Does your candidate pass the NRA test?

On Wednesday, high school students across the U.S. walked out of their classes to demonstrate for reasonable gun restrictions to be enacted by representatives at the federal and state level. One of the problems with their quest is that it is very difficult to agree on which gun restrictions work and which don’t.

There should be — and is — however, one simple test voters everywhere should apply when they enter the voting booth. Does this candidate accept campaign money from the NRA?

If so, then the candidate has an innate conflict of interest on gun restrictions, however reasonable. If not, then there is at least the possibility that the candidate will put the public’s interests ahead of his/her own election. From this day forward, every voter — and every journalist on our behalf — should ask clearly: Does this candidate accept campaign money from an organization which is nothing more than a lobby for gunmakers, the NRA?

There is still time before the March 20 primary to ask the question and obtain clear information on that issue. Every reporter and every voter should have the inquiry at the top of the list. Let’s not let down our children, who ask only that they may grow up unafraid of gun violence. Ask the question!

Edward Bryant Jr., Evanston

Our kids are the only ones acting like adults here

ALL elected officials should be totally ashamed when the youth of the nation must step in and become the adults in the room! This nation, you’d think, would be more civilized by now. Guns have no other use but to shoot at things.

Edwina Jackson, Longwood Manor

A community’s effort to repay the favor

As a retired Chicago Police officer and the father of four United States Army veterans, I found it refreshing to read the Sun-Times article regarding the Air Force veteran Anthony Johnson and CPD. Lt. John Garrido (“Cop lends a hand to newspaper salesman struggling with homelessness” – March 13). Mr. Johnson sells newspapers on the North Side and is a homeless veteran. With the assistance from Garrido and countless others from the community, Johnson’s newspaper stand was rehabbed and a relationship was formed between Mr. Johnson and Lt. Garrido.

The world is full of good people. One just has to come in contact with them. This country of ours owes so much to our veterans. People like Anthony Johnson should not be forgotten.

Patrick Golden, Mount Greenwood

What’s holding us back from better health care?

How is Denmark’s single-payer, “Medicare-for-All” system working out? Well, their plan has virtually no out-of-pocket cost — something we would like. Of course, they pay higher taxes to get such a benefit. But their healthcare system costs half of what we spend as a percentage of GDP.

So, converting to single-payer would save us money too. No more mark-ups to support health insurance companies. No more excess costs to the hospitals and doctors to negotiate with insurers. Of course, our taxes would go up, but not as much as we now pay for healthcare.

But how good is their system? Well, it does well compared to our current system, in longer life expectancy (81.1 vs. our 78.7), half our infant mortality rate and half our maternal mortality rate. Of course, our citizens would be healthier if we all could afford our healthcare system.

So, who is keeping us from a system that has better outcomes at roughly half the cost? It couldn’t be our congressmen, could it?

Lee Knohl, Evanston