We are very honored and excited to be the recipients of these funds. We will defer any further discussions about the funding until we receive the grant application, which will detail the specifics regarding the disbursement of those funds.
Charles Doleman
president
Doleman Black Heritage Museum
Health care bill will be impossible
to implement and manage
To the editor:
A few months ago, I wrote a letter to the editor in which I asserted that the health care reform bill being negotiated at that time would exceed 1,000 pages and that it would not be health care coverage that would grow, but rather the cost to the taxpayer that would grow.
It would appear that my prediction was only wrong by about 1,000 pages. The current health care bill being debated is more than 2,000 pages long. Everything else that I asserted about this not being a bill that would truly solve our health care situation in this country was correct.
OK now, does anyone reading this letter really believe that there is even one congressman or senator who has actually read all 2,000-plus pages of this bill? I am very doubtful that any of them has. I am even doubtful that very many of their staff members have read the entire bill. Our representatives tend to only read the parts that are good for their home districts and home states to make sure that there is sufficient pork in the overall bill to take care of "their people" back home.
As a group, our representatives are totally failing to represent the interests of the American people. I would like to challenge all members of Congress to take a 100-question test on the contents of this bill. A test prepared by any American citizen, and I would be highly surprised if more than a handful of our representatives were able to obtain a passing grade.
This bill is so lengthy and convoluted that even if it were good legislation, it would be impossible to implement and manage. This bill is not good legislation and it will be impossible to manage. The only people who will benefit from this legislation are those that sell the paper and ink upon which to print it and those who obtain many of the thousands of new government jobs that will be required to administer this bill.
There is only one solution to providing America with universal health care. The solution is that all 300 million people in this country must be placed into one risk pool and that pool of risks needs to be covered by one payer. I would suggest that the government should not be that one payer. However, if we are serious about making health care universal and affordable, this is the only realistic and affordable solution. If the current bill is passed into law, it will be a total disaster for both our health care system and our economy.
Rodney Pearson Sr.
Keedysville
Actions of climate experts were inexcusable
To the editor:
The headline on David Limbaugh's Dec. 12 column ("Climate Gate scandal exposes 'experts' as political hacks," page A4) was accurate, even if his conclusions were not. The climatologists in question deserve ridicule. Their actions were inexcusable.
Limbaugh's conclusion, however, that global warming is invalid due to the actions of these climatologists is incorrect. That is like saying that because some prominent clergy have disgraced themselves and a few priests are pedophiles that you should not believe in God. I think few would accept that argument.
Sadly, these climatologists have brought into question the vast and independent research on climate change, which overwhelmingly supports the view that increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are driving global warming. That research, however, is still legitimate and still supports global warming.
Regarding atmospheric carbon dioxide, certain conclusions are still true. Human activity continues to increase carbon dioxide levels, causing global temperatures to rise. Natural processes are unable to remove the excess fast enough to stop the damage, which will soon be catastrophic. And worse, global warming is not the only danger.
Ocean acidification is yet another effect and will cause serious harm. Ocean acidity has increased 30 percent since the start of the industrial revolution, resulting in more corrosive sea water (www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/OA/Ocean_Acidification%20FINAL.pdf). The science is uncontroversial freshman college chemistry.
Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide is dissolving into the oceans, causing acidification. This results in the unavailability of carbonate needed by shell-forming organisms (clams, crabs, corals and plankton). It is already having an effect and could collapse the oceanic food chain.
Some marine biologists believe we will not reduce carbon emissions in time ("Ocean Reflux," Scientific American, July 2008). They might be right.
Larry Zaleski
Hagerstown
