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Opinion
 

Letters to the Editor

Fair-trade coffee should be a choice, not a requirement

To the editor:

I would like to respond to Ross Barnard's letter to the editor, "Article gave inaccurate coverage of fair-trade debate" (April 5, Opinion).

I find it hard to believe that there is any correlation between universities such as Rice, Yale and UC-Berkeley selling fair-trade coffee and being first-tier universities as Barnard tried to convey. This university already offers fair-trade coffee that the students can take full advantage of if they choose to do so. There is a key word that students on this campus need to remember: choose.

As a former Student Government Association senator, I feel that the University and SGA should never tell the students what type of coffee to drink. The American right of choice should be kept available to the students of this outstanding university.

Brian Ambridge

Sports administration senior

Single-payer health care would be a step forward

To the editor:

I am sick and tired of healthy people who have never faced a serious medical crisis telling me, someone who was diagnosed with a malignant ovarian tumor at the age of 23, just how terrible a single-payer health care system would be in this country, as Monica Granger did in her column "Take government out of health care" (Monday, Opinion). 

Granger probably doesn't know what it is like to get dropped from an insurance plan, to pay a $1,000 insurance premium or to have your credit ruined before you've reached the age of 25.

The pundits on the right want to scare Americans into believing that a single-payer health care system would be the ruin of our "superior" health care system here in the United States. The truth of the matter is that we are the only industrialized nation in the world that doesn't have some sort of basic health care system in place for its average citizens.

While I am not foolish enough to believe that a single-payer health care system would be the answer to all of our problems, I do believe that it would be a giant step in the right direction.

Amanda Berry
History sophomore

Government will never be as effective as free market

To the editor:

I just had to take a minute and respond to Monica Granger's column "Take government out of health care" (Monday, Opinion). It is a thrill for someone my age (over 65) to see there are young people who have a genuine grasp of economics and understand that the government can never do as good of a job solving problems and certainly cannot be as efficient as the free market.

The problem today is that government intrusion into all aspects of our lives has made it so that there is hardly any opportunity for free markets to function. Granger is absolutely correct that Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is the only presidential candidate who understands these issues. He has a nearly 20-year voting record of always defending the Constitution and supporting the free-market alternative to problems rather than relying on more government intervention.

It will be people like Granger who help preserve any liberty for the next generation.

Margie Raborn
Alleyton, Texas

Letters to the editor are welcome from all members of the UH community and should focus on issues, not personalities. Letters must be typed and must include the author's name, telephone number and affiliation with the University. Anonymous letters will not be published. Letters are subject to editing for clarity, language and space. Letters may be delivered in person to Room 151C, Communication; e-mailed to dclettrs@mail.uh.edu ; or faxed to (713) 743-5384.