The scary thing about Nancy Fahey's rebuttal to "Obama feeds ego while GOP protects freedom" is that she believes what she says and can vote. Too much Democrat Kool-aid consumed.

Bill Clinton did not leave office with no debt. The Republican Congress forced him to balance the budget for a couple of years.

Jack Kennedy was not around long enough to evaluate. The Camelot myth obscured reality.

Harry Truman did a decent job (as did George W. Bush) and left office with opinions lower than George W's. He did knock out the Japanese in the Pacific with a decisive blow, which is what we wish Bush would do to al-Qaida.

I was born four years after Roosevelt took office in 1932. We were at the depth of the depression then, with over 25 percent unemployment. Check the history books: FDR did not bring us out of the Depression, World War II did.

Until 1941, FDR's socialist programs made work and gave the illusion of hope. His Social Security was an affordable pittance for the destitute, not the unfunded giveaway we have now.

Warm Springs did benefit from Roosevelt's patronage but mostly before he took office and out of his own pocket.
Democrats in office always take more out of the system than they put in. It is unfortunate that the votes they buy with wealth redistribution and demagoguery affect the thinking of the uninformed.

Jack Price
Gainesville

Counseling center's guidance affordable
Being in counseling and group therapy which the Community Service Center provides has been such a lifesaver for my life. So many people in life suffer from all types of abuse and neglect and are in desperate need of help and for someone just to listen.

Many people, especially with the economy as it is, cannot afford therapy. However, thanks to centers like this one, individual counseling and group therapy are affordable.

I truly believe that if more people could have this opportunity that there would be more healthy and emotionally stable people in this world. I believe if more people came to a center like this for help, they would have more hope and the suicide rate would drop drastically.

I believe that there would be a lower number of people having to take anti-depressants just to make it from day to day in their lives. Anti-depressants may help to some degree, but the wounds and hurts of the past will still be there unless they are recognized and worked through.

If more people would get help from a center like this, I believe there would be fewer addicts and less abuse, violence and crime in the world today. There would be more mentally stable and whole people in the world.

Since I have been in group therapy, my view on my life is more positive. It has helped knowing that there are others who have been through similar situations and abuse that I have been through. Being in group therapy gives the abused person a voice that he or she needs to confront and face the abusive past to have a healthy, peaceful and thriving future.

Rachel Kanaday
Gainesville

Quiet down in hospitals
Why do people go in hospitals and talk by yelling, and wear popping shoes? Even some people who work there don't have the sense but to wear the things.

Sick people can't stand either of these things. Pay attention! You don't want to be the patient.

I've just gotten out after five very sick and disruptive days, and I've experienced this with each of the many hospitalizations I've had. Plus, I am a registered nurse and used to work in these places.

Dora Sumner
Cleveland