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Commentary on Last Sunday's 60 Minutes...
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(http://www.howardsview.com/lost/homeless-pictures.jpg)
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If I were President, I would have some aide listening to Sixty Minutes every Sunday so I could jump on what they exposed. One story was
homeless dumping by hospitals.
After being treated at the hospital, the homeless patients, in this story, were taken and "dumped"
on Skid Row in Los Angeles-there could be no denials because they had video. Very sad. And, the hospitals owned up.
One hospital was Kaiser Permanente and I immediately thought, "They should cut back on their advertising budget." They have two commercials that I love. One has this older guy dancing, doing splits. Wow. Some theme like, Live life. The other is another guy trying to lose weight; the commercial takes him through what he needs to do with the theme "Be your own project."
The commercials for Kaiser didn't look too swift now after watching the video on Sixty Minutes of an older woman with dementiawandering around in a hospital gown on Skid Row. Sad to the max. In American, with all our plenty, how we still have people living on the streets is beyond me. Could you imagine what we could do about this problem if we didn't have to fund the war in Iraq?
I realize, of course, that a solution to homelessness is not as simple as I would like. A resolution is no simple process from any direction; and, having done volunteer work with homeless Vietnam vets, I can tell you for a fact that it is more than putting a roof over someone's head.
At least a third of those who are called homeless are mentally ill like the woman on Sixty Minutes. Still, no excuse to dump her, but she is an example of the entrenched problem. Many homeless are on the streets because they want to be there, many are addicted to drugs of various sorts and their existence has become a lifestyle. Then there's a small percentage that we could actually help "if we were a mind too" as my Mom says...
A second unbelievable investigative report from Sixty Minutes was about the Coast Guard. They spent millions on upgrading the fleet-a total waste as the ships they built were not even seaworthy. The ships that were lengthened had bulkling floors and cracks, faulty equipment was ordered, an enormous ship was built with structual damage at a cost so far of 800 million, etc. This 24 billion dollar project to upgrade the Coast Guard's effectiveness after 9/11 , called Deepwater, has turned out to be a disaster.
The higher powers in the Coast Guard, whoever they were, told the whistleblowers to shut up. What was fascinating about the story was that nobody seemed to be accountable. They would not even allow Congressmen to check things out or talk to those who were responsible. What is this? If I were a Congressman, I would be "lightening flashing mad".
The Congress can not make them do anything; but, they have the purse strings; and, if they are willing to use them, someone in the Coast Guard would listen.
These two stories, especially the Coast Guard malefeasance is similar to the same fight we are seeing in the debate over Iraq- a fight over who controls the purse strings? Want to make a difference in Iraq? Close the checkbook.
The taxpayer always pays. Is anybody listening? KT
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Commentary