I have to take issue with the front page of the Nov. 1 Star insinuating that Indiana is somehow slow and wrong ("Why Indy’s behind the pack’’). Before telling readers they are sickly, lazy and stupid, maybe The Star should do some comparison shopping.

New York and California are held up as pinnacles of thought and economy and yet both are running multibillion-dollar deficits. New York’s homicide rate is up 7.3 percent. The health-care plans both these states endorse would potentially add trillions in federal deficit spending.

Try encouraging people to exercise and quit smoking with tax credits or refunds rather than trying to control them through legislation. It’s the “streak of individualism” that will save this state from going down in flames like New York and California.

Patrick Wheaton

Camby