Picnic was a success

To the Editor:

Thank you to all who helped make the Memorial Day community picnic a success: The city of Fairmont Street Department, Welcome American Legion, Hy-Vee, Walmart, Subway, our bakers who provided the bars, and our volunteers. We could not have done it without all of you.

The weather did not allow for any outdoor activities but we still had a good turnout for the food and live music. Thank you for coming out, and above all, to the veterans and active military for your service.

Sonja Fortune,

executive director,

Red Rock Center for the Arts

Fairmont

Seat belts save lives

To the Editor:

Thanks to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office and Fairmont Police Department for their seat belt outreach on Friday, May 24. I hope it leads to more people using seat belts and car seats.

I spent 17 years on the street as a volunteer paramedic. In that time, I figure I responded to about 2000 motor vehicle crashes, and unbuckled exactly three patients — two of whom were uninjured but simply scared.

Seat belts save lives. There is simply no excuse not to wear one. If yours doesn’t fit, there are ways of fixing that. Don’t believe the claims that wearing one will kill you. In all of my time on the street, I never saw it happen.

Put on your seat belt every time you move a car. Insist everyone with you does too. Make a habit of it. Start now, while you are still alive to make new habits.

Jay Maynard

Fairmont

Pelosi plays politics

To the Editor:

“Democrats are putting a political pothole in the way of bipartisan drug pricing bills.” These words weren’t said by President Trump or some conservative pundit. They were actually a headline by the left-leaning Washington Post.

Why? Because the U.S. House and Senate, after months of negotiations, were ready to pass a bill with three popular bipartisan measures to lower prescription drug costs and increase competition from generic drug makers. Our congressman, Jim Hagedorn, supported these measures. He recognizes the need to drive down drug costs.

At the last minute, Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided to use a bipartisan bill on lowering drug costs to fund a partisan bailout of Obamacare, even though she knows it will never pass the Senate. Rather than lowering drug costs for all Americans, Speaker Pelosi chose politics over people and even the Washington Post called her out on it.

This issue matters so much to me, because I’ve been a Type 1 diabetic for more than 50 years. Congressman Hagedorn is trying to make life better for me and others who rely on expensive drugs to keep us alive.

Congressman Hagedorn understands what it means to put the American people over politics. Why doesn’t Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic Party?

Juleen Breitbarth

Truman