouri ranks 45th in the country in per-capita
state taxes. The Republicans controlling state government are bound by ideology
to think that is enough. So, instead of considering alternatives, they cut or
reduce Medicaid coverage for tens of thousands of Missourians mostly at the
bottom of the economic ladder. Now, these folks will put much more strain on
hospital emergency rooms or other more expensive forms of care.

Did the baby just get thrown out with the bath water?

Dan Shelton
Maplewood

Poor smokers

Shame on the Post-Dispatch for advocating an increase in a
regressive tax that impacts the poor more than anyone else. Given that the poor
pay a higher percentage of their limited income on cigarette taxes and probably
purchase cigarettes at a higher percentage than their percentage of the
population, it is appalling that the Post-Dispatch would advocate
raising the cigarette tax as a way to put more money into the coffers of the
state.

Is the Post-Dispatch now advocating balancing the state budget on
the backs of the poor?

Bill Henry
New Berlin, Ill.

NCAA blackout

While I applaud St. Louis for hosting the NCAA Men's Final Four and apparently
doing a wonderful job, I must take strong exception to one thing: When I
arrived at Lambert Airport the night of April 4 to pick up my wife, I was
shocked and disappointed when I discovered that the main airport did not have a
single television set in the main terminal for people to watch the game.

The bar was closed, the restaurant was closed and the apparel shop (with a bank
of eight TV sets) closed at 8 p.m., 20 minutes before the game. If I wanted to
see the game, I would have to buy a ticket to get down on a "live" concourse,
get a shuttle to the East Terminal or finagle my way into the USO facility.
Instead, I listened to the game on my car radio in the garage.

If St. Louis is lucky enough to obtain another Final Four, I would strong
suggest our fifth-rate airport think through all the details.

Randy Flachsbart
Highland

Simple economics

If Social Security's treasury bonds are worthless IOUs, then isn't our money
worthless, too? It's also a promissory note from the government.

Should prudent people buy Treasury bills or hold American money? I guess not.
President George W. Bush has a Harvard MBA. So what's he telling us?

Sheila Michaels
St. Louis

Home invasion

Eminent domain is the process a big development company uses to push people
with no political clout or financial means out of their homes, neighborhoods
and school districts so that some big-shot developer gets to drive a fancy car
and wear designer clothes.

We have heard all of the speeches and promises about the buyout of Sunset Manor
(a 254-home subdivision in Sunset Hills that would be torn down to build a
shopping center and office complex).

We have seen the drawings of how pretty the new shopping center will be, but no
one wants to talk about where we will go when we are forced out of our homes.
What happens to our families? Where can our kids get the quality education that
we now have access to in the Lindbergh district?

I was offered $113,000 for my home. Where can I afford to go after I settle
with the mortgage company and even hope to keep half of the amenities and
benefits that I have now?

At a time when St. Louis County is losing population, our elected officials are
helping the developers to push us across the county line. For what? Another
shopping center with "for lease" signs in the windows?

Rosanne Stein
Sunset Hills

Cuts restored

Last week, the Missouri House Budget Committee recognized the value of research
for Alzheimer's disease, for which there is no cure. The committee voted to
restore full funding (cut from the governor's budget) for the Alzheimer's
Disease and Related Disorders Program.

This important program provides seed grants that test new research ideas on a
small scale. Often, the researchers then go on to apply for larger national
grants from various sources such as the National Institutes of Health, the
Alzheimer's Association and others.

The program's return on investment has been phenomenal; for $1 invested, more
than $10 in support has come back to Missouri from national sources. The true
benefit of this program is far more than economic. It is hope for the future.

We extend our appreciation to members of the Missouri House Budget Committee
for recognizing that the key to a world without Alzheimer's disease is found in
the promise of research.

Joan D'Ambrose
Executive Director,
Alzheimer's Association
St. Louis

Banana republic?

If, by chance, one of President George W. Bush's new democracy projects
actually becomes a reality, which new democracy will come to the United States'
rescue after the Republican assault on the poor and middle class effectively
has stripped us of our freedoms and basic survival needs? Democrats and wise
Republicans must make a strong stand to preserve the gains that average
citizens and the disadvantaged have made over the past 100 years.

Ed Beck
Ferguson

Dealing with Sudan

Congratulations to the Post-Dispatch for the editorial, "An end to
the nightmare," which succinctly described and accurately analyzed the
significance of the U.N. Security Council's three resolutions to deal with the
tragic situation in Sudan. The compromise worked out by Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, which gives nations providing peace-keeping troops exclusive
legal jurisdiction over the conduct of their own citizens, is praiseworthy. It
allows the International Criminal Court to be brought in to deal with this
situation without yielding on the Bush administration's theoretical point that
nations have the responsibility to police their own citizens.

We now can hope that congratulations will also be in order for the
International Criminal Court as it takes on the task of prosecuting the
individual Sudanese leaders who need to be held accountable for the tragedy.
What a significant message that would send to national leaders everywhere who
think that their high position allows them immunity from prosecution when they
promote criminal behavior against innocent civilians.

Ronald J. Glossop
Jennings

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