I stand with President Obama on health care reform. Our country is in dire circumstances, and we must act as one nation to bring it out of economic ruin.

As a small business owner in Baltimore, I feel directly the crush of health care costs. I cannot afford to buy myself or my seven-year-old son health care coverage, let alone my one remaining employee. The others, I have had to let go because of the economy.

Soon our country is going to be a second-rate power in a hostile global marketplace. We have got take a new road. We have to steer our ship away from the rocks, together.

We must not let this moment pass without finishing the job that we have come so close to completing. I urge our representatives in Congress to put aside their differences and work together to get this health care bill passed into law.

David Brown, Dundalk