LETTERS: Health care, airport security and more

Time to K.I.S.S.

and make it better

I am a lifelong Democrat and am deeply disappointed with the health care bill. I feel so sick to my stomach I don't know if I can ever vote again, except for those congressmen who had the guts to stand up for single payer.

Don't you see that any bill so complicated is a farce, with clause after clause catering to special interests?

Keep it simple, stupid, or it will never work; that means Medicare for all.

Anne Osstling

HicksvilleAirport security

still has holes

The only way to have near 100 percent compliance with passengers boarding airplanes is to have the screening and search performed at boarding ["Through our fingers," Opinion, Jan. 10].

With the current and proposed changes in screening, we are still left with the possibility that once cleared through screening, the offender picks up the weapons needed at any of the stores inside the screened area.

How well-screened are both the merchandise that arrives at these stores, as well as the workers who come each day?

Michael C. Lefkowitz

East Meadow10-year resident should learn English

I find it hard to give protection to anyone who is here illegally ["Grateful for deportation protection," News, Jan. 17], especially someone who is here for almost a decade and still requires an interpreter.

This is the United States, and the language of our country is English.

All seem to want to live here and send money to their families, but apparently they do not want to live by our laws or speak our language. Immigrants of the past learned English and spoke it in public. Their home language was spoken in the home only.

George B. Blanchard

Rockville CentrePay for education with income tax

Income tax, not property tax, should pay for education. If legislators in Albany made this single change, New York's economic woes would vanish.

Taxes on homes would be cut in half, real estate would bounce back, per-pupil spending would be the same for all children, and every citizen - not just property owners - would pay for education according to their ability to pay.

The property tax was introduced centuries ago to fund services to property, like garbage pickups and fire protection, and for the purchase and upkeep of public land. Our founders never intended a regressive property tax to support an entitlement program like public education.

The system of funding schools through assessments on homes is long overdue for change, and the time is now to make it.

Mary Lou Cohalan

Bayport