Tom Curtis to Tom Cooper: Thank you and please DO get the word out to others

December 4, 2005

Hello Tom,

Please do! I sent my response to you, to every active in the school system I retired form in Canton, Plain Local Schools. I also sent my response to you, to hundreds of people on my various email grouping trees and the entire STRS board. We were led to believe throughout our careers in education that we would have affordable health care coverage for ourselves and our dependent spouse or dependent child for the rest of our lives. That is what I expect. I will probably not stop trying to get such, until they provide a grandfathering clause for those of us needing such, or I die. Boy, do they have a lot of years left of seeing me at board meetings, if that does not happen.

Thank you for your involvement Tom and please feel free to pass along anything I put out by email, unless that is, if I ask you not too.

We have to educate the masses or this kind of retiree bashing will continue. This crap has to end and someone needs to go to jail. These people have to be held accountable for their actions. We have to begin to build a coalition of educators across this state to take action on this situation. The cost of litigation would cost in the range of a quarter to a half million dollars. One dollar from every member of the STRS would finance this. This is certainly not just about us either. It is just affecting those of us that have a dependent to insure and are under the age of 65 and those over 65 that have a spouse that does not qualify for Medicare. The big picture here is that we need to guarantee affordable health care for every future retire, of which there are thousands each and every year.

Take care,
Tom Curtis

----- Original Message -----

From: Tom Cooper

To: Thomas Curtis

Sent: Saturday, December 03, 2005 6:56 AM

Subject: Re: 120305 Curtis Resp To Cooper Resp; Re 120205 Curtis Resp To Doyle; Re Ted Strickland

Thanks for the reply, Tom. This is a pretty amazing list of ineptitude at it's worst, if not malfeasance. I am planning on passing along this info to all the actives, (as well as retirees), that I have contact with, if that is ok with you.

Thanks,
TCooper