Letters to the Editor

Dr. Ray McKinnis wrote in recently saying he'd rather have a public option with government employees making his health care decisions for him.

These might be the same government employees overseeing Medicare which some stats say is ripe with $80 billion a year in fraud. How much more fraud will we see when the public option kicks in?

Social Security is going bankrupt and government agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were responsible for the sub-prime mess that precipitated this economic disaster.

Any trip to the DMV takes hours as you observe the unmotivated and inept government employees moving slower than molasses.

President Barack Obama himself declares that UPS and Fed Ex are fine, unlike our government-run post office. Finally, government brought you an $800 billion stimulus package that Obama said would keep unemployment below 8 percent as it now approaches 10 percent.

These examples illustrate how dangerous it is to trust government these days.

Chris Schneider

Naperville

The future of wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the northern Rockies is at a crossroads. The reintroduction of the gray wolf to the northern Rockies due to the Endangered Species Act is in incredible story of what we can do to restore our natural world.

However, bad state management threatens to undue this remarkable effort. As many as 300 wolves will be killed by hunters this fall, with dozens more killed by wildlife agents for preying on livestock.

We need to adopt responsible, science-based wolf management strategies. We should manage wolves like other wildlife, such as mountain lions and bears, instead of treating them like pests and actively reducing their numbers to minimum levels. Humans and wolves have co-existed for hundreds of years, and we should be able to continue to live with them.

Mark and Gill Gillono

Aurora

Lung cancer kills more people than breast, colon and prostate cancer combined and is the second leading cause of death in the U.S., behind only heart disease.

Despite the high mortality rate from the disease, lung cancer receives the least amount of federal funding for research among the common cancers. Federal funding for breast cancer research is typically 16 times that for lung cancer.

We are co-chairing the Lung Cancer Task Force of the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, one of the leading cancer centers in the nation based in Madison, Wis.

The UW's lung cancer program provides world-class clinical care coupled with an outstanding research program, but we need more research support to quickly move new discoveries from the laboratory to the bedside to aid patients and families.

In the next three years, we plan to raise $4 million to support:

• Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research is a brand-new facility on the UW-Madison campus. This facility is a new concept in cancer research which unites basic scientists and clinicians and sets the stage to translate discoveries into treatment. Approximately $1.3 million is needed to finish lung cancer research space in this state-of-the-art complex. We also need $2.7 million to provide recruitment packages to attract new, world-class lung cancer scientists to the UW.

The need to support the UW's lung cancer program is more important than ever, and we need your support! If you are interested in learning more, please contact Steve Ramig at the UW Foundation, 608-265-3527 or steve.ramig@uwfoundation.wisc.edu.

George and Candy Gialamas and Fred Johnson

Co-chairs, Lung Cancer Task Force