VA mess offers sneak preview of Obamacare

So, who out there across the country has figured out the obvious?

The disgraceful and unforgivable Veterans Administration healthcare scandal has delivered to us the conclusive evidence of how a healthcare system controlled by the federal government will operate.

Only those totally uninformed or in willful denial are not appalled by the mounting toll of our veterans who have suffered death from neglect by the government run VA. And to further add to the outrage, in typical bureaucratic fashion, those responsible have falsified records concerning negligent care and ridiculous waiting times to cover their rear ends.

Unless you are not capable of learning, you now fully understand this is the inevitable end result of government run health care and precisely where Obamacare will lead the nation.

The astounding incompetence and monetary waste of the Obamacare rollout has given us the sneak preview. Brace yourself for the full feature event coming in just a few years.


Tybee Island

Moral relativity has been healthy for society

Star Parker, in her May 20 column states that "laws protecting traditional marriage ...are being overturned by courts."

The truth is that court decisions have not reduced the protection granted to traditional marriages. They merely have expanded that same protection to same sex marriages under the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

Ms. Parker goes on to assert that what she calls "moral relativity" is destroying communities. The term refers to societal changes immorality over time.

She implies that same sex marriage is adverse to biblical teachings and further asserts that "discrimination because of race is very different from choices in sexual behavior."

This statement completely disregards recent scientific studies that show homosexuality to be genetic and not truly a matter of choice. However, whether genetic or not, discrimination, whether it be racial, religious, gender oriented or physically oriented (e.g. against obesity) is wrong.

Of course, if you happen to be a homosexually oriented, Jewish, obese, African-American, you can have your pick as to which is the most offensive.

If not for "moral relativity," which allows societies to change their values to meet the evolving changes within that society, we would all still be pagans.

Slavery would still exist, women would not have the right to vote, there would be no Civil Rights Act, segregation would still be the norm, marriage laws that now permit divorces for many reasons, including incompatibility, would not be on the books and fathers would still be second class citizens on the issue of child custody.



Poor black voter turnout made me embarrassed

First let me say I am appalled and embarrassed for the voter apathy in the recent primary, especially in the African-American dominated precincts.

Not because I wanted them to vote for an African-American candidate, but to vote period.

Our forefathers and mothers cried, died and bled for the precious right to vote. Not to vote is akin to walking on their graves. Disrespectful. Our turnout was abysmal at best.

Remember no vote, no choice, and no chance. Don't protest when you had a chance in the contest. Voterless people are a helpless and hopeless people.



Weaker gun laws mean more gun deaths

The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence reveals how recent state laws now allow increases in carried handguns in more varied localities. Many states, including Georgia, now permit pistols to be carried by adults in schools, bars and places of worship.

According to Newsmax, however, approximately 82 people throughout the nation die or sustain injuries everyday because of gun related violence.

The Law Center also states that 56 percent of U.S. residents oppose laws allowing people to carry concealed handguns in public places. Nevertheless, gun carrying bans were among the earliest gun laws adopted within the nation. In the early 20th century, however, many states adopted registration systems, granting law enforcement agencies the power to issue carrying permits, with qualifications, for concealed weapons.

Within the last three decades, a few states have gone further and abolished almost all carrying requirements.

Most recently, the gun lobby in Congress became armed with the right to use unlimited resources to promote the election of candidates who would continue to expand the right to buy and carry guns, even assault weapons, without any registration or investigation.

We should reflect on Piers Morgan's recent figure of only 35 gun-related deaths within a year throughout the United Kingdom, a nation with more restrictive gun laws, and compare them to the astronomical number in the United States. Should we continue to view all civilians as part of a reserve militia?



Here's why nothing gets done in Washington

In the May 23 letters to the ditor, Cecil Tuten decried the "rank hypocrisy" of showing concern for kidnapped children. Why? Abortion, of course.

I, like many others, am grateful that women in this country have access to safe and legal abortions. In many parts of the world (and in wide swaths of our own country) this is not the case.

First, this "certain Mideast country" is Nigeria. It is in West Africa and is the 32nd largest country on earth, with a population of 180 million. Only half of which are Muslims.

Before casting dispersions (stones?) on other religions, keep in mind that Christianity advocates for the subjugation of women, endorses slavery and commands infanticide. All prescient, I think.

How is the writer a taxpayer "without representation"? I will gladly stand by him if by some miscarriage of justice he has been disenfranchised, though his letter sounds to me like he's a typical regressive Southern fundamentalist railing at a world that has left their insular worldview behind.

Misogynistic "panty" twisting remarks aside, I was not aware that the kidnapped girls in Nigeria had become a partisan issue. I'm quite confident in the statement that most every American, Republican and Democrat, finds the situation abhorrent.

Perhaps the reason nothing can get done in Washington is that every single issue has to be related back to existential debates about life and death and the nature of the universe. Just a thought.