Heading south for health care

To the Editors,

My husband is thinking of getting a colonoscopy (due to age) and so I decided to get a price on getting the procedure done. Sounds simple, right? It’s pretty easy to get the price of a house or a car, after all. Well, good luck with that in our “best in the world health care system.” The best price estimate I could get, and this literally took me hours, was $2,000-$4,000! The reason for the obtuse answer? One of them I was given is that there are four different bills from four different entities. And it’s impossible to project exact costs.

You see, we both have really expensive health insurance, but it is really only asset protection, with high deductibles and no help with any preventative care. I see now why Americans forego these expensive screenings, only to develop way more serious diseases later that in the long run cost maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars more to treat.

So I decided to call our good neighbor to the South, Mexico, to a reputable health clinic in San Carlos, where a lot of gringos live and get medical care. Estimate of cost took only a minute: $600! And the additional bill in case of any biopsies? $100! Way to go Mexico.

We need health-care reform WITH a public option, NOW. Or we will continue to get more of the same, or worse. Otherwise, I’m heading south for my health care. I trust the Mexican doctors way more than my insurance company. Any day.

– Julie Meadows, Durango

From Sweden to sustainability

Hello Durango from Sweden!

A recent resident of Durango, I have come to Sweden to study sustainability for my master’s degree. I just got tuned back into that mountain town I miss and love via the Telegraph. I write to you because I have been thinking of a way to tie Durango into my upcoming thesis. I want to work with community development on the municipal level and would like to incorporate local food production and security. There are many ideas formulating, however, this is where you come in ... what are some other public issues or interests of Durango (Mancos and Dolores, too), pertaining to sustainability and community development you would like to see implemented? I so look forward to coming back to that dynamic, high-desert mountain community this summer and would love to bring back what I am learning over here in Scandinavia. So, any takers? I would like to hear some thoughts, ideas and insight from you locals on sustainability issues you would like to see happen at the city level in the Durango and greater Four Corners area. Visit my blog – www.bikesbarnsfarms.blogspot.com – for more information or e-mail your comments to elsajag@gmail.com .

– Thanks, Tack så mycket, Elsa Jagniecki

A life of community service

Dear Editors,

I am writing to strongly endorse Joe Colgan for the 9-R School Board. Joe has dedicated most of his adult life to community service in Durango and has demonstrated time and again his wise judgment guided by his commitment to reaching the best possible decisions for our community.

Joe is a former professor of accounting at Fort Lewis College, with nearly 40 years invested as an educator, and has served as the treasurer on the Board of Directors for the Durango Adult Education Center for nine years. He understands the value of education and the need to graduate students who are able to succeed in the workforce and in higher education.

I served with Joe on the Strategic Planning Team for 9-R and found his thoughtful input to be student-centered and carefully crafted to solve problems in positive ways. The entire team respected his openness and honesty, which led to his analytical input. 

Joe Colgan will be a highly respected member of the

– Paulette Church, Durango

Vote and be heard

To the Editors,

Are you a resident of the 9-R school district? Have you cast your ballot for the election of school board members?

If you are a registered voter and have not received your ballot in the mail, perhaps you have moved since you last voted and your ballot has been returned to the La Plata County Clerk’s Office by the U.S. Postal Service. As of Fri., Oct. 23, the Postal Service had returned about 1,500 ballots sent to incorrect addresses. You may call the Clerk’s office at 382-6296 to determine if your ballot was returned. If so, you may retrieve your ballot at the County Clerk’s Office at 1060 E. Second Ave., in Durango, change your address, and cast your ballot. The last day to cast your ballot is Tues., Nov. 3. Please vote.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan political organization, encouraging informed, active participation in government.

You may view our website at www.lwvlaplata.org.

– Marilyn Sandstrom, League of Women Voters La Plata County

Something in the water

Dear Editors,

The ADA and NY State have bashed water fluoridation! So why haven’t we? Isn’t Durango a health-conscious city? Wouldn’t it make sense to protect the health of our families and the sustainability of our budgets? Why do we all pay to “supplement” our drinking/agricultural water with a phosphate fertilizer byproduct that causes hypothyroidism and immune system suppression?

Ex-BBC man Christopher Bryson’s Fluoride Deception book (available at Maria’s Bookshop), and video (online), should be mandatory training material for anyone in a position with a water board. I’m sure schoolchildren drinking out of a water fountain every day would agree, if they were informed that for every liter of water they drink, they are swallowing the ‘”pea-sized” amount of toothpaste that can hospitalize an adult. It’s simply diffused in their blood; if you become accustomed to any bio-accumulative neurotoxin like fluoride, as can happen with many lead and arsenic poisonings, you may not even be aware of it until it’s nasty. I was slandered early this year by the Herald’s Dale Rodebaugh for paying no heed to “fundamental science;” when he defended fluoride with an anecdote from an old father-of-medicine, Paracelsus, as saying “Dose alone makes the poison,” he didn’t take consistent exposure of accumulative toxins into account. So, yeah. Dose alone makes the poison – once or twice – with something that you defecate out. This has a whole new set of rules to it. Anecdotes are not evidence. Scientific data is. Moreover, medical science has been brilliantly updated more than 500 years since Paracelsus’ and Columbus’ time. Keeping up on those science journals, which are readily accessible by myself and many other continuing scholars, really helps. And, from Dale’s vantage, it seems we should all eat arsenic-based dysentery drugs, too, because the very existence of those drugs proves that arsenic is “OK.” Radiation treatments, on point, are only (barely) good for certain4patients.

When the CDOH-backed rebuttal team gave their speech to the Water Board, after my own, they even stated proudly that fluoride readily replaces the calcium in your bones. That’s the same calcium that affords you strong bones and a healthy marrow-based immune and plasma/lymphatic system. Does that sound like a good plan? I guess it did to the Water Board, because we still drink fluoride. This chemical is the main constituent in a prominent industrial pesticide (sulfuryl fluoride), a type of rat poison, Rohypnol (the date rape drug), common anesthesia, and the dementia-related “no-stick” kitchenware coating called Teflon. There are a million levels to good health, and it’s not just sleep and veggies that make the difference. Energy and immunity beat fatigue and illness, let alone broken fluoridated bones, any

day. Would you rather wrap this up at a local level now, knowing that your power made a difference, or let it take another year or two of your health until it becomes a federal mandate? If everyone in the area calls the City Water Board officials and City Hall, with the information provided at the “No More Fluoride Durango” news source online (just Google “Durango fluoride”), we will brighten everyone’s future. And write to at least one local paper you know of! Get the word out! It’s easy!

– Lux et Veritas, Brendan Bombaci, via e-mail

A lifelong commitment

Dear Editors,

Joe Colgan has my vote for the 9-R school board. When I vote for any elected official, I recognize that a myriad of critical decisions will be made by that individual, many of which are unforeseen and not even discussed as a part of the election. As a consequence, my vote is based on the values, wisdom and experience of the candidates. The 9-R board election is essential in that it affects the future of our community, and even more importantly, the future of our children. Joe Colgan believes in the positive power of representative government by and for the people. Joe Colgan has served previously as the chief financial officer for the 9-R school district, with enormous insight into school funding and management. Joe Colgan has a lifelong commitment to serving our youth, notably through the Boy Scouts. Joe Colgan has served this community with two terms on City Council and two terms as mayor. All of that experience, and Joe Colgan’s wisdom, values and integrity, will serve the 9-R school district well. I urge you to join me in voting for Joe Colgan for the 9-R school district board.

– John Gamble, Durango