Summary of this letter: 1) Life is unfair 2) I don't have any original solutions to a problem, so 3) Let the government take care of it with "their" money.

If this mentality is what they are filling your heads with at UNCG, let's go ahead and surrender to the Asian countries, as they are going to eat our lunch in the next 20-30 years.

What's with UNCG all of a sudden "trolling" the News & Record to provoke political discussions?
This is the second such "letter" from UNCG students/staff in the last couple of days clearly intended to incite readers so the UNCG folks can sit back and watch them bicker and argue.
Don't they have enough students over there on Spring Garden St. to have a debate amongst themselves?

"I am concerned about the lack of funds available for Medicare and Medicaid. Where can these monies be found?"

Here's a novel idea: go to work each day of your life, work hard, and save your money.

Yeah, what's up with the UNCG Research Project? What are they researching: how many zen-like inanities can be crammed into one letter? "What monies can be made available for poor people to hear the sound of one hand clapping? I am concerned, grasshopper. How can free-range cabbage be made available to all, irrespective of race, class, and ethnicity?"

And did it really take a whole professor, plus two other entire persons, to come up with that wierd list of unrelated questions the other day? In my department at UNCG, we have assistant professors who could come up with an equally inane list all by themselves. Heck, we got graduate students who could do it.

The ad hominem attacks in the comments are clearly missing the point of the letter. Why is it so threatening (or annoying to the obviously superior intellects of the commentators) for one of their fellow citizens to exercise their rights and to try, perhaps for the first time, to express their views in the local newspaper? Is there a required level of coherent argument these readers would impose? And the concerns of the letter-writer are not trivial.

Broad-brushing all who might wind up on Medicaid as inherently lazy and not deserving of medicine and care late in life is extremely callous and discounts circumstances no one can know for each individual case: What of those who are severely injured? Or who worked hard everyday but made the pathetic minimum wage our legislators are unwilling to adjust even for inflation?

Whatever you do for the least among you...but let's not bring up Christian stuff. Hypocrisy has a way of just sliding us deeper into rationalization. At least address issues and not persons.

Jimbo, the letter writer is not expressing an opinion, she's conducting a school project to try and provoke responses so she can get a grade in a class. And she's using us readers as her guinea pigs, her trained dogs, her "subjects."
I resent her doing that, and I fault the N&R editorial staff for participating in this charade.
This is NOT the purpose of the Letters To The Editor feature.

I agree with Robert. For Jimbo, my point is the paradox being taught in our universities. On one hand, they are preparing students to eventually get jobs and earn a living. On the other hand, they brainwash students heads with the mush that government is the solution to everything, and government has unlimited "monies" to take care of everyone, including their healthcare.

I do not advocate throwing letting granny eat dog food so she can pay for her meds or throwing the poor guy out of his house because he got cancer and can't pay his medical bills. If a devastating medical emergency arises and one has little or no money to pay for it, society should chip in.

I do a lot of work in hospitals. By law, no one can be denied treatment in the ER. Sounds logical and good right? The problem is many, many people abuse this law. Instead of paying $100 for a doctor visit, they use the ER as a primary care source, drive up a much larger bill than if they went to a primary care doc, and then don't pay the bill.

My young daughter recently became sick and had to spend 3 days in the hospital. My part of the bill that insurance didn't cover was $2200. I called the hospital and offered to pay $220/month over 10 months. The woman I spoke with was elated!! When I asked why, she said they have so many bills that go unpaid. They are more than willing to work with people to pay their bills, she even offered for me to pay less than $220/month. Unlike the many who feel healthcare is their right and someone else should pay for it all, I feel it is my obligation to pay the hospital for the services they provided.

Ms. Harris's letter wasn't convincing, but it did provoke unsubstantiated attacks, freewheeling multi-topic riffs, and baseless speculation. If her intent was to get a reaction, I would give her an A.

Who is it hurting for these UNCG student to write letters to the editor? Sure, there letters aren't filled with the best solutions or even the best questions. The first one was downright laughable. But we've also had a bunch of letters from middle-schoolers. Nobody has attacked those. I guess people just think "Aw, how cute"

The point I'm making is this: If you don't want to help out with their project or whatever it is they are doing, then don't respond.

Mr t, anyone should be allowed to write a letter or whatever to express an opinion.
But this is not a real letter. It's falsely presented as part of a research project to get people to respond, this is called a "troll" in newsgroups, blogs, etc. The writer merely disguised it as a letter to generate some responses for a project. The writer may have even picked the subject out of a hat, and has no feelings one way or the other about the subject.
The writer is using us as guinea pigs for an experiment.
I think this is wrong. I don't think the newspaper should participate in misleading the readers.

Well, when you put it that way.............

Mr t. don't get me wrong. I've seen some wonderful letters from school age people. I think it is great when they actually read the news and form opinions and then express those opinions in writing. I hope we see more participation in all aspects of the news/opinions by young people.

Roger, as long as it isn't talking points from some lackey liberal high school or college professor dictating to students what their opinions are.

Dan, what would you do without your stereotypes to guide you?