Carter tributes, reckoning for insurance are related

The striking contrast between two iconic events in the final weeks of 2024 present us with a clear path to making America truly great.

The death of former President Jimmy Carter had me thinking about the outpouring of love and respect following the passing of the centenarian and Nobel Peace Prize winner. It was transposed with the anger, despair and hate unleashed by the violent gun murder of a 50-year-old health insurance CEO just weeks earlier.

Mr. Carter believed in human rights. He believed all lives were valuable. His presidency was dedicated to these principles. He devoted three decades after he left office to organizing health care projects that saved millions of lives in Africa and the Americas. He had the will and found the way.

During the same decades, U.S. political leaders in sync with a profit-driven health care industry appear to have resisted pleas to organize a cost-effective universal health care system that would spare millions life-limiting pain, suffering and medical debt, and save tens of thousands of lives annually. Without the will, there has been no way.

It is horrifying that a murder proved to be the catalyst for patients, doctors and Americans from so many walks of life to express their deep despair, feelings of powerlessness and longing for a humane healthcare system.

We’ve had the choice all along. To value all lives or put a price on each one. We can only hope that instead of suffering in silence or resorting to violent speech and actions, people will join the movement to achieve what studies and experience show us to be the proven solution: guaranteed publicly financed universal health care.

— Ellen Karel, Corte Madera

Staying fit amid growing concerns about driving

I am writing in response to Sue Curran’s recently published “How It Is” column in the IJ Lifestyles section (“Reflections of life in your 80s,” Dec. 31). I identified with her words right away, since I am turning 83 later this month.

My wife and I show up at the gym Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (well, most of the time). We work out for at least 40 minutes — on the bike, the treadmill, lifting weights and more. We have lots of friends there, so it is very pleasant.

I am not lifting as much as earlier on, nor am I running as fast on the mill, but I continue to work the body — often having to ignore the pain caused by my deteriorating right hip.

What has been somewhat alarming to me, however, is my anxiety over driving my car. Recently, I drove to a doctor’s visit at the Kaiser office just off Lucas Valley Road. I was not that comfortable. Then, during a recent rainy weekend, I had considerable anxiety during drives from Santa Venetia to Mill Valley.

Years ago, I rode motorcycles. I had four different ones and crashed each one. I would ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles without a problem. Now, I would never ride a motorcycle.

As the phrase goes, “growing old is not for sissies.” I say right on to that.

— Kent Philpott, San Rafael

Climate change demands push for renewable energy

Susannah Saunders’ upbeat Marin Voice commentary (“Rebates for electrification are in a good place, for now,” Dec. 10) extolled the current availability of rebates for cars and homes to electrify — both to reduce global warming and for health reasons.

I also read Walt Rose’s letter to the editor in response published Dec.18. He claimed there would be (or are current) cost issues with supplying an increased amount of electricity, with the goal being full electrification.

Rose wrote that sources of renewable energy (such as solar, wind and nuclear) cannot, in a timely manner, meet the increased demand that full electrification would cause. Therefore, he said, while still having to depend on fossil fuels, electricity prices would increase, negating the funds that these rebates currently provide.

I’m not convinced that, as renewables supply an ever increasing percentage of the total amount of electricity supplied by the grid (balanced by the demand for more electricity), that this will result in higher prices.

It seems to me that the utilities would be buying less electricity as renewables are increasing. This is offset by increasing demand for electric vehicles and appliances. Together, the two forces are pushing us toward full electrification. Until that point, some fossil fuel use does seem necessary.

Climate change demands that we respond, and we are.

— Bernie Samet, San Rafael