Dear Editor,

I would like to respond to the September 2nd letter from Mr. Charley Pemberton. Mr. Pemberton, I don’t know you or anything about you, except you seem to come from the far right fringe. Well, I’d like you to hear from the far left fringe (although I really look at myself as a centrist or middle of the roader).

Not everyone agrees with you, Mr. Pemberton, especially me, for the following reasons:

At the end of the Clinton administration, I heard far right radio blatherers say that Clinton would not leave office; he would grab power and stay. Didn’t happen.

At the end of the Bush/Cheney administration, same thing, this time from the left. They are going to set aside the election and remain in power. Didn’t happen.

Now, here we are again, hearing the same fairy tale. Obama, only in office a matter of months, is preparing for a dictatorship. Rest assured, it won’t happen this time either.

As for health care, I would like to tell you of my experience under a government run plan. I am a senior citizen under Medicare, plus I am a retired Federal government employee and fall under the Federal Retiree Program. I have wonderful coverage with low premiums. I can choose any doctor I want and any hospital. I have never had a claim rejected in over 40 years of coverage.

Two years ago, I was diagnosed with an incurable lung disease (few other people have it). My drugs for treatment are very, very expensive. At first, I thought I was done for because I could not afford the treatment. But under my government plan with Blue Cross, I pay a pittance for drugs costing thousands a month. Frankly, I want everyone else to have a chance at having the same coverage I have, should they so desire.

But Mr. Pemberton, you go right ahead and “Kill the Bill,” so no one else outside the government can have a chance at decent coverage for a reasonable price.

As for your love affair with ex-Governor Palin, frankly the woman scares me to death. Now I am not averse to a female president. I would love to see one, a qualified one. Mrs. Palin may be able to see Russia from her back yard, but I don’t believe she could find Europe on a well-marked map.

And lastly, Mr. Pemberton, I lived through World War II. Being female, I was not subject to the draft. But I had a brother and two brothers-in-law in the military and saw first hand the agony of families waiting for the awful telegram that meant a son, brother, husband or father was killed in action. And several families in Blanco got these telegrams, telling them of a young man killed in battle.

By comparing our present democratically elected government to the horrors of Hitler’s Germany is, I believe, unconscionable and leads me to believe you know little about the brutality and atrocities of World War II Europe. I would recommend you read the well documented history book by William L. Shirer, entitled The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, to get the full impact of what really went on in Hitler’s Germany. I hope you have a strong stomach because parts of this book are really raw.

In the upcoming 2010 election, if, God willing, I am still here, I will go to the polls and cancel out your vote. I repeat, Mr. Pemberton, not everybody agrees with you.

Jean Evans

Blanco, TX