Readers sound off on the GOP’s health care proposals, domestic violence penalties and more.
Please don’ t call it the American Health Care Act, because it doesn’ t care for Americans. Please don’ t call it TrumpCare, because he doesn’ t care for the bill. His street smarts tell him that there is a chance it will fail and he doesn’ t want his name on it. Instead, please call it Don’ t Care, because if you support it, you’ ve got to ask yourself if you just don’ t care. If you support it, you’ ve got to ask yourself if you’ ve got health insurance and you just don’ t care to know what it means for your neighbor.
Charlie Carpenter
Beverly Hills
One step toward protecting domestic violence victims
As well meaning as some people are, no one has any idea what it is like to experience such fear for their lives except those who have been there. Why does Michigan have up to only five years in prison for repeated domestic violence offenses? Lives are ruined when violence occurs.
Everyone knows that if a person does not respect the law, they will break it. Personal protection orders are only good on paper, unless the court somehow decides that the violations mandate long prison sentences and then it is up to the laws to permit long-term incarcerations. Then, again, it has to be proven that the PPO was violated and the perpetrator must be caught.
A huge step in the right direction is have confidential addresses that are not accessible for the general public or people involved in violent crimes. We need to protect the victims and their families by giving them some sort of ability to cover their tracks. Such a law is just one of many needed steps.
Juanita Thomas
Davison
School improvement will help city, too
I’ m a retired, former educator of the Detroit Public Schools and I read with great interest the June 25 column by Rochelle Riley “Fix Detroit by fixing the city’s schools” and I wholeheartedly agree. Fixing Detroit’s schools is one of the main ingredients in Detroit’s turnaround.
Thomas A. Wilson Jr.
Detroit
Walls needed north and south
Now that a terrorist has entered our country from Canada, attacking a security guard at Bishop International Airport in Flint, why don’ t we build a portable wall that can be moved from the Southern states to the Northern stated as needed.
Ken Samoray
Clinton Township
Education is changing, so must funding
This year the state Legislature and Gov. Rick Snyder appropriated $2.5 million dollars to offset some of what it costs nonpublic schools to comply with the state mandates imposed upon them. The state was sued to stop this money from going to private schools. Things are changing; we live in a different world than we did in the last century. Parenting, technology and young people have changed. The delivery of education should have changed along with the times. Yet many schools (public and private) want to keep the status quo.
Some taxpayers will never use our public school system. I am one of those taxpayers. However, I support the public schools and the mileages that are a part of them. I support the mileages because the future is in our youth. Their ability to meet the challenges of the future is imperative to a good society. There is some irony in this situation where public school groups are opposing the use of taxpayers’ dollars to which helps ensure all schools have the means to reach the health and safety regulations for all children mandated by the state.
I do not understand why administrator leadership groups would oppose assistance to keep children safe.
Frank C. Wippel
Former adjunct professor, education department, Western Michigan University
Don’ t put frogs in more danger
Senate Bill 316 just passed the Michigan Senate to allow hunting frogs by finding them with artificial light and spearing them. Not only is this extremely cruel, it is unsustainable. Up to 200 amphibian species — many of them frogs — have gone extinct over the last 30 years. Frogs are an indicator species. We look to them to gauge the health of our ecosystems. When frogs are vanishing, it’s a sign something is wrong. We need to protect frogs, not kill them. I urge the Michigan House of Representatives to oppose SB 316.
William McMullin
Royal Oak
