A more just and humane society
EDITOR: As a local physician I am deeply disappointed in our current administration’s efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The ACA has allowed 20 to 30 million Americans to obtain health insurance, including healthy people unable to afford it previously as well as those with pre-existing illness who were essentially excluded from the commercial insurance market. Having been a physician for nearly 30 years I have been gratified to witness the declining numbers of people postponing needed healthcare until it is too late.
The newly proposed healthcare legislation is estimated to cause 14 million individuals to lose their health insurance over the next year with another 10 million following in the next decade. This will undoubtedly result in at least thousands of unnecessary deaths, at a conservative estimate. As physicians, the majority of us view health care as a basic and fundamental right for all our people and thus many major groups have announced their opposition to the repeal of the ACA, including the American Medical Association and the largest internists’ and family practice physicians’ groups.
In California, we fortunately have very active health care provider groups, including physicians and nurses who for decades have been gradually developing the concept of a single payer system similar to Medicare to cover all Californians. Medicare is a remarkably effective and efficient system and allows seniors and the disabled to receive high-quality healthcare. This spring, our state legislature will be considering this legislation, SB 562. I along with many other state heath care providers will be encouraging its passage so that we will join the ranks of the other wealthy nations of the world in compassionately providing health care for all. I hope you will join us in urging our state legislators to allow California to continue to lead the way towards a more just and humane society.
Niranjana Parthasarathi, MD
Alexander Valley Healthcare
Bye bye, Reveille
EDITOR: I received my Reveille renewal notice a few days ago and it immediately went into the trash.
My reasons for not renewing include the same reasons you have already heard from others. I think its insulting and lazy to suggest that readers go to the internet for a portion of the news. Not everyone has a computer and not everyone knows how to use one. Its lazy to put a portion of the news on the internet and not bother to print it. The paper has become 4 sheets of next to nothing.
However my main reason for rejecting the Reveille is the often politically loaded editorial column. I am not interested in reading the partisan blather that you choose to spew. My guess is that this will go on for the next four or eight years.
Rollie has found a forum and the rest of us must decide if it is worth the weekly exposure to his self indulgent and vile emptiness. It is most definitely not worth it for me. I will not have my sensibilities and the warmth of my home sullied by his grandstanding from a distance. Since this political hack clearly isnt concerned about alienating a good percentage of the readers lets have him be brave and announce his other business interests. That will allow me and others to avoid those as well.
The paper used to be a quaint weekly addition to our household, and despite some random political injections by a prior columnist there was nothing profoundly offensive in it. I could keep current with very local events and I enjoyed reading some of the other items. If there is an organization or event that I want to keep current with going forward I can get on their email list. The Reveille has lost its content, its character, and its innocence.
I thought I might switch to the Healdsburg or Windsor papers however I have learned that those papers, as well as the Sebastopol paper, are under the same ownership as the Reveille. I will go without the four vapid pages until I can find something that does not deliver the one-sided rant. An editorial column, like social media, is not conducive to a positive dialogue. Your editorials are too often a one way diatribe and for that reason I say bye bye.
Kent Keebler
Cloverdale
Wanted: Class of 1967
EDITOR: Save the date, August 5, 2017 for the Cloverdale High School Class of 1967 50-year class reunion. For more information contact: Steve McCullough 707-481-5359 or or ta*********@gm***.com or Evelyn Sue Dickens: 707-669-2068 or su********@co*****.net. Updates to follow.
Class of 1967
Cloverdale
