Soap Box

Dear Sirs,

I’m very disappointed with the cable service I bought from Spectrum Cable. I made good for your service, and all you can say is we have an outage. So what I have to accept is I’m not getting what I’m paying for. When you personally purchase service or groceries or any exchange, do you receive a fair trade? How about refunding me for what I paid for, but didn’t get?

– Clark Kepple, Durango

To the editor,

Notice all the ads on TV for Medicare Advantage health insurance? It is that time of year for us to sign up for or change health insurance coverage.

Americans already pay almost three times more for our health care than Canadian citizens and most other industrialized nations. This outrageous cost is mainly due to high overhead of private insurance companies in America.

Republicans are major supporters of Medicare Advantage insurance policies because they force our federal tax dollars to be spent on private insurance companies at a much higher cost than the Medicare program, run by our government.

Since Medicare Advantage was created under G.W. Bush, our tax dollars have heavily supported this insurance plan. This program creates a circle of our tax dollars supporting a much more expensive health insurance through private companies, which in turn, support Republican candidates.

Medicare Advantage is a quiet sabotage of “Medicare for All” (as in Canada.) Republican supporters make sure the circle keeps going, claiming no funds are available for a less costly system. They are also lying to us as they are working on ending protections for pre-existing health conditions. Texas, along with 20 other Republican-controlled states, are in court to kill this protection as I write this.

– Susan Troen, Durango

To the editor,

Hi, Durango! I knew you when you were a puppy! You were all cuddly and sloppy with dreams I have witnessed unfold in our river trail, rec center, community support systems, festivals, street dances and on and on for four decades.

I have watched you stretch and grow with all that growing puppy pain when the bones are expanding faster than the ability to understand what the heck is happening anyway!

The county commissioners and City Council were constantly at logger heads about how change was to come about – much like our Congress today – as the little town was discovered by “outsiders” like me. The commissioners wanted nothing to do with regulations that infringed on how they had always lived and the city councilors recognized the need for them so that we could grow with a comprehensive plan. Each was right in their own way.

I have witnessed these two entities that represent all of us eventually find compromises and learn to grow together with a common vision for the common good. Like a puppy, Durango has grown into a robust and healthy promise fulfilled. We recognize that we are all very different and we celebrate our differences – it is the spice of life!

William Blake wrote, “Why stand we here trembling around, calling on God for help, and not ourselves, in whom God dwells?”

Life works in our little corner of the world – can we bottle this and send it to Congress – along with a healthy dose of LSD for each of them? (Professionally supervised, of course!)

I think that we would discover a much more  peaceful planet with much expanded consciousness as we discover we all enjoy our tummies petted as much as our dogs do! We are all in this adventure together! Let’s make the most of it!

– Susan Urban, Durango