Letters to the Editors

Struggle intensifies for disabled brother, sister

Editor: My sister and I, both disabled by the ongoing progression of muscular dystrophy, have been struggling to maintain ourselves in our home since the passing of our mother and sole caregiver two years ago. She succumbed to cancer in March 2001.

Our mother was a mother in every sense of the word. She guided us through the emotional distress of being disabled and instilled a self worth that culminated in our achieving positions of employment. Her dream of retirement and living in Florida was realized in August 1984 when we relocated here from Cleveland.

My sister, Arlene, retired on Social Security disability from Hillcrest Hospital Cleveland. I continued to work part time until I suffered respiratory collapse in 1988. The prolonged hospital stay wiped out any fund I had accumulated. It was determined that I would require ventilator support and continued care for the remainder of my life.

Consequently, I retired on Social Security disability along with Medicaid support. My mother brought me home and accepted this additional demand without reservation.

I am 59, but because of my advanced condition, I require 24-hour care, seven days a week. A nursing home was recommended. I need not tell you about the quality of life in these warehouses when all you have as insurance is Medicare.

We are not totally without assistance. I'm on the state of Florida's Consumer Directed Care program that provides me a benefit of $2,600 monthly. This is an experimental program the state has initiated. In some ways, it can be construed as a scaled-down working model of just what the aims of the pending Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Support Act (MiCASSA) legislation can accomplish.

Our local parish, St. Thomas Aquinas' chapter of the St. Vincent DePaul Society, our brother-in-law and friends have all helped. Despite our Herculean efforts to keep attendant care costs to an absolute minimum -- exhausting what meager assets my sister had and incurring an accumulating debt -- we are falling short and live under the threat of going into a nursing facility.

Our expenses, for most of our aides, is roughly $1,000 per week. We sold our home, with a provision that we can reside in it as long as we can afford to retain assistance.

We have used the proceeds on the sale of our home, $50,000, to supplement what financial help we are receiving. Unfortunately, even that resource is becoming exhausted.

My sister has initiated the process for state assistance. But because some of the home sale proceeds are available, her application was denied. We are in a Catch-22.

There may be some legislative help in the future. The funds that make nursing home commitment possible are provided under Title XIX of the Social Security Act.

Unfortunately, these funds are not made directly available to the individual. In other words, we are prohibited from voicing a choice on the utilization of these funds. Funds that, after all, are for our benefit paid by us during our working years. There's a proposal (HR 3612 in the previous Congress) known as MiCASSA to rewrite this section and allow us the choice of how best to utilize these funds. But Congress moves very slowly and our need is now.
-- Arthur Dempsey, New Port Richey

Krewe's actions can't honor American Indian killed in Iraq

Editor: Aren't we fortunate here in New Port Richey that when the first woman soldier is killed in battle in Iraq, Lori Piestewa, we can know in our hearts that our own Krewe of Chasco, by dressing up like Indians, has already sort of honored the memory of this brave American. Who can doubt that when her grieving family and the Hopi Nation in Tuba City, Ariz., think of Lori, they can know that well-off, fun-loving white folks in New Port Richey thought enough of their daughter's God-given Indian ancestry to imitate real Indians by stealing just enough of their culture to give boys and girls in Pasco County a look at these fascinating people of our past.

I'm sure the children watching this Krewe of Chasco float now realize that American Indians today are like Lori Piestewa: hardworking, deeply spiritual Americans who love their country with all its faults, and are among the first to volunteer, the first to fight and the first among the minorities in this country subjected to assault and other hate crimes.

I'm sure the children who eagerly reach for the almost real Indian beads thrown by almost real Indians on a float leased by New Port Richey for our most privileged citizen children realize that these Indians are not really like the pirates on those other floats.

And why should any American Indian be upset with white people dressing like Indians and having a good time? Aren't they educating the public about the near extermination of Native Americans through disease and wars, and the robbing of their homelands, and how whites are now stealing the very culture of American Indians? After seeing the Krewe on this float, the children of Pasco County now know the difference between the Haudenausanee and the Lakota, between the Seminole and the Choctaws, between the Dineh and the Dine. They no longer see all Indians as the same primitive people of the last century without a role or voice in the United States today.

Recently I was asked by County Commissioner Peter Altman if I wanted to meet "his" Indians, the vendors who hope to make a living selling at the powwow, and the handful of Indians paid thousands of dollars by the Chasco Fiesta to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the racism of those, like Altman and Tom Finn, who dress up like Indians and imagine this honors American Indians like Lori Piestewa.

I declined to meet American Indians who cannot afford to challenge the misuse of their ethnic heritage by self-satisfied rich white guys and gals. Like blacks in the South as recently as the '60s and '70s, these individuals are not about to risk their livelihood by slapping the hands that pay them. For the Krewe of Chasco to use these "hired" Indians as an excuse for their racist behavior is despicable and, I believe, unlawful.

So on behalf of all those attending the Chasco Fiesta, and all the citizens of Pasco County who don't seem to care that our tax money allows the wealthiest among us to play Indian, let the good times continue to roll. Try to think of Hopi Indian and American soldier Lori Piestewa in the same thought as the Krewe of Chasco, and see if what you feel is honor, or patriotism, or something closer to nausea.
-- Daniel Callaghan, New Port Richey

Dog abuser should face full punishment allowed under law

Re: Man guilty in attack on dog, April 1

Editor: I am so outraged at Barry Colbert's defense attorney delaying this case based especially on Mr. Colbert's mental state. This horrible individual not only admitted to the court that he was the monster who brutally injured and almost killed Buster but he was mentally stable enough to make a phone call from jail to an acquaintance to bury the dog he presumed he had killed in an attempt to hide more evidence of his violent behavior. It was a blessing that this acquaintance did the right thing and poor Buster was found in time to save his life.

Unfortunately, there are other people like Colbert out there, and I do hope that the appropriate outcome of this case prevails and Mr. Colbert faces the full punishment the law can enforce in order to send a message to those who continue to abuse.
-- Susan King, Port Richey

Brown-Waite needs to focus on real needs, not the rich

Editor: On three occasions I have contacted U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite's office to find out if our representative was in favor of any tax cuts other than the one for the very rich. I have not gotten an answer. Of course not.

Perhaps Ms. Brown-Waite believes that her constituents are made up of only the very rich, and not people of average income who will not only be denied a tax cut but will have necessary services cut, such as Medicare and school funding.

Perhaps she has forgotten, or never knew, that she represents all of the people, many who are suffering because of cuts in the funding of programs they need to survive or live a decent life.

I realize that hauling the bodies of long-dead soldiers home and creating a medal for Tony Blair take a long time and she is busy, busy, busy. However, she needs to take a look at the sorry state of the area's economy and pay more attention to the people she represents who live here.
-- Nancy S. Teunis, Weeki Wachee

SR 52 crash leaves question of stoplight need, how investigated

Editor: One recent evening about 6 p.m. on State Road 52, I was in the left lane waiting for traffic to clear to enter Ponderosa Park. There, a burgundy car was waiting to make a left turn onto SR 52 west. The car shot out to make its turn and hit a white sedan broadside. The car flipped onto its roof. How this driver managed not to hit other cars traveling west is beyond my comprehension.

I could see the traffic come to a stop, so I proceeded to enter the park and went through the part to the Racetrac gas station to see if I could help.

Since the opening of this gas station, there have been many accidents at this junction. Why hasn't the state installed a light there? Here is a young woman just following the flow of traffic who ends up injured with her car totaled and her insurance rate likely to skyrocket.

Also, there were several sheriff deputies there to direct traffic and take statements. Then a state trooper showed up. I was told only a trooper can file the accident report. It seems to be redundant.
-- Walter St. Germain, Hudson

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