YOU SAY: letters to the editor

Address shooting tragedy

Another mass shooting; is it OK yet to have a discussion on the actions we can take as a nation to reduce these tragic events? Let’s get past the usual arguments — “Guns don’t kill people, people do,” or “If someone in the school had a gun this could have been prevented.” — and take a reasoned approach to this growing problem. Yes, passions are high but this is precisely the time to act. Today is the day. Darius Terrell

Austin

Stand up to NRA

How many more innocent bystanders will die before political leaders of this country stand up to the NRA and have meaningful discussions to tighten our gun laws? Instead, gun control laws are off the table so that gun zealots can enjoy playing with their toys, regardless the cost of innocent lives.

Many will argue that the guns used in Connecticut would not have been impacted by restricting rapid-fire automatic rifles. But, could restricting the types of clips used in the guns have helped to reduce the number of fatalities? I suppose the NRA and its followers will have a different solution. Teachers (or even the kids) should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on school grounds. Gilberto Mendoza

Austin

Background checks

If we cannot control the sale of automatic weapons and other firearms, we can at least get tougher on the background check and extend the waiting period. Why wait for the next disaster? It could happen right here in our backyard. Sportsmen don’t use the kind of weapons that mass murderers do.

Bill Shaw bevo1@utexas.edu

Austin

Postpartum sterilization

Re: Dec. 9 article, “Public health, religion collide.”

Only one thing was missing from Ralph K.M. Haurwitz and Mary Ann Roser’s excellent reporting on the impacts of Catholic ownership of our public hospital in Austin and the primary teaching hospital for the new UT Medicaid School: While future medical students and residents may receive their women’s health training in other facilities, the women and men receiving care in Catholic-owned public hospitals do not have access to the same level of care as they would in non-religiously affiliated institutions. This is particularly evident in the case of access to postpartum female sterilization. Female sterilization is used by 38 percent of women who have children and statewide, postpartum sterilizations follow more than 10 percent of deliveries. However, under current Seton policy, 0 percent of the more than 7,000 women who deliver each year in any of the four Seton-owned hospitals with high delivery volumes in Austin can access postpartum sterilization. Joseph E. Potter and Amanda J. Stevenson

Austin stevenam@prc.utexas.edu

Beware what you vote for

Lots of “gloating” going on by Democrats. Hope they feel the same way a few years from now. National debt approaching $20 trillion, 47 percent exceeding 50 percent, unemployment not improving, price of gas not down to $1.83 per gallon when President Barack Obama took office.

Obama care, increased premiums and taxes. Those of y’all approaching Medicare will have difficulty finding a doctor. Effective the first of the year, Obama is reducing by 27 percent reimbursement to doctors, not to mention the number of businesses that will fire employees, reduce their pay, or increase their healthcare contributions so they can afford Obama care. More than 6,000 new regulations, some already taking place and the rest expected to become the “law of the land” in 2013? Increased taxes? I’ll submit an update “letter” toward the end of 2012 so you can celebrate (?) your vote for Obama. Bob Varshal

Austin

Seton care and taxes

Re: Dec. 13 letter to the editor, “Seton’s charity care.”

Seton’s charity and reality: The writer asserts that the hundreds of millions in charity dollars spent by Seton every year don’t come from taxpayers. Well, I’m a taxpayer and had hernia surgery at Seton Northwest a few years ago. I entered the hospital at 6 a.m. and was done and out by 9:30 a.m. The cost for 31/2 hours in the hospital? $10,000. And that didn’t include the surgeon or the anesthesiologist. My share, after insurance, was $5,900. An associate of mine had an emergency after a minor traffic accident and went to Seton emergency. Her bill for a half-hour stay. $3,400. Not a joke, but the truth. And that’s where all this hundreds of millions in charity are coming from; we, the taxpayers, paying exorbitant medical bills.

Water vs. rice crop

Re: Dec. 13 article, “Drought could become worst ever, they say.”

Here’s an easy way to decide which side the state needs to be on in the battle over who gets the ever-dwindling supply of water in the Highland Lakes chain. Can you live without rice? You bet. Can you live without water? Not so much. Politicians need to grow a spine and make it clear that shipping thousands of acrefeet of precious water hundreds of miles south to help grow one of the most waterintensive crops on Earth is not going to happen until the lakes are full again. Period. Joe Piscitelli

Leander Bill Schiff mann

Lago Vista