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Letters to the EditorsThe elderly deserve our kindness
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 10, 2000 Coming back from lunch the other day, I noticed a tiny, elderly woman walking hesitantly up the sidewalk along Fourth Street N in St. Petersburg. I circled the block to get another look at her. Something about her stood out. She had a purse over one arm, a canvas tote bag over the other. There was nothing unusual about her appearance, but she walked slowly, somewhat erratically, occasionally slowing and looking to the left and right, as if looking for something in the grass. She came to a cross street, onto which a Lexus SUV was turning. I held my breath, but they both saw each other, one much more clearly than the other. I cry as I sit here thinking about her trying to cross Fourth Street itself. I stopped and offered her a ride home, afraid she would not know where that was. But there was nothing wrong with her 80-year-old mind. She walks as she does, because a motorist hit her while she was riding her bicycle last June. Now she walks the long blocks to the bank and back. What has happened to our appreciation of our elders? We have no patience with them. We shut them away as if aging were some disease. These now frail elderly that you pass in your busy daily lives are the generation that laid the foundations for the peace and prosperity that is all many of us speeding up and down Fourth Street have ever known. This woman trying to cross Fourth Street is your mother, your grandmother. Please, for your sake as much as theirs, be a little more kind, a little more patient. The world you live in is of your making.
Task force may help the poor, homelessRe: Downtown poor stage protest at chamber by Jon Wilson, Dec. 3. I read about the poor people marching in front of the chamber building and the BayWalk courtyard. The marchers were chanting: "Poverty is not a crime." I'm pleased that there is a new organization called the Homeless Outreach Task Force, which will attempt to come up with suitable solutions. To expect these troubled folks to retreat into invisibility and remain faceless is not the answer. Many of these people have alcohol or drug addiction problems and to arrest and jail them is not justice. I agree with St. Petersburg police Chief Goliath Davis in his efforts to get drug treatment centers for the addicted. Davis is a good, humane man with progressive long-term solutions. Indeed, his tenure has been marked by decency and compassion. Many homeless, with mental disabilities, require professional medical and psychiatric treatment. Others just need intelligent counseling and job opportunities. It's about time the critics of unfairness should be heeded. Hopefully, the Homeless Outreach Task Force will come up with some long overdue programs that will help the helpless and poverty-stricken.
Acting chief should stay in runningRe: Acting police chief pulls out of race, Nov. 30. If Judy Gershkowitz is good enough to be "stand-in" police chief, she's good enough to do the job permanently! She shouldn't have to take her name out of contention just because the city manager wants an "outsider." Insisting on hiring an outsider is a slap in the face to all those currently employed in the police department.
Emergency workers are praisedRecently my sister suffered a heart attack. I called 911 and in just a few minutes these "angels of mercy" arrived and took care of her in her condo. The ambulance was there in a very short time and took her to Palms of Pasadena Hospital. The next day she was operated on at All Children's Hospital. I'm happy to say, she is on the way to recovery. The reason I'm writing this is to tell people in the bay area how lucky we are to have such wonderful care. Everyone, from the volunteers at the hospitals, the nurses, the doctors, the emergency people, couldn't have done more for her.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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