Letters to the editor

Parishioners donate money to help the poor

Re: “Church’s $2.3M home buy for bishop criticized” (Page A1, Aug. 27):

Thank you for the article regarding the San Jose Diocese problem in finding a suitable home for the retiring bishop.

I believe this kind of nonsense has been going on for many years and has been cleverly hidden from hardworking parishioners who contribute their hard-earned money to help the poor, jobless and homeless people who have no where else to turn to for help.

I also think this proves that religion, which used to be a vocation in life, is now a business full of politics. No wonder churches are empty and closing. The bishop has now decided not to occupy the home. I think the good bishop should be able to find a suitable one-bedroom apartment using his ample retirement funds.

— J. Eric Salmon, Antioch

Firms should invest more in improving the clinics

Re: “Reject Proposition 8, capping the profits from kidney dialysis” (Editorial, Aug. 23):

I was disappointed to see the Mercury News oppose Prop. 8.

As a kidney dialysis worker, I see the problems patients face every day. Dialysis patients are extremely ill and need dialysis for three to four hours a day three days a week. It is a dangerous treatment that can cause major — even fatal — drops in blood pressure, and these patients have a right to expect clinics that are sanitary and have enough staffing to safely administer the treatments and watch over the patients to make sure they are not experiencing difficulties.

I have no problem with these corporations making a reasonable profit, but they should put more money into improving the clinics, upgrading equipment, and hiring more staff. In other words, they should put patients ahead of profits. Prop. 8 will push them to do just that.

— Maria Cadena, San Pablo

OUSD needs to support, motivate student learning

Re: “Oakland Unified cuts 10 after-school sports to fend off budget deficit” (Eastbaytimes.com, Aug. 24):

Oakland Unified School District administration appears to have been mismanaging its finances for too long, to find relatively easy and quick solutions for its budget crisis. OUSD must have had a series of fiscally irresponsible administrations for at least 15 years or longer to be brought to the current dire circumstances.

Cutting $500,000 from sports appears to be only one aspect of fiscal mismanagement. The information provided in the article related to the cuts offers insight into what appears to be fiscally irresponsible behavior in the area of sports programs themselves.

It is not clear to me how bowling, golf, badminton and volleyball, for example, are vital to academic education. It also seems to me to be convoluted logic that requiring a minimum 2.0 GPA to participate in wrestling, for example, teaches discipline and forces students to do better.

OUSD’s operating mission must be creating cost-effective environments to motivate students to learn. — Kirit Shah, Fremont

How do other nations run not-for-profit health care?

Re: “California’s battle over affordable health insurance” (Page A10, Aug. 23):

Sally Pipes begins her recent opinion piece by saying that “a crisis of affordability” is “what is plaguing the individual health insurance market.” Yes. But then she offers an alternative. She supports limited-coverage short-term insurance. In my opinion, this is a shortsighted fix that would only exacerbate our problems.

What we need is a major overhaul of how we pay for health care. Health care costs escalate when money is siphoned off as profit to various entities. It seems insurance and pharmaceutical companies continue to make landmark amounts of money in an arena where such financial gain should not be allowed. Costs are simply not controlled.

I believe quality, equitable, affordable health care for all should be the goal and is possible. Many say that our health care system and its related skyrocketing costs are unlike that of any other country in the world. Let’s take a look at how other countries manage their not-for-profit systems and learn from their successes. — Janet Thomas, Lafayette