Appreciates local volunteer effort

Our children have participated in Tuba City/Moenkopi Baseball Little League and ASYO soccer league.

As a parent I appreciate the time volunteers spend to teach our children to play soccer and baseball. They not only teach our children but also help them to stay healthy. To volunteer it takes a person’s time and much commitment. Our children have enjoyed playing for the little leagues. We have had wonderful coaches. A big thank you!

Virginia Butler

Tuba City, Ariz.

Book focuses on indigenous culture

I enjoyed reading the article “Let’s ensure Navajo language passes on to future generations” by Lucille Mescale Hunt in your Oct. 15 issue.

Your readers might be interested in knowing that Northern Arizona University has published a new book “Nurturing Native Languages.” It includes articles on “Situational Navajo: A School-Based, Verb-Centered Way of Teaching Navajo” by Wayne Holm, Irene Silentman, and Laura Wallace, “Oral History Shares the Wealth of a Navajo Community” by Sara L. Begay, Mary Jimmie and Louise Lockard, and “Missionaries and American Indian Languages” by Evangeline Parsons Yazzie.

This 194-page monograph is the sixth in a series of books published by Northern Arizona University focusing on the revitalization of indigenous languages and cultures. It includes papers from the eighth annual Stabilizing Indigenous Languages conference held in Flagstaff in 2001, ninth annual conference held in Bozeman, Mont., in 2002, and 10th annual conference held in Wisconsin Dells, Wis., in 2003.

Dr. Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks in his introduction to “Nurturing Native Languages” expresses eloquently the broader ramifications of language loss, writing that “as we lose our native languages, more and more of us begin to take part in the misuse and abuse of nature.”

“Nurturing Native Languages” focuses on immersion language teaching methods, the use of technology in language revitalization, and other topics related to current efforts among indigenous peoples to reclaim their linguistic and cultural heritages so they can live better lives in our modern world. It is edited by NAU professors Jon Reyhner, Octaviana Trujillo, Roberto

Carrasco and Louise Lockard. It is now available free on-line at http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/NNL/ and will be available for sale in the NAU bookstore in November.

Jon Reyhner

Flagstaff, Ariz.

Medicare reform cuts doctors’ share

It’s bad enough that Medicare and Congress have placed the burden and cost of federal regulations, including EMTALA and HIPAA, on the back of physicians. We’ve also got the time-stealing requirements of documentation, coding, letters of medical necessity and family-leave forms, which continually take us away from valuable interaction with our patients.

Now, they plan to increase premiums for Medicare beneficiaries and are blaming the increase on the escalating costs of doctor visits. This is outrageous!

If the Senate bill on Medicare reform passes, physicians will receive a 4.2 percent cut in reimbursement. This cut is slated for January, which means that the real, inflation-adjusted reimbursement rate for physicians will be down 19 percent since 1991. This has occurred, while the cost of running a physician’s practice has increased by 47 percent due to the additional staff and costs associated with complying with the federal laws, medical malpractice insurance premium increases, and dealing with the bureaucracy of many managed care plans.

With these facts, I question how any mathematical equation, even in the most skillful of hands, could ever place the blame for this increase in Medicare premiums on doctors.

Dr. Bruce Bethancourt Jr.

President Arizona Medical Association

Phoenix, Ariz.

For independent Iraq commission

Congress must find the truth about the administration’s war against Iraq.

After five weeks of searching, the United States has not found any chemical or biological weapons in Iraq, nor any evidence of nuclear weapons. No proof of links to al Qaeda have been found either. The administration’s justification for cutting off United Nations weapons inspections and invading and occupying Iraq has not been supported by facts on the ground.

Serious questions are now being asked about the intelligence used by the administration to justify war against Iraq. What exactly was the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Was it sufficient to back up the administration’s claims? Was it intentionally manipulated to support a press toward war? Did the administration knowingly lie?

Congress has a vital role to play in finding answers to these questions. Yet, our representatives in government appear to be dragging their feet. Hearings now being held by House and Senate intelligence committees are a step in the right direction, but ultimately only an open, public process of full disclosure can restore administration accountability.

Congress should not only hold open hearings immediately, but should move now to appoint an independent commission to investigate and publicly report on exactly what intelligence was available and how it was used in the lead up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The credibility of our government and the conscience of our country may depend on it.

Norman T. Merkel

Scottsdale, Ariz.