Letters to the Editor 11/07/2012

To the Editor:

As a veteran reflecting on Veteran's Day this coming Sunday, I am proud to call "patriotic" Sisters my home. I appreciate the fact that the Sisters community is proactive in raising awareness for veterans with our youth. In particular, there exists a "Veteran's Appreciation Scholarship" that has impacted attitudes toward veterans for over 250 Sisters High student applicants since 2002.

The Veteran's Appreciation Scholarship was established by local veteran Lynn Johnston as a way to inspire students to gain respect and appreciation for veterans. To obtain the scholarship, Sisters High School students must sit down, one-on-one and eye-to-eye with a veteran, and videotape the reflections of a person who has served his/her country. They ask the veteran how military service impacted their life. The student also reads a military related book and completes a commentary that describes what they've learned during the interview and reading assignment. What happens? The student walks away "impacted for life."

The Veteran's Appreciation Scholarship is managed and disbursed by Sisters GRO, a non-profit organization facilitating higher-education awards for Sisters High graduates. I have great admiration for the applicants and recipients of this scholarship and encourage financial support by Sisters residents. You can make a donation to this scholarship through Sisters GRO at http://www.sistersgro.com. Everyone who participates is a winner, and Sisters is better because of it! These students, future leaders our community, gain a sense of appreciation for those who have served our country.

Gene Hellickson, Commander

Sisters American Legion

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To the Editor:

Emergency air ambulance service: I wonder how many other Sisters-area residents (like me, until recently) are in the dark about the coverage they purchased in signing up for AirLink or Life Flight

membership.

If you are thinking that your paid membership in one of these air ambulance providers will shield you against many thousands of dollars in expense for air evacuation, you would be mistaken. Unless you have double-insured your family by buying memberships in both services (which are competing businesses) there is a 50 percent probability you will pay for the evacuation out of pocket. For quite practical reasons, you do not have a choice of which service is dispatched, but if the one dispatched is not the one you belong to, then you are responsible for the full cost of the

flight. 

I am indeed grateful to have air ambulance service available in this area, and two services does mean more availability and reliability, but why on earth is there not a reciprocal agreement between them to allow transfer of costs and payments, so evacuees are not on the hook for a huge expense which they, in good faith, paid to insure

against?

If we all follow the current advice to enroll in both services, then each service receives its full premium (membership payments) from everyone, but statistically has to make only half as many flights as the single service used to.

Financially good for each business, but for the membership population now paying double premiums, not so much.

If hypothetically a third air ambulance service begins business in the area, would we be advised to buy paid memberships in them as well? This problem seems easily solvable by negotiating a reciprocal agreement between the two current providers.

Bruce Williams

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To the Editor:

No, Sharon (October 31 letter to the editor), you are not the only one outraged over the Benghazi terrorist attack and coverup by the administration. How could our supposed Commander in Chief (which he loves to call himself) watch Americans being attacked for seven hours and not do anything to help them, go to bed and then go to campaign in Las Vegas. This coverup is far worse than Watergate; no one died in Watergate!

By all honest accounts al-Qaida is getting stronger in many countries; that notion does not fit into President Obama's campaign story. It shows his foreign policies have been a disaster. For the last two years he has been Campaigner in Chief, rather than working in a bipartisan way to solve the problems facing our nation. He blames the Republicans, however, his approach is my way or the highway and never seeks a compromise. His actions over his first term show he is not the leader our country

needs.

Sue Jolly

Sisters