National health care

Check sources to uncover their bias

I read with great interest, if not even greater skepticism, Douglas E. Larsen’s July 29th letter to the editor concerning nationalized health care. I won’t comment much on his assertions other than to say I don’t agree with a single one. However, I would like to comment on Mr. Larsen’s invitation at the end of his letter for us to check out “a fair and balanced analysis of this issue” at either heritage.org or CPRights.org.

I did just that and sure enough found all of Mr. Larsen’s “talking points” within the two Web sites. However, there is something the readers might want to know about these Web sites before deciding if they are indeed fair and balanced.

Heritage.org is funded and run by The Heritage Foundation. They identify themselves on their own Web site as “a conservative think tank promoting public policy research and analysis based on free enterprise and limited government.” Their founder is Edwin Feulner, who was the director of the Council for National Policy, arguably the most right-wing conservative organization ever founded in the United States. Their membership was secret until several years ago when they were “outed” by a Village Voice journalist. Their members include Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney, among others.

CPRights.org stands for Conservatives for Patient Rights and was founded just recently by Richard Scott. Ring a bell? Richard Scott started the for-profit hospital chain that later became the $23 billion Columbia/HCA. Scott was removed from his position in 1997 after an FBI investigation led to 14 felony convictions and $1.7 billion in criminal and civil fines for Medicare fraud. My sources? Google and SourceWatch.

So Mr. Larsen, a “fair and balanced analysis”? I don’t think so.

— Eric Heffelfinger

Community council

Meetings are relevant

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the regularly scheduled Vashon-Maury Island Community Council meeting only because they were honoring my friend, Jennie Hodgson. I walked in the courthouse meeting room, my tribute to Jennie in hand and reflected that in 17 years of living on Vashon, I had only been to a half-dozen of these meetings. The room was filled with people I knew, didn’t know and lots who looked familiar. I sat down, prepared for a deadly, dry and lifeless meeting while waiting for it to focus on my friend.

But it was not at all what I expected! The issues were timely and accessible, the presentations and comments by Islanders and King County representatives were smart and provocative, and the overall mood encouraged positive engagement.

Most everything was of interest to me, and the issues were debated and discussed with intelligence and vitality. And it was fun! Everyone seemed to enjoy and respect the process and each other; it was what, I imagine, a real town hall meeting should be. Not to mention that it’s is the one place where decisions and learning actually influence how we live in our community!

So, there it is — social drama, politics and wit, a cast of characters that you know just couldn’t be the same anywhere else, decisions made by public vote and results that could influence county decisions. It’s got to be some of the best live entertainment we’ve got. The Vashon-Maury Island Community Council meets the third Monday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at Courthouse Square, or visit www.vmicc.org.

— Devon Atkins

DreamBoats calendar

It sends right message, not wrong one

After reading the Beachcomber’s article about the “DreamBoats” calendar, I was sadly struck by school board vice chair Laura Wishik’s comments that this witty, beautifully photographed fundraising calendar somehow sends the wrong message to our children. I think Ms. Wishik’s comments send the wrong message to our children. They belong back in the Victorian era along with all the other extremely uptight, negative attitudes people have toward the human body.

The message the calendar producers I believe wanted to put forth here is that we can poke fun at the human body.

Nudity alone does not imply something dirty.

Ms. Wishik is correct — we do want our children to make good, healthy choices, not to judge others on their appearances and not obsess about our own bodies. I believe in fact this calendar does exactly that. This is not a playboy (or in this case playgirl) pin-up annual. This is real people, real bodies coming out for a very worthy cause, tongue in cheek all the way.

The message here is that you don’t have to be an emaciated, impossibly skinny woman or super buff, chiseled guy to appear in print.

I really get tired of people who, as soon as they see the suggestion of nudity, have to impose their own fragile, negative and neurotic perspectives on the rest of us. Nudity alone is not dirty. However, in this country many of us were brought up to be embarrassed about our bodies.

Sometimes, it is perfectly healthy to poke fun at ourselves.

I think what is truly obscene, as photographer Rebecca Douglas suggests, is that we have to resort to bake sales and raffles to raise enough money to pay a school teacher in one of the richest countries in the world. What is morally repugnant is that we can fund a sports arena for a privately held sports team or bail out a bank or an oil company for millions and billions of dollars, but we have to go hat in hand for a few paltry dollars to keep a school teacher employed.

That is obscene.

— Michael Rosenberg