Here’s your opportunity to express your views and opinions on the columns you read here.  Below are the comments and reactions to last month’s columns.  If you have thoughts on the subjects I wrote about this month, write me to me at jbehrens@roadrunner.com and let me know.  If you have suggestions for big bands you’d like featured, tell me your choices.  I’ll do my best to honor your requests.

Life and Beyond...

Carolyn from California: Regarding the indifference of hospital staff and employees, I have found that to be true at many hospitals across the country.  I have had first hand experience with my local hospital and can relate an instance when a dying man was released from the hospital despite the objections of his wife.  Two days later this man was in critical condition and admitted to a hospital in a nearby town where it was discovered he should never have been released as he was in the last stages of lung cancer and Parkinson’s disease that had never been diagnosed in the local hospital!  Needless to say, this was a horrible experience for the wife who had been led to believe by the local surgeon that he would be okay after several days at home.  NOT!  The unfortunate patient died within a week never knowing the events that caused incredible grief to his wife.  The whole event has been difficult to understand and accept leaving friends and family distrustful of the local hospital and medical personnel involved.  What a sad commentary about the people in whom we trust with our lives and the lives of friends and family.  This may sound very negative but I truly believe that impersonal care has replaced passionate care for our loved ones.  As for me, I put my trust in God and know that I can count on Him for compassion and help. I firmly agree that the power of prayer is much more comforting than generic words from medical workers and that God is the ‘Cure Giver” and the “Great Physician.”  I have seen the difference prayer has made in people knowing that others were praying for them and that God is there for them.

Time Out

Dave from West Virginia: I think the US is flirting with danger when it befriends countries around Russia, the former Soviet republics, with promises of NATO membership and other Western alliances.  What would the US do if Russia or China made similar arrangements with Mexico or Canada? We already know what happened in Cuba in the early 60s.  That point aside, though, Russia seems to be falling backwards into dictatorship and corruption with an aim of restoring at least some of the glory days of the old Soviet Union.