Health Insurance Quandary
To the editor:
Thank you for your article informing the community how Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) has dropped Outer Cape Health Services (OCHS) from its Medicare Advantage plans [Nov. 14, front page]. As you reported, BCBS also dropped a number of other federally qualified community health centers from its provider networks.
The health centers got their state senators and representatives involved but to no avail as far as I have been able to see. During the current open enrollment period for health insurance, which ends Dec. 7, people in our community should know that there is little advantage to the so-called Medicare Advantage plans. These private health insurance plans can promise enticing benefits, but they can also remove providers who are essential to our community’s well-being.
Candace Perry
Wellfleet
Concerned for Democracy
To the editor:
I am concerned that two newspapers, which I have long held in high regard, changed their policy of endorsing a presidential candidate in the past election because their owners decided against printing endorsements.
How did the Independent decide whom to endorse? How do other papers decide? Does the owner or editor-in-chief decide? Is a vote taken among some or all of the employees?
Not making an endorsement does appear to be bowing to political pressure or possible fear of retaliation from the unendorsed candidate. That troubles me and makes me more concerned for democracy in the United States.
Maybe some are fearful for valid reasons.
My husband’s paternal grandfather, Antons Benjamins, and his wife, Emilija Benjamins, owned the largest daily newspaper in Latvia, Jaunakas Zinas (The Latest News), from 1911 to 1940. Emilija was publisher and Antons was editor-in-chief.
Because the newspaper had spoken out against the Soviet Communists, many members of the family were arrested when the Soviet Union invaded Latvia in 1941. Antons had died in 1939. Emilija was arrested and sent to the Gulag, where she died, possibly from food poisoning. My husband’s father, who was an editor of the newspaper, was arrested and sent to a prison in the Soviet Union. He did not survive and may have been executed.
Of course, they were only two of many who were arrested for political reasons.
What do we learn from history? That those who speak out against certain regimes may be arrested, imprisoned, and done away with.
Janis Kaklins, who became editor-in-chief in 1921, wrote a book about Antons Benjamins called The King of the Latvian Press. In it, he stated that Antons never told his editors what to write. I admire that quality.
Janet Benjamins
Eastham
Editor’s note: The publisher and senior editors of the Independent together decided on the newspaper’s recent endorsement in the presidential election.
A Loud Town Crier
To the editor:
I attended the first-ever town crier competition hosted by your crier, Daniel Gomez-Llata, and the Guild of American Town Criers in Provincetown in October. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped make it a success. This should be an annual celebration, and Provincetown should have a permanent display that highlights all of your town criers.
Provincetown has had a town crier since about 1849. A headline in the Ellington Press in Missouri, published on July 7, 1938, reads “Only Town Crier” and goes on to state that “Amos Emanuel Kubik, the official town crier of Provincetown, Mass., is the only one in the United States….” I think having 175 years of town criers in Provincetown deserves some formal recognition.
Granted, I’m invested in Amos Kubik’s story, as he is related to me. I’m sure, however, that there are lots of interesting stories to be found about the others who have served as your town criers.
Amos was in the papers often over the decades. He was a loud fellow. In fact, he was bellowing his news so loudly he was threatened with jail by the presiding judge for making too much noise outside your courthouse. He was “motion pictured for newsreels,” and he was a guest on WJZ radio. At age 65, the year he was hired to be your town crier, Amos challenged the 228-foot ferry steamship Dorothy Bradford to race him in his single scull.
A mural of Amos and many other criers is on a wall at the Provincetown Inn, and I understand a portrait of Amos currently hangs in Fisherman Hall Auditorium at the Provincetown Schools. Somewhere I read that Amos’s five-pound bell was given to a local historical society. Bringing all these items together is surely worthwhile.
Tina M. Peters
Buckland
Letters to the Editor
The Provincetown Independent welcomes letters from readers on all subjects. They must be signed with the writer’s name, home address, and telephone number (for verification). Letters will be published only if they have been sent exclusively to the Independent. They should be no more than 300 words and may be edited for clarity, accuracy, conciseness, and good taste. Longer pieces (up to 600 words) may be submitted for consideration as op-ed commentary. Send letters to [email protected] or by mail to P.O. Box 1034, Provincetown, MA 02657. The deadline for letters is Monday at noon for each week’s edition.
