To the Editor:
Re “Health
Meeting Fails to Bridge Partisan Rift” (front page, Feb. 26):
I was riveted to my seat for seven hours during President Obama’s
health care forum on Thursday. What I saw was a masterful leader trying,
with some success, to herd cats toward the goal of solving the huge
health care problem this country faces.
Unfortunately, the president faced an opposition party stuck on the
mantra “scrap the plan and start over with incremental changes.” He
repeatedly demonstrated how this approach would lead to worsening health
care and even larger budget problems in the future.
It became clear to me that, sadly, the Republican Party’s strategy
is not to offer any viable alternative but to defeat this president at
any cost. One wonders why.
Harry Lockwood
Newton, Mass., Feb. 26, 2010
To the Editor:
I watched the health care summit meeting in utter fascination and
came to the conclusion that this critical issue is no longer resolvable
through bipartisan efforts.
What Congress believes is the right way to resolve this complex
debate is immaterial; that’s politics, and this is about leadership.
President Obama must now do what he believes is the right thing to do
for the American people. Right doesn’t necessarily mean perfect. It
doesn’t necessarily mean popular. It doesn’t even necessarily even mean
right as judged by history. It simply means right in his estimation at
this time, under these circumstances.
That’s what we Americans have come to expect from our presidents; we
elect them to do what’s right (in their estimation) for us.
If in the end people are dissatisfied with the decision he makes,
with the results of this initiative, then go ahead and vote him out at
the next election and give someone else a chance to do it better; that’s
the way the system works.
But great leaders do something that puts them above everyone else—they lead.
Bob Falcey
Skillman, N.J., Feb. 26, 2010
Note from KBJ: The letter writers would be at home in a dictatorship, which we, fortunately, do not have.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 