Opinion: Dick Cheney’s new heart awakens Times’ letter writers
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Over the weekend, letter writers to The Times argued all sides of the healthcare law that the Supreme Court will take up this week, the L.A. Memorial Coliseum scandal and the too-late L.A. City Council vote on Wal-Mart’s planned store in Chinatown.
On one story, though -- former Vice President Dick Cheney’s new heart -- there was near-universal and rapid one-liner-type agreement.
Times staff writer Dalina Castellanos reported: “Former Vice President Dick Cheney had a heart transplant Saturday morning after waiting more than 20 months on a transplant list, his office reported. Cheney, 71, … has battled a lifetime of heart disease.”
Ralph Brax of Lancaster was quick to observe:
Dick Cheney gets a heart transplant and taxpayers pay for it. This occurs several days before the Supreme Court takes on the case of national health care. The prosecution rests.
Chimed in Tim Viselli of La Canada Flintridge:
After many transplants, the body will reject an incompatible heart. This may be the first time where the heart rejects an incompatible body.
Andrew Rubin of Malibu added:
Seeing the headline that Cheney had received a heart transplant, I could not help but think, ‘Better ten years late than never.’
Patricia Coelho of South Pasadena echoed several others when she wondered:
Does this mean that Dick Cheney will finally have a heart?
Clearly not a fan, Steve Wollenberg of Los Angeles asked:
Dick Cheney had a heart transplant? Really? Did anyone toss in a brain? They usually, but not always, come as a set.
And finally, from Phoenix, Ernie Haas emailed a wish:
Just heard that ex-Vice President Dick Cheney had a change of heart. Maybe now he’ll become a Democrat.
The Times story didn’t address political affiliations, noting only that “about 88% of patients survive the first year after transplant surgery” and that, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, the “number of active waiting-list candidates -- those eligible to receive organs at any given time -- was 72,855 for all organs as of Saturday.”
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Letters on letters -- on healthcare reform
--Sara Lessley
Photo: Former Vice President Dick Cheney. Credit: Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images