DEATH AND HYPOCRISY

In response to Laurence Britt’s commentary, “Saving Schiavo:
Hypocrisy Without Limit,” March 30: I agree there was some hypocrisy by the
elected officials opposed to the removal of Schiavo’s feeding tube. But there
was also some hypocrisy in the positions taken by the courts that ultimately
decided Schiavo’s fate.

            Although I
support an Oregon law that
permits physician-assisted suicide under certain circumstances, and although I
would also favor clemency for Dr. Jack Kevorkian, I have mixed feelings about
Schiavo. Because Schiavo had apparently adapted to many years of living with a
feeding tube, because she did not appear to be suffering, because of
uncertainties about her wishes, and because of doubts that her death from
dehydration and starvation would really be painless, I wonder if justice was
really done.

            To Britt’s
list of hypocrisies, I’d like to add that most of the elected officials who
spoke up either for or against the removal of Schiavo’s feeding tube have shown
little concern for the lives of millions of other vulnerable Americans who are
mistreated in private and government-run long-term care facilities.

            During the
past 10 years, Congress has released 32 reports documenting widespread
maltreatment at thousands of nursing homes, including unnecessary deaths or
injuries caused by abuse or neglect. In recent years, state health-department
surveys have cited several nursing homes in MonroeCounty for providing substandard
quality of care and for placing residents in immediate jeopardy (the most
serious level of deficiencies).

            Yet
nursing-home reform was conspicuous by its absence from the Bush-Kerry debates
and from any other election campaign last year, for Congress or the state
legislature. When will President Bush call Congress into special session, as he
did in the Schiavo case, to deal with nursing-home abuse? After all, in his
attempts to save Schiavo’s life, Bush said, “The essence of civilization is the
obligation of the strong to protect the weak.”

            Kevorkian
is imprisoned for euthanizing a man suffering from end-stage Lou Gehrig’s
disease. The man and his entire family had sought Kevorkian’s assistance and
consented to Kevorkian’s humanely and quickly ending the man’s life.

            The courts
have held that such Kevorkian-style lethal injections are murder (unless
administered for capital punishment), while causing a severely handicapped
person to die of water and food deprivation is legally acceptable. This, too,
is hypocrisy. Once it was decreed that the time had come for Schiavo to die, a
lethal injection would have been the most humane means of death.

            Joel Freedman, North Main Street, Canandaigua

OUR
ALBATROSS

Renaissance
Square is a fiasco of the first order.

            It is a project that has no market
basis. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been spent, and many more are about to
be spent on this ill-conceived albatross. And information on the millions that
will be required annually to operate the complex is absent from public
announcements.

            Renaissance Square is not good urban
planning, nor has the private sector indicated any financial interest in
supporting the project. It has an underground, single-use bus station that will
not increase ridership or improve the service
efficiency of largely suburban routes.

            Meanwhile, the downtown Main Street corridor
continues to stagnate or deteriorate with no public attention. The Amtrak
Station is a public disgrace and improved rail service, which would result in a
long-term economic benefit to the area, is ignored.

            Where are the voices of local
architects, planners, and engineers questioning the integrity and value of the
politically created Renaissance Square? Where is the media asking the hard
questions regarding the feasibility of this project?

            Attractive architectural renderings,
even by the world-renowned firm of Moshe Safdie &
Associates, will not compensate for this seriously flawed Main Street concept. The
community silence is deafening as we are led to the fleecing!

            Irene
T. Ladd, Greece

            Editor’s
note: For the record, City Newspaper has
objected to the bus-station plan since its inception, for numerous reasons,
including the underground component and the operating costs. We have similarly
objected to the “performing arts center” portion of Ren Square because it
seems less a “center” than a single theater for Broadway road shows, with
hopes, possibly, for additional theaters, at some unspecified time in the
future. We have also complained, for years, that there has been virtually no
public input in the plans for the arts center, and the management structure and
operating costs are still unknown. In addition, we have suggested that the MonroeCommunity
College tech center should be located in the SibleyBuilding.

UN FANTASIES

Your editorial writers seem to be in a state of denial about
the United Nations (Laurence Britt’s “One Mind Fits All,” March 23). Ever hear
of the Iraqi “Oil for Food Scandal” involving Kofi Annan’s son and former
second-in-command? How about the new scandal involving sexual abuse of children
by UN staffers in Eastern Europe and the Congo?

            Don’t you
think a UN which has Libya
and the Sudan
on its Human Rights Commission deserves disdain? You know the Sudan:
That’s the place where Arabs are enslaving (literally) and murdering black
tribes like the Nuba. I believe the word is genocide? Does reality have any
influence whatsoever on your writer’s UN fantasies?

            Alan L. Glaser, Rochester

            Laurence Britt’s response: The UN is not
a perfect institution, but at the moment it is the only one we have. No country
on earth is perfect, either, and all, including the US,
have done things that are regrettable. The question is: Does the US
wish to try to work with the UN to make it and the world a better place or
follow a strictly unilateral approach?

            The
appointment of John Bolton sends another strong message to the world that the US
is oblivious to international opinion, is above international law, and will use
its overwhelming power as it alone sees fit. Many Americans, apparently
including Mr. Glaser, think this is a good thing. The overwhelming majority of
people the world over, including the people of our traditional allies, are
disgusted with this American arrogance, as shown by numerous opinion polls.

            In our own
Declaration of Independence, the phrase “a decent respect for the opinions
of mankind” was used to describe our concern for world opinion. Now the
neocon philosophy is to thumb our nose at anyone with another opinion. Sooner
or later, losing a “decent respect” will come home to haunt us.

WRITING TO CITY

We welcome and encourage readers’ letters for publication.
Send them to: themail@rochester-citynews.com or The Mail, City Newspaper, 250
North Goodman Street, Rochester14607.

            Our
guidelines: We don’t publish anonymous letters — and we ask that you include
your street name and city/town/village. We don’t publish letters that have been
sent to other media — and we don’t
publish form letters generated by activist groups. While we don’t restrict
length, letters of under 350 words have a greater chance of being published. We
do edit letters for clarity and brevity. And in general we don’t publish
letters (or longer “op-ed” pieces) from the same writer more often than about
once every two months.

This article appears in Apr 13-19, 2005.