Opinions

The opinion page can be a real drag, but today I saw two letters to the editor in the ever shrinking Lansing State Journal that made me smile.

Tea-partiers can relocate

I wonder if tea-partiers and the anti-government, "rights of the individual" purists out there ever follow their own arguments to their logical ends.

If they think government-ensured health care for all is a form of socialism, then presumably they also object to being taxed for armed forces to protect our nation, government employees to build and maintain our roads, public teachers to educate our children and so on. We'd have to wait for the market to correct Toyota's "errors," assuming they also object to governmental consumer protections.

Individual rights carried to the extreme mean anarchy - every (wo)man for her/himself. Do they really think that is preferable to a society that includes compassion in its national ethos and which chooses to govern and regulate itself for the common good?'

If so, then perhaps they'd be happier living elsewhere. But finding their ideal government could prove difficult. Other developed nations long ago rejected such selfish, misguided and antisocial demands.

Ellen Link
Laingsburg

Churches can fund care

I have the perfect solution on health-care funding.

The average yearly income for all of America's tax-exempt religious organizations is $15 billion. If we asked them to donate .001 percent of that, we would have $15 million a year to insure the 30 million Americans who don't have insurance. That leaves $500,000 per person per year per policy.

I am sure that there is no religious group in America that would object to such a small tithing of their church's income for the welfare of fellow Americans. If there are any objections by any religious group, I would hope they speak out so their members would know they really don't care about people who are sick.

Patrick O'Neill
Grand Ledge