Letters to the editor

Opt for public option

I believe that we must have the public option as one part of health care reform, in order to force the health insurance companies to lower costs.

-- DEBURAH FRISBY, Trenton

Independent candidates

help inform the voters

Watching the two major-party candidates for governor of our Garden State sling barbs and put up signs so early in the race, it was refreshing to see Independent candidate Chris Daggett included in last Thursday's debate.

I hope that organizers of future gubernatorial debates will include all independent candidates for this office. Hearing from all candidates about their views, radical though some may be, would offer a real choice for the voters in our democracy. There might be those who say that voting for an independent would split the vote, but I see it as getting information to the voters so that they might make an informed decision.

-- LINDA FIELD, Lawrence

It's not so surprising

Chicago lost to Rio

The U.S. was not chosen to host the 2016 summer Olympic Games in Chicago. Brazil won. Bad for us, but hooray for Brazil! No South American nation has ever hosted the games, so it was time, and appropriate, that Rio should win. Also, Brazil is an emerging economic power and the games will add luster to its former third-world image. Hooray for that. Brazil is a great athletic power with wonderful swimmers, sprinters and, of course, soccer players, whose skills are dazzling. Having been to Rio, I am sure that visitors will love the beaches, the mountains, the churrascos, its samba, etc. Brazil will put on a show that the world will remember.

As for America, our desire for hosting the games was diminished by the more than half of Chicagoans who did not want the games. They felt the games would leave the city badly in debt, which it cannot afford. Also, aside from a couple of pro sports stadia, there are few facilities that could accommodate and house the thousands of athletes who would descend on the site. There was also evidence that local politicians had their hands out to skim millions from the construction and service contracts to be created....