Healthy debate
Matt Verghese’s column, “Health care: Finished and just getting started” (March 24), attempted to show the Republicans are against health care reform entirely. Every person, regardless of party, is in agreement that there needs to be some sort of reform. Republicans were simply against this bill.
Verghese wrote about how the Republicans opposed such measures as Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and the Civil Rights Act. If you look at the voting records for the three government-run programs, the Republicans voted in favor of those by a majority of their party, not against — but voting records aside, why is it the Democrats who proposed and passed the trillion-dollar cuts to Medicare in this bill and the Republicans who opposed it? It doesn’t seem to add up if Republicans are so against Medicare.
Additionally, it is despicable to think that Republicans were opposed the Civil Rights Act, considering more than 80 percent of Republicans both in the House and Senate voted for that piece of legislation.
Verghese wrote about the hate that has been thrown the way of Democrats, but what about the hate from Democrats that was directed at Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) before he changed his vote to “yes”? Or, what about the bullet that went through House Minority Whip Eric Cantor’s (R-Va.) campaign office in Richmond? There are nutjobs on both sides of the aisle who are threatening members of the House of Representatives and the Senate about this legislation.
However, it is absolutely unfair to say these lunatics represent the “soul” of their respective parties, as Verghese said. He may believe every Republican has racist ideas, but I certainly do not believe everybody who supported this bill wishes to murder Republicans.
In terms of the bill itself, if it is so good for the United States and its people, why have 14 states filed lawsuits against the federal government? How can anybody justify requiring everybody to pay for health insurance as a condition of being alive? The American people were against this bill, and the Democrats who voted for this bill are, or will be, aware of that come this November.
Republicans do not wish to keep the state in which our health care lies. They just want to get it right.
Kevin Hannigan | junior | communication
Showing some class
In Monday’s column, “Class organization: The power of students,” Malcolm Harris discusses “standing up” to professors whose classes are, for one reason or another, unsatisfactory.
Although I understand his feelings, I would question the usefulness of his proposed tactics — particularly the concept of walking out of class — as doing so neither increases what you learn, nor does it explain your motives, nor is it likely to result in positive change. Who knows, the professor might think that it’s Senior Skip Day.
A much better alternative which has often worked for me is to meet with the professor privately during office hours and discuss my experience in class, both aspects that I found helpful and would like more of (surely you can think of a few), as well as suggestions for improvement.
I have found that a majority of professors welcome student feedback when it’s presented in a constructive manner and addresses specific concerns. I have experienced many instances in which instructors actively solicited such feedback.
Although doing this does not always lead to changes (for one thing, sometimes other students would like something entirely different, and it is not possible to accommodate everyone’s wishes), I can point to two instances in which as a result of my comments the required text was changed the following semester.
Even when the changes I asked for did not happen, at no time did I feel that offering suggestions for change affected my grades in a negative manner.
Mike Craig | senior | letters and sciences
