In his guest column (CHN July 19), Mr. Stephens blames the lack of minorities on the original 18-member incarnation of The Sustainable Community Visioning Task Force on "neo-racism that blames black Americans and other minorities for their own disenfranchisement," but yet doesn't identify anything the town could have done differently.

My own small experience with the Chapel Hill Town Council is they bend over backward to be fair to citizens and would welcome any actual suggestions Mr. Stephens might have for improving both the current task force and the process for seating members on any future task force.

Regardless of who gets on the Visioning Task Force, they will not have an easy job. Recently I attended one of the local visioning events and was struck by the wide range of suggestions -- from the impractical (the city should cut taxes in half, no mention of what services to cut), to the loony (children are expensive to educate and spread disease, so Chapel Hill should discourage families from living here.)

Michael Czeiszperger

Chapel Hill

Candidate's note merits raspberry

Your notes in the July 22 edition about school board candidates were uncharacteristically uneven. I am a big fan of this newspaper and the contributions you make to our community, so it was particularly surprising to see what you wrote. I nominate that article for a raspberry.

In reporting on the seven candidates who had filed for the election, you listed name, age, address, occupation, and then your short editorial comment on each called "Note." I don't know the sources for your information, but I'm curious about that. In the case of Gary Wallach, you listed his occupation as "Retired teacher," which is incorrect and misleading. Under "Note," you did not refer to any of his many accomplishments and contributions, but rather said only that he had lost one election and was an elementary school's mascot lion for two years. A quick check on the facts would pull up his years of work in nonprofit agencies, his advocacy for developmentally and physically handicapped children, and his volunteer contributions to our schools. Your readers might be interested in seeing those credentials, and can find them here: garywallachschoolboard.blogspot.com

This is an important race, and meaningful summaries of the candidates are very helpful. This article was an anomaly, and I appreciate this opportunity to put a reference to a full information source in the record. Thank you for your otherwise continuing outstanding work on behalf of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro communities.

Roger Waldon

Chapel Hill

Editor's note: The Chapel Hill News plans to provide more detailed coverage of the candidates and the entire school board election in the fall.

Wildlife rehabbers still taking animals

As executive director of the CLAWS wildlife rehabilitation and educational facility, my phone has been ringing off the hook over the closing of another rehabilitation facility in our area. The public has the misguided impression that wildlife have been left without help. This is not true.

There are well over 100 licensed rehabilitators in Orange, Durham and Wake Counties. There are also several licensed raptor (eagles, hawks, owls, etc) rehabilitators who work closely with the Carolina Raptor Center, one of the most respected facilities on this side of the country.

While the loss of any rehabilitator is unfortunate, the loss of one facility will not shut down rehabilitation in this area. This facility had only been rehabilitating birds and turtles the past two years. All of the small mammals that were taken to them were sent to home rehabilitators as quickly as possible. These licensed home rehabilitators are still rehabilitating.

Most rehabilitators, including at CLAWS, do this on a volunteer basis (CLAWS has no paid staff, which means 100 percent of donations goes directly to the care of the animals, there are no administrative overhead costs). Rehabilitators are trained to provide care for rehabilitating animals which requires specific knowledge of each species, including basic emergency care. According to the International Wildlife Coalition and the National Wildlife Association, only 10 percent of animals coming into rehabilitation need veterinary care. For them, we all have access to veterinarians (access to veterinarians is a requirement for our licensing) 24/7 without having the overhead of a highly paid staff member.

The facility that has recently closed is currently referring calls to CLAWS. To contact us directly, please email us at: mrsclaws@nc-claws.org or for emergencies call 919-619-0776

Kindra D. Mammone

CLAWS Inc.

What's wrong with socialized medicine?

Two words can derail the efforts to achieve a meaningful reform of our health care system: Rationing and Socialism.

Rationing of health care takes place every day in the most inhumane way. Health care is rationed indirectly when uninsured individuals, and some insured alike, lack the resources to cover copayments, transportation to the health providers and other expenses associated with their care. Some of these people are unable to fill prescriptions for medications that sometimes are essential for their illness such as medications for pain, high blood pressure, epileptic seizures or other serious conditions. The claim that a reform that includes a public plan would result in rationing of care is ludicrous. The rationing of care with a Public Plan would be humane and non-discriminatory.

Socialism in our society is accepted and works reasonable well in our public education system, our Social Security System and Medicare. Socialism implies an inefficient, wasteful system that does not meet its goals or mission. In fact, this description fits the health care private insurance system well. The private insurance system carries a administrative expenses in the order of 24 percent, and it is laden with high advertising cost and a very high compensation for its management. Medicare on the other hand has an administrative cost of about 3 percent, does not advertise and does not have compensation packages for its executives comparable to the private health insurance sector.

Perhaps Medicare should allocate more funds to administration to deal more effectively with fraud, sometimes committed by health care institutions and providers.

Gustavo S. Montana M.D.

Chapel Hill

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

The Chapel Hill News welcomes letters and columns from readers. Letters are limited to 250 words, columns to 550. Writers are limited to one letter a month and one column every three months. All submissions become property of The Chapel Hill News and McClatchy Newspapers.

Mail: Letters should be e-mailed to editor@nando.com or typed and sent to Editor, The Chapel Hill News, 505 W. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, NC 27516 . Letters may be edited for space and clarity.