Editor, Gazette-Journal:

The number of letters in this space touting the candidacy of Sheila Crowley illustrates to me a dangerous change in the fiber of the nation. We have begun a descent into a mindset that if you want something but can’t afford it, the government should provide it. This includes health care, pay rates, schooling, child care, and any number of progressive ideals that are championed as “Rights.”

First, our rights as citizens are enumerated in the Constitution. Nowhere does it say we have a right to health care or any of the other “rights” championed by Ms. Crowley. Second, a “right,” by definition, is something you can possess without taking from anyone else. Just because something is nice to have, even necessary, or because you want it, does not make it a “right.”

Health care is not a “right”—if you can’t afford it, then someone else has to pay for it. As a nation, single-payer health c...