Combine resources for pediatric care

9/21/2003

Physicians for the Effective Delivery of Services (PEDS) would like to respond to a Sept. 12 letter. Let me begin by saying that pediatric physicians and services are indeed divided in Toledo.

Although only one institution may meet the Ohio legal definition of children's hospital, PEDS would like to applaud Mercy for not adding unnecessary beds just to help meet a legal definition.

PEDS also agrees that ProMedica has provided good health care for our children. For example, it has brought to town board-certified pediatric emergency room physicians, and the Toledo Children's Hospital's general pediatric hospitalists provide wonderful care to our patients every day.

Meanwhile, PEDS also thanks the Mercy system for providing training grounds for our future pediatricians for the past several years after MCO was unable to reach an agreement with ProMedica. We also thank the Mercy system for providing pediatric interventional cardiac care, as well as our only developmental specialist.

Finally, we thank the MCO specialists in infectious disease, endocrinology, and genetics who round at both hospitals, making care for children in each facility possible.

A free-standing, all-inclusive, independent children's hospital will decrease costs by improving quality of care and focusing efforts on children.

Although it may be unclear to your letter writer, it is clear to 114 physicians (the majority of pediatric doctors in the area) that combining our resources into one facility will take pediatric care to a much higher level.

Also, PEDS disagrees with the characterization of 114 pediatricians, family physicians, ENTs, dentists, and other specialists as a “small pocket of unsatisfied medical ‘professionals.'”

JOHN D. McBRIDE, M.D.

Woodley Avenue

So President Bush visited the area? Are we supposed to feel privileged or elated by his visit?

Every day that I pick up the paper or look at the headlines online, I see that another American soldier has been killed. Why are our soldiers still in Iraq? Why does Mr. Bush want $87 billion to rebuild a country he just destroyed? I have an answer: big business!

A war is big business for Mr. Bush and all of his supporters. Think about the political ties that the Bush Administration has involved in every aspect of the Iraq war.

First there is the oil issue. Who wants that Iraqi oil? Oil men.

How about the contract to rebuild Iraq? That would be friends of Vice President Dick Cheney. Isn't it funny how the only people who are benefiting from the war seem to be the President and his administration?

The motivation for this whole affair is the war on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but these things existed before we declared war on Iraq.

How do things look at home for the average American citizen? Well, not so good.

Unemployment is up, way up. The national debt is back up again, and our economy as a whole is very shaky.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Mr. Bush's visit to our area did not thrill me in any way, and I certainly won't turn out to support his re-election campaign.

ROBIN VOIGT

Temperance

After reading “Greek festival wasn't very festive,” I can only wonder if the gentleman who wrote that letter attended the same festival as I did. He complained that he sat at his table, learning nothing about the Greek culture.

If he had worried less about the lack of cookie selection in the banquet hall, which of course, is always sparse by the last day of the festival, perhaps he would have been more observant of the culture surrounding him. There were cooking demonstrations, a wonderful Greek band, church tours, and Greek dancing, just to name a few.

He also mentioned that the festival wasn't very crowded, which is also very common on the last day. Had he attended on Friday or Saturday, he would have seen a full house and probably wouldn't have even noticed the “hot, dusty parking lot,” of which he also complained.

I attended the festival all three days and thoroughly enjoyed myself each time.

And by the way, one final correction.

The entrance fee on Sunday was $1, not $2.

IRENE CHRYSOCHOOS

Elm Place

Your recent editorial on the Pollard case was unduly harsh and factually questionable. First, no one is arguing that he should not have been punished. He betrayed his country, and in so doing gave ammunition to those who would persecute Jewish Americans. However, he did not kill anyone, he did not get anyone killed, and he did not pass vital secrets to our adversaries.

He is not the first American to have spied for an ally of the United States. At about that same time another U.S. citizen sold top secret spy photos to a British defense weekly. Moreover, Israel's transgressions in this regard hardly compare to, for example, Japan's sale of sensitive technology to the Soviets, which made their submarines harder to detect.

And we have done far more for Japan than we ever have for Israel (military forces deployed for its defense for generations, rebuilding Japan from rubble following World War II, etc.).

Israel's intelligence services have provided our government with mountains of valuable information on the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and on potential and actual adversaries in our current struggle with radical Islamic terrorists and the countries who support them.

Pollard is serving a life sentence due to a broken plea agreement that was reneged on at the last minute of his trial. His punishment is the harshest ever given to anyone convicted of spying for a U.S. ally. Like the Rosenbergs of 50 years ago, he is being held up as an “example” to Jewish Americans in a way that is most offensive and unjustified.

He should be released, deported to Israel, and permanently barred from re-entry into the United States, a punishment that would truly fit the crime.

ROBERT VINCENT

Perrysburg

Like Dr. Amajd Hussain, I have wondered what has happened to our ideas of how to dress appropriately.

When we attend church, even the minister looks as though he's going to a picnic or to play golf, so casually dressed is he.

My mother always said, “Church is God's house to meet us, we should give our best to the Lord.” Somehow blue jeans, shorts, tank tops, etc., don't seem to me like you're looking your best.

Not only has the church been changing its appearances, but it seems everyone is changing to where there isn't a dress code anymore. As Dr. Hussain said, we used to look up to those who were neatly dressed and were noticed.

There is a distinction between the street and workplace. Slowly, people are changing so there is no emphasis on how you look, or where you are going, or what you do.

It's a privilege to present yourself in a manner matching the occasion. Give the best of yourself to those around you.

You not only look better when you dress for the occasion, but you feel better. You act the way you are dressed.

How about getting back to looking “classy” and “neat,” and be admired by ourselves, as well as by others?

ELAINE BARBER

Wauseon

Kirk's Sept. 5 cartoon depicting Maurice Clarett running an Ohio State “exit” play should be called back for illegal procedure in that Kirk has eight players on the line of scrimmage, when the football rules state that you can have no more, nor less, than seven. Despite this infringement, the play was allowed by the officials and Clarett ran the “exit” play to perfection.

PAUL L. ARNDT

Chatham Valley Drive