I loved the recent Private Eye column “Tuesdays With Mommy” [Oct. 8, City Weekly]. But as soon as I read it, I knew the kind of hate mail John Saltas was in for. Suggesting that another country can have a better health-care system than America? Are you a Commie? I can hear it now.

I made a comment on a friend’s Facebook page about how, since the Legislature took away retirement health insurance for its public employees a few years ago (while keeping for it themselves, I might add), I would welcome a government-run program. After all, I have a wife who’s losing her sight, as well as an autistic adult daughter to care for and a son who’s only 13. Boy, did I get hammered!

Some guy I don’t know noticed the Facebook picture on my page of me and my wife standing in front of the Eiffel Tower on our first trip to Paris. He said, “You are not fit to live in this country! You are some kind of a Communist. That looks like the Eiffel Tower behind you in your picture (looks like?) so maybe you should go back to France and live there!” (I’m glad I didn’t tell him I was in Cuba a few years ago. He would have really gone off.)

So, I’m sure it’s already started. I hope Saltas keeps his head up and knows that the right-thinking folks out here agree with him. I’ve spent some time in England, France and Canada, and of all the things I talked to the natives about, they never complained about their health care.

They have a national system in Cuba, too, but since it’s the only system that seems to be working in that country, we had a lot of other stuff to talk about when the locals were sure that they weren’t being overheard by the national police. But that’s a subject for another e-mail.

Jeff Stickley
Via the Internet