Your message to young people in your July 10 editorial, “Learning,” was they must live within their means. This is true; however, first they must learn how to stop government spending!

We know our economy is deliberately being bankrupted. Our tax dollars are being used to bail our banks, etc., and aid money is still being poured into foreign countries. Yet you talk of Americans looking for a silver lining? We and the Joneses are worried about food, clothing and shelter — staying alive!

Have your editorials warned citizens about the evils of socialism? Our young and old have no idea the horrors people endure under communism. Have you written how our Constitution guarantees men the right to keep  their earned wealth and property though they were not born into the family of a king, a dictator or a high government official?

Many scientists have said there is no global warming. Where are the articles about small businesses which did not benefit from the billions of taxpayers’ bailout money and how the high costs of energy will force them to close?

Trees cut for toilet tissue can be replanted and grow even better when forests are thinned. Oil and gas is plentiful in our country, enough to last hundreds of years. Why does government not allow its use? We need to hear about the Federal Reserve and the differences between a democracy and a republic.

Please consider what Thomas Jefferson advised: “The issue today is the same as it has been throughout history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.”

Let George Soros apologize for his yearly trillions; I will not apologize for my good life in America!

Betty Davis

Vicksburg

Learn to be leaner

As executive director of the Mississippi Against Obesity Foundation, I know that Medicaid and Medicare are spending between $1,400 and $6,000 per person per year on health care. It is ironic that neither entity will provide coverage for diet, nutrition, exercise or weight-loss programs. To sugar coat it, we have the highest rates of hypertension, diabetes, kidney failure and heart disease. Prevention and intervention are the key, aside from costly gastric surgeries that are sometimes performed twice with much complication. Health-care reform is highly warranted and health education is something we can’t do without.

Barbara Broadwater

Jackson