Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 4, 1995 TAG: 9504040103
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Medicare will not pay for long-term care unless a patient receives skilled care. Old age is a terminal illness, and one day we'll all be unable to eat. If we have a chronic illness, we can be tube-fed or given IV solutions when we can't eat. If our lungs fail, we can be put on ventilators. When our kidneys fail, dialysis machines can clean our blood. What machine will give us love and kindness, and will keep our brains functioning? Right now, that doesn't matter. Medicare will reimburse anything the doctor orders, regardless of the patient's quality of life.
In an ideal world, we wouldn't have unscrupulous doctors overtreating old and decaying bodies to receive Medicare payments. We wouldn't have hospitals creating Frankensteinian wards to give skilled care to folks whose bodies are trying to die. These hospitals and nursing homes would be hiring bereavement coordinators to help families let go of their loved ones, rather than Medicare specialists who find the most productive ways to reap Medicare dollars.
Walking through a skilled-care unit and seeing remnants of human bodies lying in beds is unnerving. Watching confused old people being restrained, and taken to dialysis makes one feel cold and nauseated. This is happening in the Roanoke Valley.
Advance directives (living wills and medical powers of attorney) are one way to protect ourselves from overtreatment. We have to let our families know what our wishes are concerning end-of-life issues. Medicare must stop paying for the torture inflicted on senior citizens whose families are too weak, uneducated or uncaring to protect them from physicians and hospitals participating in this Medicare fraud.
MARY THERESE
Clinical Nurse Specialist
ROANOKE
Constitution isn't just for lawyers
THANK God we have some judges who actually read the United States Constitution. I'm proud that Judge George W. Harris Jr. ruled that to try Cindy Poff after her license was suspended would amount to double jeopardy (March 10 article, ``New DUI law in jeopardy'').
There's also the matter of due process, which I think has become something lawyers don't wish to talk about. Due process is defined as ``an orderly opportunity to be heard, and protect one's rights, before a court having power to hear and determine the case.'' When the police officers revoke a license for seven days, they're being judge, jury, etc. Does this mean I or Harris condone driving under the influence? Far from it.
The Constitution wasn't brought about to create money-making opportunities for lawyers, but was designed to guide the nation along the route of freedom. When we move away from it, we're headed for trouble.
Some say the Constitution is what judges say it is. Read Article 6 if you believe that.
I'm struck by how timid most folks are about the Constitution, as if one must be a member of the American Bar Association or a country club to talk about it or quote any part of it. Many in government like it that way. However, they don't want us to be timid about it when they want us to face an enemy thousands of miles from home. So, they should encourage us to study it, lean on it and defend it.
Bless Harris and the ``10 percent'' of lawyers who love, respect and defend the Constitution.
EARL W. BOWYER
VINTON
Funds for disabled are on the line
ON THE eve of Veto Day, it is important for Roanoke Valley residents to be aware of issues being considered by Gov. Allen. One bill pending his signature is House Bill 1450, proposed amendments to the state budget. That bill consists of many line items that relate to funding for specific projects and programs.
One item provides $500,000 in general funds and $373,000 in nongeneral funds for long-term employment support for those with severe disabilities, including mental retardation and related disabilities. The support permits such persons to continue in productive employment settings, as many of them require longer-term support to maintain employment.
On behalf of Arc Roanoke, Inc. and other charitable nonprofit corporations dedicated to improving the lives of citizens with mental retardation and related disabilities, and as president of Arc's board of directors, I urge our valley's citizens to request Allen not to veto funding for this important program. In the event that the line item is vetoed, citizens should request local legislators to override the veto. Together, we can improve the lives of those who need our help to help themselves.
STEVEN J. TALEVI
President, Board of Directors
Arc Roanoke, Inc.
ROANOKE
Family's success continues today
AS A FORMER employee of one of the Krisch family businesses, a subsidiary company once owned by Krisch Hotels, I'd like to respond to the March 19 article ``The fall of the Krisches.''
I am of the opinion that a lifetime is not determined by one incident. If this were true, then heaven help us all.
The portrayal of the family's fall is in error, as the Krisch/Shaftman family, in the eyes of anyone who ever knew or worked for them, are still and will always be successful.
The article was remiss in that it didn't touch upon the unique way family members combined their enormous business success with integrity, decency, and the respect they showed and earned of everyone with whom they came in contact. Values like these are immeasurable, but it was these values that were part of their daily business operation. Of these values, I shall always be appreciative.
I'm sure that I express the sentiments of anyone who ever knew or worked for them.
STEVEN R. MARTIN
ROANOKE
Urban renewal's destructive history
AS A FORMER Roanoker, I'm writing to commend staff writer Mary Bishop and your newspaper on the Jan. 29 special section on ``Street by Street, Block by Block: How urban renewal uprooted black Roanoke.''
I haven't lived full time in Roanoke since 1944, but have visited often since relocating to Michigan. I've watched with horror what urban renewal has done to the Gainsboro neighborhood in which I grew up. While some homes might not have been what some people regarded as up to standard, they were clean and as well maintained as the individual's ability to provide upkeep. What urban renewal destroyed cannot be counted in just the destruction of houses, but in a way of life.
Gainsboro was made up of people who were mostly a cohesive, loving, caring neighborhood (as I'm sure were other neighborhoods). Most people knew each other and felt safe there. Everyone watched over the children and tried to keep them out of trouble, either of their own making or someone else's. Relocation destroyed this cohesiveness, and scattered its people to the winds. It decimated community after community, and sowed the seeds for the destruction of families that communities all over the nation are facing today. When the heart of a community is gone, so is the love and discipline it contained.
I hope your article will act as a deterrent to future city planners so that they will look beyond the end of their noses and see not just deteriorating housing in a neighborhood, but also the heart of its inhabitants.
RUTH C. MARSH
SAGINAW, MI.
by CNB