Letters: Don’t go back to days of unavailable health insurance

My wife is a 23-year breast cancer survivor. She was terrified when hearing the diagnosis. It felt like a death sentence from which there could be no appeal. Her mother’s death 15 years earlier from breast cancer appeared to be clear proof of impending doom.

We attempted to focus only on fighting it. However in the middle of the night, it was hard to shut out the what-if’s? What if it comes back, or we lose health insurance? Can we obtain new coverage with a pre-existing condition? I could not help fretting that these kind of added stressors could only lead to the return of the cancer.

When the Affordable Care Act was passed, it lifted a vast weight off our shoulders. It was inspiring that Congress would try to cover as many Americans as possible with health care. Now we cannot believe that the new Congress is rapidly moving forward with the appeal of Obamacare without apparently considering mending it or replacing it first with something better.

Going backward is unacceptable! Humanitarian compassion directs us to care for all human beings, who are all someone’s loved one.

I suggest anyone who believes that the better course is focusing on fixing or replacing the ACA, rather than going backward to nothing, please contact their senators and representatives to let them know how you feel.

Lawrence Frey, Villa Park

Moral injustice

The findings of the federal Department of Justice’s investigation of the Chicago Police Department are not a surprise — to some Chicagoans. While they are is a good start, I am looking forward to the Chicago Police Department implementing new policies and procedures to right this moral injustice.

I appreciate the work that good police officers put into their duties of serve and protect; however, this is often not the case in Chicago.

As a white woman who grew up in an affluent neighborhood in the suburbs, I cannot compare my experiences to those who have been in the struggle for their whole lives. However, as a human services professional who has worked with some of the most vulnerable people for the past five years, I will try to relay what I have seen and heard: Police officers who regularly harass young, black men by following them in their cars and shouting at them, by name, over their car’s loud speaker; being told, by a client, that the only reason he was not beaten up by police was because he had ID saying he was disabled; hearing countless stories of “rough rides,” and being chased and shot at for no reason.

This is an extremely tiny glimpse, but the most horrifying part is that this is routine — to some Chicagoans.

Chicago has been devastated by violence and many changes must be made. However, it would be a good step forward to start with those who are there to serve and protect, so that they can begin to lead the way. I am looking forward to seeing the “sweeping changes” that will be made.

Rosemary Callahan, Gold Coast

Atrocity against wildlife

In recent years the federal Wildlife Services’ agency has supported the egregious and unnecessary killing of thousands of innocent coyotes, bobcats, wolves, bears and prairie dogs as a means to assuage the exorbitant demands of greedy and overly influential ranchers and farmers who also have no respect for the millions of animals that they slaughter every year. This is an atrocity against wildlife that must stop. Let’s hope that a bipartisan congress can unite and compel the incoming presidential administration to rightly end this wrongful massacre of creatures that are vital for ecological and wildlife biodiversity.

Brien Comerford, Glenview

Too long

President Barack Obama welcomed the World Series champion Chicago Cubs to the White House. The Cubs had last won the World Series in 1908. Obviously 108 years is a long time, but it is only half as long as the 219 years it took our country to elect its first black president.

Gerald Weisberg, Lake View

Not normal

Why is Putin so comfortable commenting more regularly on the affairs of the United States? This isn’t normal!

Edwina Jackson, Longwood Manor

Tweets by @csteditorials