Letters to the Editor

I want to express my thanks to Chief Toler and all of the women and men who work for the Tyler Police Department on the great job they perform every day. Too many times the women and men in blue are criticized and not applauded for their work.

I recently had my wallet stolen from my truck console on Saturday afternoon, Aug. 31. I contacted Tyler PD to report the incident after all of the credit cards were canceled.

I called Tyler PD early Saturday evening and a very cordial lady talked to me and asked if I would be willing to have someone call me on Tuesday to get all of my information. She explained that it was holiday weekend and the police, at the time, were responding to several serious calls. I received a call from Tyler PD at the scheduled time Tuesday morning. I relayed all of the information that related to the theft of my wallet. I was provided a case number and informed that a detective would be in touch with me shortly.

A detective contacted me to verify all of the information I provided and asked several more questions and explained the process of what would take place next.

One week from the time I provided information to Tyler PD, I was sent an email with pictures of the individuals who attempted to use my credit card walking out of the retail store. I was amazed with the speed and detail that the police department undertook on a simple stolen wallet.

Chief Toler, you have a terrific staff of women and men working for you and the citizens of Tyler. After this encounter, my faith in our women and men in blue is even stronger than ever.

James Wynne

Tyler

IDLE THOUGHTS

Just an opinion from an idle mind with idle thoughts. Information is from Google, so don’t believe all you get off the internet.

Last available information was 2015: 638,169 abortions in the United States. Last available information was 2018: 340 people killed in mass shootings in the United States.

Both are terrible, but this idle mind wonders why we want to punish the gun instead of the doctor. The gun has the Second Amendment of the U.S Constitution for support. It’s the individual with the gun that’s the murderer. The doctor has a law for support (nowhere in the Constitution can you find it legal to murder an unborn child) so he is the murderer. The solution must be to ban all guns and doctors.

Idle mind is getting a headache.

Gene Moody

Flint

NEW CONTRACT NEEDED

There appears to be a growing consensus that America needs a universal, government-administered health plan. Even Trump ran with this in his platform in 2016. Conservative Republicans in my life give signals that they agree the amount of medical debt accrued by the lower and middle classes is unsustainable. These people deserve a new contract with America.

On the subject of a public option, no matter what we call it, we’re essentially talking about expanding Medicaid. Forced to compete with a public option, private insurers would increase their reimbursement rates and lower their premiums. Doctors would decline to see public option patients, seeing fewer private insurance patients for longer. Employers also would drop their private insurance plans, referring employees to the free public option. After all, they are already paying for it through increased payroll taxes.

On the other hand, “Medicare for All” resolves this issue. While I believe it would be unconstitutional to outlaw private insurance, Medicare for All would essentially drive private insurers to operate as supplemental plans, e.g., covering Eastern and cosmetic medicine. Medicare for All would be the legally mandated primary payer, forcing doctors to accept patients.

Most importantly, a plan that covered 350 million Americans would have unbelievable bargaining power for fair rates and inexpensive prescriptions. Independent, bipartisan and nonpartisan think tanks all agree that Medicare for All would be cheaper than our current system. A recent survey by The Commonwealth Fund found that 58% of small businesses preferred Medicare for All.

Joel Warne

Tyler