THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 2016
FRIDAY EXCHANGE
Free tuition
oth my children were
good students in high
school. They both got good
grades, got a few scholar-
ships, and have gone to uni-
versities in Oregon. Neverthe-
less, when they get done with
college, they will have tens of
thousands of dollars of debt
that they (and my wife and I)
will have to pay back.
Despite their scholar-
ships, and despite what my
wife and I have been able to
pay for their college, it is so
expensive that very few stu-
dents can get through school
without taking on loans. In
fact, according the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York,
student loan debt is second
only to mortgage debt in the
U.S., with the average student
owing over $24,000. This just
shouldn’t be.
If my kids happened to
grow up in Germany, or if we
decided to move to Germany,
things would be very different
for them. The BBC wrote in
June of last year that, “While
the cost of college education
in the U.S. has reached record
highs, Germany has aban-
doned tuition fees altogether
for German and international
students alike. An increasing
number of Americans are tak-
ing advantage and saving tens
of thousands of dollars to get
their degrees.”
Do we value a university
education in America or not?
A lot has been said about how
the U.S. is continuing to slip
backwards in the area of sci-
ence and mathematics at the
college level. Our skyrocket-
ing tuition fees can only make
matters worse.
Something has to be done
to bring the cost of a college
education under control. Ev-
ery American young man and
woman who has the ability
and the ambition should be
able to afford a college edu-
cation, and should be able to
leave the university on grad-
uation day debt free. How can
this be done?
In the ¿rst place, we can
make all state colleges tuition
free. Students would still have
to compete to get into the best
colleges, but once they are ad-
mitted, they would not have to
pay for tuition, books, or fees,
and the cost of housing would
B
Keep church and state separate
t seems that today, more than ever,
we need to keep in mind the impor-
tance of keeping church and state sep-
arate. For example, Alabama Supreme
Court Chief Justice Roy Moore recent-
ly directed probate judges not to issue
marriage licenses, contrary to the U.S.
Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell
v. Hodges; access to birth control is
being curtailed for religious reasons;
displays of the Ten Commandments
in public buildings is not uncommon,
and I could site many more examples.
Arguments for and against church/
state separation generally hinge on
quotes from our founding fathers;
some supported separation, while oth-
ers not so much. I argue that regard-
I
be greatly reduced. Yes, this
would mean we, as a society,
would have to make sacri¿ces
in other areas, but for decades
now higher education has
been getting the short straw,
while things like defense and
Social Security soak up the
bulk of the U.S. budget.
According to the Pentagon,
the budget for the Department
of Defense is close to $700
billion, including about $6.4
billion for a single aircraft
carrier. Yes, we need a strong
defense in our country, but we
also need a strong future for
our young people. They can’t
have that if they are saddled
with debt.
DON ANDERSON
Astoria
Health concerns
uring 2012, health care
representatives held town
hall meetings in Astoria. As
we begin 2016, I want to en-
courage our community to re-
instate these meetings. While
the new health care laws have
bene¿ted many, there are still
many challenges.
Health insurance compa-
nies can choose to offer insur-
ance in Clatsop County, and
decide what premiums they
offer. We have fewer health
insurance choices, and in
some cases pay over $1,000
more than other Oregonians.
We have doctors who have
long waiting periods for new
D
less of what our founders had in mind,
keeping the two institutions separate
is best for both sides.
Our country is much more reli-
giously diverse today than it was
in the past. At the time of our coun-
try’s founding there were very few
non-Christians. Today in the U.S.
there are close to three million Mus-
lims, over two million Buddhists and
over two million Hindus, over six
million Jews, and, according to Pew
about percent of American citi]ens
are atheists.
With such religious diversity it is
imperative that church and state re-
main separate, so that religious lib-
erties are guaranteed for everyone —
patients, and many want to
know what insurance you
have before they will consider
you as a patient. Worse yet is
choosing not to get health in-
surance, as many doctors and
clinics will not see a patient
unless they have insurance.
Recently, I was helping a
client apply for health insur-
ance, as he had an immediate
health need. I was able to get
him health insurance, but his
application still needed to be
¿nali]ed. While he was wait-
ing for the insurance compa-
ny to complete this process,
he went to the hospital emer-
gency room with documents
showing he would soon have
insurance. He was sent home
with a prescription, where
he died a couple days later.
I often wonder if the results
would have been the same if
he had walked into the hos-
pital with a health insurance
card.
I believe we can make a
difference in our health in-
surance, physician and health
care options. We need to ¿nd
out why the insurance com-
panies are choosing not to of-
fer their programs in Clatsop
County and for some, why the
premiums are higher. We need
to understand why we don’t
have more physicians to sat-
isfy the growing health care
needs, and we need to be in-
formed about our options.
I will invite representatives
from the health insurance
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New Edition, Volume 5
A rriving Februa r y 2016
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not just the majority religion.
When Americans claim that the
U.S. is a Christian nation, they are
denying the existence of a large seg-
ment of our population. Members of
minority religions are relegated as
outsiders and are here only because
they are tolerated. This mindset does
not bring Americans together; rather,
it keeps us apart.
It is imperative that this ideal of
church/state separation be maintained
so we are able to pass this ideal on to
future generations — because without
vigilance, this precious wisdom will
be diluted and eventually lost.
ED JOYCE
Astoria
companies to a local town
hall meeting this spring. I am
hoping others will also invite
representatives to other town
hall meetings. For the rest of
the community, please attend
these meetings and ask ques-
tions. As a community work-
ing together, maybe we can
improve health care in Clat-
sop County.
For the community mem-
bers, who still do not have
health insurance, please
complete an application by
Jan. 31, or you may be with-
out insurance until Jan. 1
next year.
LINDA DUGAN
Astoria
Gaea’s epilogue
ost adult human be-
ings alive on planet
Earth now will most likely
not suffer the severe ravages
of worsening climate change,
perhaps consoling themselves
that they will be dead before
it really kicks in — yet per-
ceiving death as the only es-
cape is probably not a satis-
factory consolation. And, the
prospect of each generation
being aware the world will be
a more dreadful place to live
in for each succeeding gen-
eration is not much comfort,
either.
Although there is a tre-
mendous political rift in the
U.S. about global warming,
the real critical partisan di-
M
vide might be between gen-
erations; the more passive el-
derly who will quit the planet
soon, versus the young who
want to reverse the probabil-
ity of a harrowing future now,
before it is too late.
Another division is wheth-
er climate change is anthro-
pogenic (human caused) or
simply a recurrent natural
cycle.
So we had a United Na-
tions conference on climate
change (No. 21) in Paris, an-
other in a succession of gaudy
pageants (resembling a Star
Wars bar) that are more or less
emblematic of another great
human schism: the disparity
between the scornful deceit of
power and debilitating impo-
tence of poverty.
It would seem a central
purpose of these conferences
has been the opportunity for
those who cause and bene-
¿t most from environmental
destruction of the planet to
ensure the consequences fall
upon those least responsible
and most vulnerable. At least
global warming was tacitly
acknowledged by the princi-
ple perpetrators at Paris.
An inexcusable omission
is the failure to ensure an
equal ratio between women
and men as delegates to any
of these climate change con-
claves. Women’s representa-
tion should be a fundamental
priority — after all, men are
the major culprits responsi-
5A
ble for the impending global
catastrophe that threatens hu-
man continuance on this plan-
et. It seems likely that women
were the real pioneers of the
cultivation of grains and do-
mestication of animals that
led to the agricultural revo-
lution that produced civili]a-
tion.
The focal priority of this
new century/millennium is to
complete the public and per-
sonal equality of women. It is
the essential basic correction
for humanity to make, as well
as the most potent force to
successfully ful¿ll the myriad
other progressive changes —
which indeed includes fore-
most the reversal of our pres-
ent course toward extinction
on planet Gaea.
If we who are alive now
do not sincerely sweat blood
to mitigate this dismal trend,
our climate distressed descen-
dants will quite likely despise
us for cravenly yielding to
short-term self-interest. They
will probably wish an eternal
hell for us to parallel their liv-
ing hell on Earth.
MICHAEL PAUL
McCUSKER
Waldport
Not the right woman
f, in 1998, Bill Clinton
would have resigned over
his affair with a young White
House intern, then Al Gore
would have taken his place
and would have become
our president. In time, Gore
would have lost the nerdy tag
and folks would have come to
love and trust him.
He would have easily beat-
en George W. Bush. There
would have been no illegal
attack on Iraq by our country,
which most Americans vehe-
mently opposed. We would
not have become the catalyst
for most of the unrest and vio-
lence that exists in the Middle
East since that time.
I think the Clintons have
worn out their welcome at the
White House.
I am a progressive Dem-
ocratic woman who has been
waiting all my life for a wom-
an president. That woman is
not Hillary Clinton.
MARY TANGUAY
WEBB
Astoria
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