<strong><span class="subhead">Barking dogs deter criminals</span></strong></p><p>Holey moley! Doing away with barking dogs in Prairie Village (10/24, National/Local, &ldquo;PV seeks to take bite out of barking dogs&rdquo;). Take &rsquo;em right out of the yard.</p><p>When a stranger is in my neighborhood, I am thankful that my dogs and the other dogs around are barking because I know that noise will be a deterrent to intruders. I have lived in Prairie Village since 1997, and I have never been robbed or burglarized, nor have my neighbors on either side of me or directly across the street. </p><p>I hope that my neighbors someday bring old Boomer and Dallas a treat and thank them and keep the police from taking them away because they were just trying to protect the neighborhood.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Kathy Peterson</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Prairie Village</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">COMBAT vote: Yes and no</span></strong></p><p>COMBAT provides funding for 200 beds in the Jackson County correctional facility. If COMBAT is not renewed, that is 200 offenders released into the community until trial. </p><p>Victims of domestic violence will not be safe. These are women and children who have every right to feel safe in their homes but cannot when their abuser is released. </p><p>Please vote &ldquo;yes&rdquo; to renew COMBAT on Nov. 3.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Anne Bethune</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Board member, Rose Brooks Domestic Violence Center</em></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Kansas City</em></p></p><p>Do you remember the old joke about the guy who asked the drunk why he drank so much? The drunk replied, &ldquo;To keep the pink elephants away.&rdquo; The guy says, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t see any pink elephants.&rdquo; The drunk replies, &ldquo;See, it&rsquo;s working!&rdquo;</p><p>The COMBAT promoters use the same argument. Pay the tax in order to control the illegal drug epidemic in our county. However, unlike the drunk and his elephants, after 20 years COMBAT is not working. COMBAT has been a failure. The Jackson County Taxpayers Association urges a &ldquo;no&rdquo; vote on the tax.</p><p>It costs a Jackson County family of four $80 a year or $560 over the seven-year life of COMBAT. Jackson County taxpayers will pay $800,000 just to place the measure on the ballot this November. </p><p>Please end this scam by voting &ldquo;no.&rdquo;</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Bob Gough</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em> Director, Jackson County</em></p> <p align="right"><em> Taxpayers Association</em></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Lee&rsquo;s Summit</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Time to make insurers compete</span></strong></p><p>If the more than 1,300 health insurance companies in the U.S. intended to provide health care coverage for all, they would have done so long ago. If costs were a concern, they would have stopped paying executives multiple millions of dollars in annual wages and benefits. </p><p>If the insurance industry were dedicated to the health of all of our citizens, it would have demanded that all participants in the health insurance industry adopt policies and practices to achieve that goal. Or it would have lobbied Congress to pass legislation that would have overcome the real (or supposed) roadblocks to full coverage. The industry did neither. It has prospered by exclusion, not inclusion.</p><p>Clearly our government has not placed sufficient demands upon the industry. And we as citizens have been powerless to do so.</p><p>It is time for the government to create a health insurance entity that will make true competition a reality: a very strong public option. Otherwise, it is time for Medicare for all. </p><p>As Medicare participants, my wife and I have no fear of the so-called single payer approach. It has worked well for us for a number of years. We favor it above all other proposals.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>The Rev. Ted Schroeder</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Kansas City</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Virgin Mary image is news?</span></strong></p><p>The second most prominent article in the national section of the 10/25 Star was the story of a man in Merced, Calif., who claimed to see an image of the Virgin Mary in a rock. For some reason, such stories of people seeing religious icons in pastries, potato chips, tree stumps and grease smears have become a mainstay of modern American journalism.