LETTERS

We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to [email protected].

SAY NO TO CAFOs It is with sadness and disgust that I’ve learned about the proposed mega-hog operations for Menard and Cass counties. My husband, Dale, and I are from Wisconsin but lived in Peoria for 34 years.

After retiring from the Peoria Park District, Dale and I moved back “home” to northeast Wisconsin and found a home in Algoma on the shore of Lake Michigan. When we moved here, we had no idea what a CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) was or that Kewaunee County was home to 15 dairy CAFOs.

The CAFOs have a death grip on the county. Millions of gallons of untreated waste are poured over fields all throughout the county, causing a metallic stench. Streams and rivers are polluted, and the pollution ends up in Lake Michigan. It is truly disgusting. In Kewaunee County, 30 percent of the wells are tainted. People are starting to rise up against these animal factories, but it is a tough slog because the CAFOs have a lot of taxpayer money from farm subsidies, and therefore a lot of power.

We hope the proposed CAFOs for Menard and Cass counties are rejected. Mary Goodner Algoma, Wisconsin

NAVIGATING THE VA SYSTEM I am so frustrated and disappointed in how our veterans are treated by the Veterans Affairs medical and compensation system.

My stepdad is a Vietnam veteran and has never tapped into any benefits or compensation for his service. Now that he needs them, it has been one complication after another. I have spent countless hours calling, faxing, waiting and verifying information. The entire process is ridiculous. I feel that I’m pretty well educated, but have gotten so lost in the process. I can’t even imagine all those poor veterans who don’t have the help to guide them through one of the most complicated systems I have ever dealt with. I know that there are so many veterans that just give up because it is so frustrating.

If you know a veteran, urge them to enroll in the services right away because the timeline is not set up for extenuating circumstances. I urge you to help them understand and navigate the process because they deserve these benefits. Christina Lance Springfield

EXPAND MEDICARE Why is America refusing to allow its citizens basic health care and expanded help as they age? Why are we slaves to jobs instead of enjoying our careers?

Rather than incrementally chipping away at Medicare as we know it with vouchers that would cover very little, we should try a humane approach.

Let’s expand and improve the Medicare we have now, so that everyone – not just seniors – would have access to the health care providers of their choice, without the financial barriers that are characteristic of for-profit health plans. Let’s make health care truly universal, for all people and for all conditions, regardless of where they live, who they work for, or how much they earn. Let’s not compromise that away by changing how providers are reimbursed and fooling with that. Doctors want single-payer.

Nationally, we have an emergency. We are being sold out with the beginning of what appears to be as some have called it a “deconstruction” of Medicare funding and payments and helping the elderly and needy. We need to tell our lawmakers in the Senate that cutting into Medicare, eliminating means-tested premiums and mandated Medigap deductibles from H.R.2 is an extremely urgent problem. We cannot allow incremental steps that shift more of the responsibility of paying for Medicare to the beneficiaries. AARP and the Medicare Rights Center agree. Sections 401 and 402 must be eliminated from H.R.2. H.R. 2 is not a fix; expansion of Medicare is. JoAnn Conrad Springfield

Note: Political columnist Rich Miller is on vacation. His column will return April 23.