Remember the troops

As a Vietnam veteran preparing for Veterans Day, I find it ironic that those most deserving of the day off can’t take it because of a promise made to our country. Afghanistan and Iraq require their attention, and they deserve our thanks. For our service personnel it is business as usual.

We tend to honor our veterans after the fact, considering the length of time it took to get the World War II Memorial constructed in Washington, D.C., or recognize the efforts of Korean and Vietnam veterans. I try to remember each day the men who didn’t come home from any of our wars and their families.

We have work to do on our end to make certain our service members receive the treatment and care needed. The Veterans Administration is handling more than 1 million claims.

While a day of remembrance, Veterans Day also should be a day of dedication to support and honor those who fought in all of our wars, not just one day but every day.

Our troops follow a code of honor, love, trust and respect for their country. They are deserving of all our efforts.

Carl Haynes, Lincoln

Worry about the people

Recent statistics from the American Journal of Public Health and the Urban Institute indicate that nearly 200 Nebraskans will die in 2010 simply because they lack health insurance. Yet all of our congressional representatives oppose meaningful  health care reform that would save those lives.

Although all of our congressional representatives claim to be pro-life, they would gladly sacrifice 200 of their constituents for the sake of partisan politics and pseudo-concern over monetary costs.

What is wrong with our congressional representation that they prioritize politics and dollars over the lives of their own constituents?

Multiply those 200 dead constituents by the number of family, friends and true pro-life Nebraska voters. Sens. Ben Nelson and Mike Johanns and Reps. Jeff Fortenberry, Lee Terry and Adrian Smith should begin to worry about their jobs. That is, if their conscience doesn’t bother them first.

Nancy Meyer, Cedar Bluffs

Blame the Bushes

Well, Halloween is over and the verdict is in. The scariest costume out there was “DEFICIT.” Way scarier than “44,000 DIED THIS YEAR BECAUSE THEY HAD NO INSURANCE.”

We seem happy to invite that latter guy for Sunday dinner. Hey, he’s been with us for years, and he’s never bitten me yet. He’s just after those no-good welfare queens (and farmers and free-lancers and mom ‘n’ pop shop owners).

I just have one question: Where were all the deficit hawks and handwringers while Junior Bush and his evil amanuensis were doubling the national debt by giving tax breaks to his billionaire buddies, and starting wars they couldn’t win?

Come to think of it, Old Uncle Ronnie and Daddy Bush also ran up quite an impressive deficit, but the deficit hawks were out to lunch then, too.

This is the worst recession since World War II. It took the Bushes eight years to screw up the economy, and not even Superman could fix it in eight months.

Recessions are when you should — indeed must — run deficits, to pump money into the economy. The crime was running deficits in relatively good times.

Berwyn E. Jones, Lincoln