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Vets need better health care, 2/5

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published February 5, 2007

I hope our government starts to honor our soldiers by providing consistent health care. My father was diagnosed with four tumors at a public hospital in February 2006. But for two years prior he was seen by the VA hospital for respiratory ailments. He was diagnosed and given inhalers for his emphysema. The tumors turned out to be lung cancer, and he died four months later. By the time he had been diagnosed properly, the cancer was already in Stage 4.

It took him going to a public hospital only one time to get the proper diagnosis and the discovery of his tumors.

My father served three tours honorably as a Marine sniper in Vietnam, all of which he volunteered for, only to have the right to fight for his own life here in the U.S. taken away at overwhelmed and understaffed VA hospitals. How is it that we are responsible for building hospitals in Iraq, but the only government-controlled hospitals in the U.S. constantly fall under scrutiny for poor management, underfunding, and malpractice? It's amazing how they can find hundreds of billions of dollars for a war, but they fail to take care of their own soldiers here? Or even the poor communities of Katrina?

Daniel Blevins, Hernando Beach

Slavery not main issue in Civil War Letter, Jan. 25

Civil War averted bigger disaster

American history has always had its distortions, but at this late date, to continue to try to describe the Civil War in regional terms is silly. Jerry Blomgren's reply to David Anthony was fair and accurate.

My question for Mr. Anthony is this: What would have happened to 4 million former slaves in 1900 after the impact of the industrial revolution? Four million uneducated and unemployed in the South would have created a problem whose solution I cannot imagine.

Without the 35 years after the Civil War (not the War of Northern Aggression, as some in the South still insist on calling it) when former slaves adjusted to freedom and self-sufficiency, there probably would have been anarchy and bloodshed.

Some in the North helped slaves escape to freedom before and during the war. Would the North have been welcoming to 4 million uneducated former slaves if the South had won the war after these slaves were finally freed? Doubtful.

Mr. Anthony should think his position through a little better.

Richard Dimberio, Brooksville

Widen, improve Deltona Blvd.

Have we been forsaken on the enormously busy Deltona Boulevard?

From Spring Hill Drive to Forest Oaks Boulevard, Deltona Boulevard needs resurfacing and widening because of so much traffic. Since the Post Office made us move our mailboxes 8 feet, now we have trenches in front of our homes and all the lawns are ruined. We need sidewalks to eliminate this situation.

Now the county wants to widen Elgin Boulevard at an enormous cost, demolishing homes. Why not be fair and repair that portion of Deltona Boulevard? We also have a school creating enormous traffic. Please give us the consideration of doing something here.

John Picard, Spring Hill

Beautiful Mind needs public help

Another year gone by for the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Hernando, and it has been a year full of challenges. I have some very big shoes to fill and a lot of learning to do. Our board of directors and the membership deserve a thanks for their patience.

Someone much wiser than I said that "to grow is to change." My dream is to help NAMI Hernando grow in order to meet the needs of our growing population. As our county grows and funding for mental health shrinks, we need to search for new ways to meet those needs. Our mission charges us with providing support, education, advocacy and research for those families and individuals dealing with a mental illness. Can we change to meet this challenge? I think we can.

Twenty-eight years ago, in Wisconsin, NAMI was founded as a national organization. Only six years later NAMI was born in Hernando County. Parents all over the country were up in arms trying to figure out what to do about a health care system that blamed them for their children's schizophrenia. President George Bush declared the 1990s "The Decade of the Brain." According to Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute on Mental Health, from 2000-2010 will be known as the "Decade of Discovery." We now have the technology to look deep inside the inner brain. We can see details we couldn't see two years ago. Those first NAMI families had an uphill struggle, and so do we, but progress is being made.

NAMI Hernando's expenses are growing. The grant from the United Way helps us to keep The Beautiful Mind drop-in center open and operating, but NAMI Hernando is financially responsible and must make up the difference.

The Beautiful Mind center provides a place for NAMI Hernando, as well as a place for people dealing with a brain disorder. The Beautiful Mind center allows NAMI Hernando a place to hold education classes, a place that offers support to families and consumers and a place to coordinate activities that allows us to reach out to the community. The Beautiful Mind is an outreach center, reaching out to the community of individuals and families who deal with mental disabilities and the community that cares about them.

Without dues and donations from the community, the center could not exist. Help us grow along with the population of mentally ill in Hernando County. We need your support.

Darlene Linville, president

National Alliance on Mental Illness

[Last modified February 4, 2007, 21:21:01]