<strong><span class="subhead">Overdose of swine flu</span></strong></p><p>Again today the lead story on all newscasts is H1N1 flu.</p><p>The media have succeeded in creating a real crisis atmosphere. There is a vaccine for the H1N1 flu, but it is not yet readily available. And every news story continues to ask the question, &ldquo;Is it safe?&rdquo;</p><p>If the media had not continuously questioned the safety of the vaccine, there would be no concern on the part of the public about it. Had the media &mdash; both TV and print &mdash; not created this hysteria, people would have simply waited until the vaccine was available and gotten the H1N1 vaccine.</p><p>No crisis, no problem. I understand that with hundreds of news media outlets there is a constant search for news. But toying with people&rsquo;s health and peace of mind just for &ldquo;the story&rdquo; is just plain wrong.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Steve Alexander</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Raytown</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Help seniors with home buyer tax credit</span></strong></p><p>Thinking outside the box, it would follow that if President Obama&rsquo;s first time home buyer program of a tax credit of $8,000 has been good for the economy, why not allow the same credit to seniors who now must downsize to smaller homes?</p><p>Many seniors who have helped carry the economy during good times never would have dreamed of the government giving them an $8,000 tax credit for their first home purchase. Since the economic meltdown, many seniors have seen the value of their home drop along with a huge drop in their retirement saving plans, making it difficult for them to downsize.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Ed &ldquo;Gomer&rdquo; Moody</strong></p> <p align="right"><em>Kansas City</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Whining for Obama?</span></strong></p><p>It is so unfair that President Barack Obama could not start his presidency with a clean slate.</p><p>President George W. Bush inherited a recession; critical financial deregulation by President Bill Clinton in 1999; intelligence organizations that were not allowed to talk to each other; Saddam Hussein, who had ignored 15 U.N. resolutions and had convinced intelligence agencies worldwide that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction; al-Qaida, which had grown unfettered during the 1990s; al-Qaida, which had attacked the U.S. throughout the 1990s; an al-Qaida with all the plans and players in place for 9-11; a Clinton economy built on &ldquo;irrational exuberance,&rdquo; according to Alan Greenspan; and a dot com bubble, which had burst in early 2000.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Jim Kilen</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Kansas City</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">No death panels</span></strong></p><p>While reading &ldquo;Horrors! What&rsquo;s really scary this Halloween,&rdquo; (10/31, Editorial) in particular, the submission from Danette Gamble, I was reminded of the Dickens classic, &ldquo;A Christmas Story.&rdquo; </p><p>When Scrooge sees two starving children under the spirit&rsquo;s robe, the phantom says, &ldquo;This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both &hellip; but most of all beware this boy.&rdquo;</p><p>Ignorance: that is the scariest thing haunting our nation this hallowed season. Shame on Danette Gamble, who in her position of responsibility as an Editorial Board Reader Adviser displayed her own brand of ignorance by continuing to perpetuate the lie that death panels will be included in health care reform. And shame on the editors of this paper for not rebutting that lie so we can put it to rest. </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Bernadine Kline</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Liberty</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Unbelievable story</span></strong></p><p>What if a writer in 2000 had offered a publisher a novel that dramatized:</p><p>&bull;The destruction of the Twin Towers by terrorists in airplanes.</p><p>&bull;A retaliatory U.S. attack on Afghanistan.</p><p>&bull;A U.S. invasion of Iraq, the terrible suffering of Iraqis in a long civil war.