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Pasco Letters to Editor

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 12, 2007

Tiered Medicine

Regarding 'Time Has Come For Universal Health Care In America,' Marc Yacht, My View, Oct. 7:
Universal health care will make the present situation much worse.

For one, universal health care will put bureaucrats in charge of medical care funding, resources and allocation. When you need medical care you'll get what they allocate in terms of staff, medication and hours of operation. If they're out of something, you can come back tomorrow, next week or whenever the bureaucrats order more. You will get no choices and take what they give you. Just like in the Army.

You'll be taxed for universal health care, and the politicians will use the money for other things. A big chunk will go for lawsuits and lawyers who sue the government because of inadequate care and the malpractice of doctors trained on little islands and remote villages.

The acquisition of facilities and equipment will come to resemble every government function you know of where there never is enough of anything. I think it was H.L. Mencken who said if you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there will be a shortage of sand.

The best doctors and facilities will be restricted to society's betters. No sheriff or county commissioner or Marc Yacht is going to wait in line with you for six hours to see someone who has as much knowledge of medicine as they do English. Consequently, there will be tiers of care, and you'll be on the bottom.
Universal health care is a 'Care Bear' scheme to make medical care cheap for the people who are best able to pay for it.

JAMES B. JOHNSON

Port Richey

Get Values Straight

Regarding 'Friends Of Incinerator Plan Turn Up Heat,' Tom Jackson, Oct. 7:

I am trying to understand Jackson's support of Angelo's Aggregate Materials' east Pasco landfill proposal. What could prompt his avid endorsement in the face of residents' serious and well-founded objections? Was he a recipient of one of Angelo's lunches?

He lives in New Tampa, so he won't be subjected to the noxious elements that east Pasco residents will experience such as overwhelming truck traffic and a 10-story mountain of garbage. Maybe that's reason enough.

In his column, Jackson writes that the garbage will be covered with 'leak-proof membranes,' but in the next paragraph he says that at the end of each day, the site will be 'covered in 6 inches of dirt, discouraging scavengers while reducing odors and eliminating unhealthful air emissions.'

So which is it? When will the garbage be covered with that magic membrane?

Jackson is swayed by the promise of free garbage disposal for the county. That free disposal comes with a huge price tag for Pasco residents in 400 to 600 more trucks on our roads daily, the loss of property values in the area and the very real threat to our water supply that no amount of money could repair.

He also is enamored by the vision of 'free market.' I think an overriding concept of democracy is that the right of the many Pasco residents supersedes the right of Angelo's.

Let's get our values straight.

FERN WILLIAMS

Zephyrhills

Won't Accept Risks

Regarding 'Friends Of Incinerator Plan Turn Up Heat':

I want to thank Tom Jackson for substantiating our arguments against the east Pasco landfill as the Trojan horse it really is.

After the applicant's initial 'low-ball' gift as an attempt to get in the good graces of our progressive county commissioners, they will certainly be inclined to raise their rates to the $70 per ton amount using the free market so humbly described. By the way, cities and counties will be happy to pay those rates and more. And garbage (more gifts) will be shipped to Florida via the CSX railway to the 1,069-acre site surrounded by residential homes whose property values are doomed to plummet.

But east Pasco is not Troy, and we know a Trojan horse when we see it. If it looks like a duck ...

The risk of sinkholes on the property, the proximity to the Green Swamp and our region's water supplies and the risk of environmental damage are results the community is unwilling to accept.

CARL ROTH

Dade City

Serious Business

In reference to Tom Jackson's column, we the people of east Pasco County don't want to take the chance on this dump!

I don't know why he or this company feels so arrogant that they can shove this down our throats. We're the best judge of what's good for us, and we say no.

I believe the science also says no and don't understand why Jackson unilaterally sticks up for this corporation.

We may be fodder for his column, but to us our well-being is serious business!

LOUIS POTENZIANO

Dade City

Government In Action

D.R. Horton proposed that thousands of heavy construction trucks trample through the streets of the sinkhole-ridden Estates of Beacon Woods. Residents met with Horton reps who told us 'we will put our trucks through.'

We do not oppose the development of adjacent land, but we don't want our neighborhood to be destroyed in the process. Hence, our appeal to elected officials for protection.

Given the tremendous influence of national developers, it is heartwarming that Pasco County Administrator John Gallagher and the Development Review Committee (DRC) responded to our request to designate a construction entrance through vacant land. The DRC's imposition of this condition for approval of the project is democratic government in action.

We are grateful to Gallagher and the DRC for doing the right thing. Big business interests do not always prevail over citizens who pay taxes and vote.

RICHARD S. HILLMAN

Hudson

Senior Obstacles

Regarding the Zephyrhills restoration project:

I don't care what they do: I won't be going downtown.

When City Manager Steve Spina insisted on putting in brick sidewalks, he was essentially telling seniors 'we don't want you downtown' because it is impossible for them to navigate the bricks. For instance, my husband uses an electric cart (or cane on good days). Can you image the bumps and chances of falling on the bricks?

I've not been downtown for a year, except to donate books to the library, since I started paying my water bill by electronic means, and I'm sure other seniors feel the same way.

Let them waste money. That is all they are doing!

ANITA DRENNON

Zephyrhills

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