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Your daily Letter to the Columnist — April 16, 2013

Dear Dan,

Thanks for bringing to light the atrocity of the $26,000 cat bite.  I understand very well why this is happening.

Our health care system is the most expensive in the world because it is a profit-making industry.  If we take the insurance industry out of the health-care equation we can save enough money to give everyone the health care they need at an affordable cost

Canada and England have a national health service and their average per capita spending annually is about $3,000.  In the US we spend about $9,000 per person and have worse health care.

We need a national system of single payer health care that is affordable and comprehensive.  We don’t need more insurance — we need more health care.  The CEO’s of these insurance companies make millions of dollars in salaries – and we don’t have the care we need.

Yours for a healthier country,

Maria Termini
BOSTON, MASS.

E. St. Bernard, La. | Infrogmation | Wikimedia Commons

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — April 15, 2013

I just want to predict that all of your right-wing commenters will use today’s tragedy as an argument against gun control.

Because when people can bomb each other what good will gun control do?

A bogus question, but some form of it will appear in your comments.

Thanks for your work,

Dusty

Wikimedia Commons

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — April 12, 2011

Dan,

Sorry I cannot make the game Saturday.

I rolled on the floor laughing at your stirring the “piss’em-off pot.” It should being out a crowd.

I will contribute $50 to the cause to be used the following way:

$25 will buy 5 kids (choose at random from the crowd a chance to dunk you. The other $25 to be use for 5 Salem ballplayers to have a chance.

Fair enough? If so, tell me where to send a check.

Jim Bullington
ROANOKE

Howcheng | Wikimedia Commons

Note to self: The next time you try to sound smart by citing history, make sure you get the history right.

Many readers reminded me of this March 7, soon after publication of the column about Roanoke City Public Schools’ decision to substitute foam rocks for fake muskets in a Patrick Henry High School stage production of “Les Miserables.”

The column noted that the play, based on the Victor Hugo novel, was set during the French Revolution. That was incorrect by about four decades.

Thomas Caceci of Blacksburg called it “a glaring error of fact that could have been corrected with two minutes’ time with Google or an almanac.”

“The setting for the main events of the novel is the June Rebellion [of 1832] , nearly 45 years after the Revolution; it was an attempt to prevent the establishment of the Louis-Phillipe monarchy. The uprising was over in a few days,” Caceci wrote. Read more »

From Canstruction.org

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — March 27, 2013

Note from Dan: Rob Lunsford is the not-too-long-ago retired, and sorely missed, wizard of The Roanoke Times’ graphic arts department.

Dan,

Rob Lunsford here. Since my retirement, there seems to be no shortage of volunteer work for me and now I’ve been asked to hit you up for a favor. I’ll call you soon but I felt like you needed to see some pictures first so you would know what I  was talking about.

We’d like you to be one of our judges for a charity food project called Canstruction.

In case you’re not familiar with Canstruction (I wasn’t, but then you get around more than me), local teams build sculptures with stacked unopened cans, thousands of cans, of food. (I’ve attached a photo as an example and there are many more examples at Canstruction.org). After the judging and a week or so of display, the building blocks (canned food) are donated to a local food bank, in this case, Feeding America Southwest Virginia.

From Canstruction.org

The judging will be in the lobby of the Taubman Museum on Thursday morning, October 3. I know that’s a ways down the road so a commitment may be difficult. We’d really like to have you.

Thanks for your consideration. I’ll call in a day or two.

Respectfully,

Rob Lunsford
Roanoke Construction Committee 2013

Keith Evans | Wikimedia Commons

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — March 22, 2013

We anonymously know each other from Loch Haven. Your son is a very, very nice young man.

Thank you for sharing a happy ending (and a very well-deserved outcome) to an all-to-often occurrence of lack of respect for others’ property, stupid teenagers, and perhaps an example of very poor parenting.

In my day, my parents would not only have “agreed to give it up”….. I would have paid dearly for such an act. I would have been at your door offering apologies and retribution. I shudder to think what they would have done to me. Read more »

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Your daily Letter to the Columnist — March 19, 2013

Mr. Casey,

As I was reading your article concerning the absence of guns in the school play, I almost laughed when I read, “Actors and actresses will instead throw black-painted foam balls that are shaped like rocks.”

Instead of laughing, I experienced a sadness and embarrassment at what our country has become.

Thank you for seeing the stupidity of these “rules” and just how little they do to help teach our children the history of our great nation.  From 2002-2005 I was proud to carry a rifle and fight on behalf of this community. Read more »

Daderot | Wikimedia Commons | Altered by Dan

Your daily Letter to the Columnist – March 18, 2013

Dan:

You have written another great article (Roanoke Times, 3/14/13) regarding the NHA designation for the Crooked Road (or now the lack of it per today’s paper).

I regret the Crooked Road has thrown in the towel when only three counties (and I live in one of them), two of which do not even lie along the “road,” have voted not to support it.

Those counties, evidently paying homage to the ignorant tea party and equally ignorant farmers group whose message is as bogus as the proverbial $3 bill, should be ashamed of themselves.

My thanks for putting this situation into proper perspective.

I will be expressing my concern with the Crooked Road group as well as my Wythe County Board of Supervisors.

Bill Shiner
MAX MEADOWS

Robertstown, Ga. | Wikimedia Commons

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — March 14, 2013

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Hi Dan,

Thanks for not letting up on the Tea Party Nuts and their Agenda 21 Conspiracy fantasy.  They are just using fear and phony research reports to drum up membership dues.

In Roanoke County, they actually swayed some Supervisors into believing that limiting energy use in county buildings will lead to citizens losing their homes and UN blue helmets in the streets.

With another election coming up soon, it is definitely getting weird out there. I was glad to see Morgan Griffith was not taking their side in punishing the Crooked Road folks for seeking NHA funding.

Hey, the money is out there, why shouldn’t they ask for a share? We all need to support our local heritiage, even if it does include Bluegrass music ( which I love, along with Celtic music!).

St Patrick would be proud of you.

Bill Modica
SALEM

1902 | Wikimedia Commons

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — March 12, 2013

Thank you for your story highlighting the difficulties cyclists are having with the Blue Ridge Parkway Superintendent.  I attended a number of public meetings last year regarding trail plans for the Blue Ridge Parkway property.

Although these sessions were intended to allow for public comment the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Department of Interior representatives really had no interest in what we had to say as a cycling community. It could not have been more evident that the Department of the Interior is anti-cycling. If I had to hear “historical use” (read cars only) one more time I thought I might start screaming at officials.

I do not use the parkway to commute, (which I’m sure doesn’t fall under historical use either) but instead wish to enjoy its scenic beauty on two wheels rather than four. It reduces my carbon footprint and provides excellent health benefits for me and my family. Why the cycling community has to continually fight with the Blue Ridge Parkway Superintendent and the Department of the Interior is beyond me. Read more »