Letters to the Editor

Naperville is supposed to be an educated city, but a lot of what I hear on the health care debate is anything but educated or reasoned.

In Monday's paper, a guy from Elgin thinks his constitutional rights are being violated because he'll be forcibly ordered to pay for someone else's services. What country has this man lived in since he was born?

You have been paying for other people's services for your entire life under every single Republican and Democratic president, House and Senate! You pay Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid.

You pay for public schools to educate your children and everyone else's. You pay for the military's health care and every other government employee.

Here's a prime example: My brother -- unfortunately -- is a drug addict and a felon. He does not work. You already pay for his health care.

He's about to have spinal surgery at your expense. And that is under Bush rules, not "Obamacare."

So what you're saying is that you don't want hard-working people to have the same health care options as a drug addict felon? You're already paying for health care for the indigent, the imprisoned and "Cook County."

You've been spoon-fed too much Fox News. Please read a newspaper and the Constitution, and look at all the numbers on your paycheck.

Steve Hullfish

Naperville

Health is wealth. Everyone knows that. Without health, you don't have anything.

Then why are we allowing people to not have access to health care? One of the purposes of government is to help people. It is our duty through government to help each other.

We, through government, provide welfare assistance and food to the poor and needy because it is the right thing to do.

Why don't we, through government, also provide affordable health care for everyone? It is the right and humane thing to do also.

To help those who are in need and require assistance is our duty as human beings.

Adriano Urgena

Naperville

During these most difficult times, how can it not be "all about me"? With the economy struggling to recover even a portion of what was lost, a severely damaged health care system and an unstable world threatening or at least altering our way of life in this country, how can we think about anyone outside our close network of family, friends and fellow countrymen?

But here is the kicker -- if I want my faith to define me as a person, which I do, I need to live by a certain set of rules. The same rules that have been taught for centuries and are clearly and unmistakably articulated in the greatest-selling book ever published. Love God and love everyone else.

Over and over and over again it says our existence, health, talent, possessions, people in our life, etc. are not ours but given as gifts from God. All he asks is for us to use them to help others.

Thus, my thank-you to Congresswoman Judy Biggert for co-sponsoring H.R. 2139, the Initiating Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009. A bill designed to be one of many steps needed to do our part in assisting those in this broken world dying every day due to hunger and preventable diseases.

There are many issues on her plate and many other priorities that certainly have a more direct effect on her constituents. But sometimes, someone else's issues are much, much greater than mine.

As difficult as it is sometimes for me, including losing a job after 25 years with a company, there are billions upon billions in this world who would love to trade places. If it is "In God we trust," then also "to whom much is given, much is expected." This bill and your co-sponsorship tell me I live in a district and country that is led by these ideals. Thank God.

Tom Deegan

Naperville

Our path to self destruction in utterly futile wars in Iraq and Afghanistan reminds me of a nightmare version of "The Wizard of Oz."

The vaunted American military machine is just a cruel illusion as President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, Defense Secretary Gates and Gen. Petraeus skip along a body-riddled, blood-soaked road of dead foreigners and Americans to find a way out of a land they don't understand and will never master.

Sadly, there will be no courage, no heart, no brain and no return home for our foolish four, only endless war that will bankrupt us as surely as it will send untold thousands to an early grave, a life of crippling injury or madness.

We continue these lost and unnecessary causes in part on the ghost of Osama bin Laden, most likely the long-dead boogeyman who we conveniently pretend is alive to keep our military industrial complex humming along on all cylinders as the rest of the once-great American manufacturing base disappears before our eyes and our infrastructure and social safety net disintegrate.

This is one version of "The Wizard of Oz" that won't garner any Oscars.

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn