The New York Times

By DAVID STUCKLER and SANJAY BASU

EARLY last month, a triple suicide was reported in the seaside town of Civitanova Marche, Italy. A married couple, Anna Maria Sopranzi, 68, and Romeo Dionisi, 62, had been struggling to live on her monthly pension of around 500 euros (about $650), and had fallen behind on rent.

Because the Italian government’s austerity budget had raised the retirement age, Mr. Dionisi, a former construction worker, became one of Italy’s esodati (exiled ones) — older workers plunged into poverty without a safety net. On April 5, he and his wife left a note on a neighbor’s car asking for forgiveness, then hanged themselves in a storage closet at home. When Ms. Sopranzi’s brother, Giuseppe Sopranzi, 73, heard the news, he drowned himself in the Adriatic.

The correlation between unemployment and suicide has been observed since the 19th century. People looking for work are about twice as likely to end their lives as those who have jobs. READ More

This Thursday (May 16, 2013), Eric Cantor and Michele Bachmann are holding a vote to repeal health care reform in its entirety. It's the Republicans' latest scare tactic to drive Tea Party hysteria and demagogue Obamacare just as reform is taking shape across the country. If Bachmann and Cantor think we'll back down now, they're in for a big surprise. Help us have our biggest showing of support yet for Obamacare:

Declare your support for Obamacare: Friend, click here to automatically add your name before this week's repeal vote.

Here's what repeal would mean for our healthcare system: denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions, increasing prescription drug costs, and eliminating the cap on exorbitant health care costs. That would be a devastating blow to middle class families across the country.

Republicans need to know that healthcare reform isn't just another ideological battle, and your signature will help send them that message.

Click Here To Tell Republicans: I support Obamacare.

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The New York Times

Editorial

It is time for President Obama to abandon his hopes of reaching a grand budget bargain with Republicans.

At every opportunity since they took over the House in 2011, Republicans have made it clear that they have no interest in reaching a compromise with the White House. For two years, they held sham negotiations with Democrats that only dragged down the economy with cuts; this year, they are refusing even to sit down at the table.

Mr. Obama hasn’t given up inviting the Republicans to join him in making the hard choices of governing, but he has been rebuffed each time. This year, in hopes of getting some support for modest tax increases on the rich, he even proposed a reduction in the cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients. The events of the last few weeks should make it clear to him why that offer should be pulled from the table immediately. Consider: READ More

Published in The Chapel Hill News on May 01, 2013.  Reprinted With Permission

I am writing to express my extreme displeasure with your votes on April 17 against gun background checks and gun trafficking.

There are no excuses for such stances which are clearly based upon political calculation. So rather than trying to persuade or shame you with moral or logical reasoning, I will appeal to your obvious desire for political self-preservation.

Despite outward appearances, North Carolina is a purple state. Continued growth and changing demographics will accelerate its change from a reliably red state to a swing state. In three years, your campaign for reelection will face a state electorate unfriendly to an official who is both unwilling to compromise and unresponsive to its will.

As part of that previously silent majority, I have no intention of waiting three years to begin working against your continued representation of my beloved state. Lest you be tempted to disregard negative feedback based upon my address in one of the state?s more left-leaning areas, please consider that friends and family, young and old, are scattered throughout our state. All of them are reliable voters, and all of them have an extensive network of friends and contacts of their own.

Additionally, I intend to contact newspapers throughout North Carolina asking them to include your vote against sensible gun regulations within or beside each story of gun violence in our state. Every report of murder, suicide, drive-by or accidental shooting, act of domestic violence, rape or assault committed with a gun should include a reminder of your recent votes on the issue. Sen. Hagan?s courageous votes should be included for contrast.

In addition to gun violence within our own state, guns from North Carolina flow up the I-95 corridor to major cities in the northeast. While states and cities with tighter regulations may not yet be able to stem the tide of guns from states with weaker laws, they should be able to hold lawmakers accountable. As such, I will be contacting news outlets suggesting that reports of crimes or tragedies occurring in the north with guns traced to North Carolina should also include the voting record of our senators.

I hope in the future you will work for the best interests of the entire population of North Carolina rather than for a narrow constituency. Your votes have real-world consequences that extend beyond your own reelection.

Linda James