To those who signed the Texas Secession Petition, thank you for your honesty.

Your petition signature on the very week that America remembers the sacrifices that our veterans have made for our county, is a testament of you utter disrespect to those who have fought for our freedom

Thank your for bringing back bad memories of the flag burners of the 1960's. For it is your Secession signatures that have made you the flag burners of today.


You are a truly a disgrace to our country.

Jeff Andonian
Carrollton TX

What is preventative medical care and how can it help lower health care costs on the front lines of medicine? Preventative medical care can take many forms. It can be identification and treatment of medical conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes before complications of these common diseases develop. Identifying these conditions early helps to decrease costs of caring for the most severe complications such as heart and kidney disease. But in addition to this type of preventative medicine, there are preventative measures that can decrease the costs of surgical care as well.

Cancer screenings are the perfect example of a way to help decrease surgical costs. Breast cancer screening with mammogram not only saves lives and increases the survival of breast cancer patients. It helps identify the cancer at an earlier stage where treatments can be less invasive both before and after surgery. Aggressive skin cancer surveillance and mole removal can help identify pre cancerous skin lesions and avoid larger more expensive surgical treatments. And colonoscopy as a screening tool can identify polyps before they become colon cancer. This can save health care dollars by avoiding surgery and/or post-operative treatments. There are other examples beyond cancer screenings.

The West Nile Virus outbreak in our area is an unprecedented public health emergency. Bing Burton, the director of the Denton County Health Department is a very measured and pragmatic expert in public health. I have worked with Dr. Burton on the Denton County Public Health Advisory Board and let me assure you he does not take the recommendation for aerial spraying lightly. This spraying is certainly not a magic bullet, but is a more advanced step to help control West Nile. Everyday we make judgements based on a risk benefit analysis. I urge municipalities to support aerial spraying at this time because the risk benefit scale is tipped heavily in favor of spraying. The ravages of the West Nile virus are well documented. If there are measures that can be taken to limit the effects on our citizens, I would strongly urge support for these measures including aerial spraying.

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Scott R. McDearmont, MD, FACS
Highland Village

Earlier this week, the Lewisville City Council discussed a potential public smoking ordinance at its monthly meeting. Councilman John Gorena, who opposes the ordinance as a “rights” issue, immediately jumped into the fray, but seemed not to understand a number of points made by other members. Critics of the smoking ordinance, including Councilman Gorena and Steve Hill, do not want to acknowledge the problems with these arguments.

The Slippery Slope
Almost inevitably, the slippery slope argument comes into play whenever these kinds of ordinances are discussed. If you can “ban smoking”, they say, what’s next, banning deep V-neck shirts? Oh wait, we already did that. Surely Councilman Gorena knows that comparing a ban on smoking to limit the effects of second-hand smoke on employees and children to restrictions on fatty foods and sodas is not even remotely a legitimate comparison, and yet he still ignored the facetiousness of the Gilmore’s "second-hand carbs" comment. When he tried to use this argument at the council retreat, Councilman Gilmore responded with the same retort. You can watch that entire discussion here:

Editor,

Denton County early voting begins May 14 and Election Day will be May 29. I would like to encourage my friends, neighbors and colleagues to support Will Travis for Denton County Sherriff in the Republican primary. Will came to my house, knocked on my door and he shared with me and my family the reasons he is running for Sherriff. I was extremely impresed, as Will Travis has not a political bone in his body. You will not hear buzzwords or catchphrases from Will. He has been blessed with a career in law enforcement as well as a successful business locally. Will wants to serve the people of Denton County and to that end he is out in the community meeting folks and knocking on doors to gain grassroots support. Again I would ask you to join me in supporting Will Travis for Denton County Sherriff. Will has my full support and endorsement in his campaign.

Scott R McDearmont, MD
Highland Village, Texas

By David Sanchez

Denton County’s U.S. Representative Michael Burgess showed Thursday, that he favors tax breaks for the wealthy over healthcare for seniors. In Thursday's showboating vote on Congressman Ryan's budget, Burgess joined other Republican foot soldiers on a fiscal path that would starve - and one day eliminate- Medicare.

The Ryan budget, which Burgess voted for, cuts half a trillion dollars from Medicare while doling out tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans (who earn more than $150,000 per year.)

Denton County is home to over 30,000 seniors who rely on Medicare. I am shocked that Burgess, an OB-GYN, openly values the wealth of a few over the health of many.

$500 billion in Medicare cuts equates to each Medicare patient losing over a third of per-capita spending. That means larger out of pocket expenses for patients and a loss of access to physicians (who will be forced to take a significant loss on any Medicare patient they see.) Those cuts help finance a tax giveaway for the rich.

Republicans cry, "Regulations kill jobs." to which we reply "el toro poo poo".

Let us look at what President Obama regulating the energy industry has done:

According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics and the Federal Reserve of St. Louis, employment in oil and gas extraction reached more than 186,000 employees, the highest level since 1992. According to the Bureau of Land Management, in just three years President Obama has approved almost as many permits to oil companies to drill on federal land as George W. Bush in eight years. In 2009 under President Obama, there were 4,487 oil drilling permits approved to drill on federal land and in 2010 there were 4,090 permits issued, and finally, by 2011, there were 4,244. This is about equal to President Bush's oil record in his first term.

With the regulation President Obama imposed, the coal industry, topped out 2011 at 87,000 employees, a number we have not seen since 1998.

These energy production records also negate Republicans claims more drilling will reduce gasoline prices. U.S. gas prices are a factor of global energy speculation and will continue to be until we produce a full array of energy. President Obama is trying to accomplish a U.S. energy independence by pushing his "all-of-above" energy program which calls for a full array of energy sources.

Ken Leach
Gainesville

We are amused with Newt Gingrich's total disregard for the facts surrounding the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Food Stamp Program. Former U.S. Senators Robert Dole (R-KS) and George McGovern (D-SD) reached across party lines to reform the federal Food Stamp Program, expand the domestic school lunch program, and establish the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children, WIC. For their work, they were named the co-recipitants of the 2008 World Food Prize. Since 2000, their recognition of the need to feed the hungry has provided meals to feed more than 22 million children and boosted school attendance by an estimated 14 percent overall and by 17 percent for girls through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as the Food Stamp Program.

I hear all these people moaning about Mexican immigrants.  Many of those mestizos (indigenous people mixed with Spaniard blood) had no roots in modern day Mexico until the U.S. government sent their families there in the 1930's. Mestizos whose families had lived in Texas and California for generations and generations were sent to Mexico against their will. Some forget that those people you call immigrants are descendants of indigenous people who were deported from their own homes. The true immigrants to Texas were the ones that pushed mestizos into Mexico.

My grandfather remembers being 7 years old in the 1930's, when the authorities burst into his home with fire arms. My grandfather tells me that the authorities told his family they were not allowed to take any of their belongings. My grandfather claims he saw his father beaten when he tried to protest deportation, explaining that everyone in his family were American citizens. Being an American, owning a home, paying taxes, and being a business owner did not matter. The family was deported for being of Hispanic descent.  

I did some research of my own only to discover that my family was part of the 1.3 million Hispanic Americans deported under the Hoover administration. I attended U.S. public schools and studied history at the University of North Texas. I do not recall ever being taught about this mass deportation. Why are textbooks omitting a huge chunk of history that affected many Hispanic American families?

An open letter to Congressman Michael Burgess

The Honorable Michael Burgess, M.D.
U.S. Congressman 26th District of Texas
1660 South Stemmons Freeway, Suite 230
Lewisville, TX 75067

RE: Keystone XL Pipeline

Dear Dr. Burgess,

Recently you were interviewed for a local Dallas/Fort Worth radio program in which you expressed your support for the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline project. This project would create a pipeline from the Tar Sands of Western Canada to the Gulf of Mexico and other points in between, over 2,000 miles in length. One issue that is of particular concern for me, ¡s that the company installing this pipeline will be given the power of eminent domain, or the ability to condemn private property should private citizens not want to have this pipeline installed on their property. During my service as mayor, I have seen private for profit companies exercise and abuse the power of eminent domain and it is the private citizens that suffer the results.