Stockon residents sound off on fighting, oil supply and health care

We American citizens should be spending a few moments thinking about illegal immigration, high gasoline prices and the consequences that will surely happen.

Our cities are already experiencing tent cities with the constant homeless population being an unsolved problem. Our freeways and highways are more dangerous than ever with an overload of trucks and other vehicles. Our gasoline prices continue soaring, and we are watching our government leaders go begging other countries for oil.

Yes, they are even begging communist countries for oil, and yet Americans and many businesses in America are suffering due to the extremely high cost of our limited gasoline. What’s going on? We in America have more oil right here than almost any other country.

America can supply our entire country with the necessary oil needed.

Do we have low IQ people in charge of our country? Are they suffering when they are flying all over in their own private jet airplanes?

Now, Americans are on edge due to the constant news that we may face a nuclear attack from Russia. When someone asks if you are having a nice day, they may not like the answer.

Betty K. Thomas, Stockton

Thanks for the discussion

I come from a unique perspective: not only did I work as an ICU nurse and care for others for over 50 years, but I have also suffered serious illnesses myself. Every day at work, I saw how medical innovations and new treatments were saving lives. My world then shifted, and I transitioned from a caregiver to a patient myself. I was faced with a cancer diagnosis and battled a heart attack, which was caused by an embolus in my coronary arteries.

Thankfully, I was able to overcome both prognoses, and I am continuing to live a happy and healthy life. But having seen both sides of the health care aisles, I do think Congress focused on the wrong health care policies in the Inflation Reduction Act.

And I recently participated in a discussion with Rep. Jerry McNerney’s staff on this very topic. I explained that, instead of targeting the companies that are making cancer and heart medications, the bill should have instead focused on reforms in the insurance space. These companies are often the culprits of reduced care. As a nurse, I would often see patients and families have their medications or procedures denied by their providers. That is just not right, and it needs to change.

I wish to thank Rep. Jerry McNerney’s staff for being so welcoming to this discussion, and I am hopeful that he and our future representatives will be leaders in looking into insurance reforms.

Roberta Farrens, Stockton

Vote to begin anew

Born in 1954 and raised in Stockton, I left in 1977 to work in Los Angeles.

When I left, I had no doubt Stockton would become the jewel of the valley.

I retired in 2012 and moved back. Bluntly, I was pretty disgusted to see how it wasn’t a jewel.

Here’s my quick take: From the police chiefs to the city council to the board of supervisors to Stockton Unified School Board members and many department heads, we were ‘blessed’ with horrible moral failures.

The infighting that goes on today is reality TV and watching these people operate gives me a stomachache. The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors and the SUSD board are particularly galling.

I would encourage every voter to not vote for an incumbent. We’ll lose one or two morals and honest folks. I don’t care about the baby in the bath water right now. Let’s just start fresh.

It can’t hurt.

Gregory P Jacobs, Stockton

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