Your Day

How do we reform health care in order to cut costs? A better question may be: How do we make sure cost savings get passed on to the consumer? Without a public option, there is no question that much of those savings will end up on the bottom line of the many entities that make up our for-profit health care system. I'm not judging or demonizing. Businesses make profits.

Marquette University costs a lot more to attend than the University of Wisconsin, and it is an outstanding school. But the UW provides a fantastic education and is highly respected. Both schools turn away prospective students every year.

FedEx and UPS compete very well with the U.S. Postal Office. Public and private entities can and do co-exist.

In health care, we need to remember that it's not an either/or proposition. A public option will save us all money, it can do an outstanding job and private insurance can thrive if it offers products that give value to its customers.

Matt Lehman

Green Bay

AUTO INSURANCE

Mandate will increase premiums

I find the people who generally seem to support the idea of mandatory auto insurance very interesting for two reasons.

As a group, my conservative friends tend to be for this idea much more so than my liberal friends. It seems to me, the conservatives always are berating the idea of more government interference and mandates in our lives, unless and until they perceive a benefit to themselves, that is.

Which leads me to my second point. Not one person's insurance premiums will go down because of this measure. In fact, I'll bet my life that premiums go up. You don't need to be a neuroscientist to figure out that when something is required, price is driven up, not down. Hello, higher premiums!

Darrin McCambridge

Milwaukee

The connection to health care

The July 20 article about mandatory auto insurance in Wisconsin was quite good but missed an essential point ("Got car insurance? Next June, it's a must"). Bodily injury liability coverage is a form of health insurance. It pays for the health care of someone injured in an auto accident.

If we enact comprehensive health care reform that includes everyone and covers everything, then there will be no reason for anyone to purchase bodily injury liability coverage.

Millions of people will save billions of dollars on their car insurance. If you own an old car, you will only need a cheap policy to cover property damage liability. It also will eliminate the vast majority of the problems caused by uninsured motorists.

I am amazed that advocates of comprehensive health care reform haven't been pointing this out.

D.C. Palmer

Whitefish Bay

911

All dialers should pay a fee

Instead of charging unintentional 911 dialers with a misdemeanor, the Emergency Services should simply charge all dialers to 911 a simple flat rate.

Not only would this get people to stop misdialing (without charging them with a crime), but it also could help cut down on the number of non-emergency calls made to 911.

It also could help provide funding for the service, for which they could stop surcharging my phone bill.

Dave Martin

Sussex

SPACE EXPLORATION

Can we return to the moon?

Apparently, all we have left is memories. Remembering the astronauts and the accomplishment of going to the moon is entirely appropriate. We have lost the ability to get there again. In 10 years, we will be celebrating the half-century anniversary.

It seems that the only reason we went in the first place was a PR stunt to honor President John F. Kennedy. Oh, yeah, we beat the Soviets and gained a victory in the Cold War.

Now some, including former astronauts, want to go to Mars. We go to Mars and then come back. In that time, for less money, we can conquer the moon and create an international permanent presence on the moon. If we can remember how to get there.

John Godfrey

Fox Point

Don't spend money on Mars idea

On July 21, the Journal Sentinel printed an op-ed by former astronaut Buzz Aldrin ("To boldly go once more"). Aldrin did his best to sell the idea that an expanded National Aeronautics and Space Administration program would be a good thing. To dramatize his sales pitch, Aldrin alluded to television shows and movies that carry the "Star Trek" theme.

The next day, the newspaper published the article "To Mars -- and beyond," which featured recent statements made by former astronaut and current NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. He endorsed a robust and accelerated space program stating, "I did grow up watching Buck Rogers, and Buck Rogers didn't stop at Mars."

It may appear to some people that both Aldrin and Bolden are having a bit of a problem separating the realities of modern-day space exploration from some of the fantasies produced by the entertainment industry.

One of the realities to be reckoned with here is that NASA's current budget exceeds $17 billion per year. With all of the taxpayer money that NASA has absorbed over the past 40 years, we have yet to derive any genuine benefit for mankind.

If anything, Congress should cut funding for the NASA projects by at least two-thirds. The $12 billion or so saved could be put to a much better use for such things as bolstering our health care systems and/or Social Security -- something that would benefit all Americans.

Susan Fredericks

New Berlin

MPS

Mayor should not have a say

The July 21 edition of the Journal Sentinel once again sent shivers up my spine!

Our mayor should not have a say in the selection process of the new Milwaukee Public Schools superintendent while qualified, experienced teachers, principals and parents of MPS students have no input with the illustrious School Board.

Does or did the mayor send his children to MPS schools? How many visits to any MPS schools has this mayor made since he was elected? He is our mayor and should be concerned with our students. However, I have not witnessed support from him concerning our public schools. He formed a council that is lacking experienced MPS teachers from every grade level, principals and parents who have sent and continue to send their children to MPS schools.

He wants to shake up things -- such as? The July 21 editorial "Give the mayor a say" did not state exactly what our mayor intends to shake up! He should be shaking up the voucher schools that still do not adhere to state and federal testing standards, teacher certification/experience and accountability for their finances.

Our mayor should be shaking up the city's street repairs. He should bring more employment to our city.

Our current superintendent (who has all the qualities our mayor wants to see in our new MPS chief) has visited my third-grade classroom several times since he took office.

The mayor should not have a say in our new MPS chief since I have not witnessed his support, especially in his newly formed council.

Kristine M. Thelen

MPS third-grade teacher

Milwaukee

No restrictions on play equipment

Milwaukee Public Schools applauds community columnist Dan Slapczynski and all parents who take their children to the playground. As he stated in his July 16 column, "We can't injury- proof our kids," obesity is an epidemic in which one of three children born in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. Obesity-related health care costs the United States an estimated $75 billion annually, $1.5 billion of that in Wisconsin.

It is vital that we get children moving, and using playground equipment at the schools is a great way to do that. That is why it is there. There is no policy that restricts the use of playground equipment in MPS. The district inspects all playground equipment annually, and during the summer recreation season, all equipment is inspected weekly. So go out and have your children use the monkey bars!

Brett Fuller

MPS curriculum specialist: health, physical

education, safe and drug free schools

MILWAUKEE COUNTY

Dismantle county government

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker again is talking about dismantling county government. Maybe we should take him at his word. Isn't it time for unification?

If you look at a map of Milwaukee County, it is mostly the city of Milwaukee. Yet we have two governments, two police forces, two parks systems, two 911 systems, two of everything. That is incredibly wasteful.

Walker and the County Board should resign, and what is left of the county should be merged into the new city and county of Milwaukee. Indianapolis and Louisville already have taken this step to save costs.

In these financial hard times, can we really afford the cost of two governments where one could do the job?

Eric Griswold

Milwaukee

Abolish or trim County Board

In a blatant grab for power, Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway called for the elimination of Scott Walker's job as county executive.

I believe the county would be better served by the reduction or elimination of the County Board. What has the board done during this financial crisis but say no to innovations by Walker?

When he proposed privatizing the airport to bring in about $2 billion in revenue, the board said no. When he suggested turning St. Michael's into a state-of-the-art mental health facility with lower costs, the board said no. When he acted to prevent a deficit and layoffs by going to a 35-hour workweek, the board said no.

We do not need this group to handle the county financial crisis. We need a strong, innovative county executive like Walker.

Robert Louis Rasmussen

Wauwatosa

GREAT LAKES

Disappearing perch and the DNR

Regarding the July 22 Journal Sentinel article about the Obama administration's plans to restore the Great Lakes, my question is: How are the feds going to overcome the obstruction by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources? (" 'We want to act,' says Obama's Great Lakes coordinator")

Just look at the lowly yellow perch in Lake Michigan, overfished a second time in just 30 years. Fished commercially in violation of the DNR's own rules, I believe, for all these years. Restocked twice to benefit sportsmen and the local economy, only to be overfished a second time.

My question to Great Lakes coordinator Cameron Davis: How do you plan to restore the perch to the tens if not hundreds of millions that were once present in Lake Michigan when the DNR doesn't want to stock a single one? If the lowly yellow perch, which everyone wants back, can't be restored, what hope for the rest of Lake Michigan or the other Great Lakes?

Steven Alt

Glendale

SCHOOL CHOICE

Taxpayer funding should end

The Wisconsin Supreme Court's ruling that the state's Fair Employment Act does not apply to age discrimination at a faith- based private school is just one more reason such schools should not receive tax support through vouchers or any other means.

If only the state Legislature had allowed the Milwaukee school voucher plan to be submitted to the voters of the state, it probably would never have been started, as voters in 25 statewide referendums from coast to coast consistently have shown.

Edd Doerr

President, Americans for Religious Liberty

Silver Spring, Md.