Letters to the editor - January 18 2013

How long can we keep increasing debt ceiling?

The Liberals’ belief that we can keep spending, increasing the “Debt Ceiling” repeatedly without regard for its intended purpose of preventing uncontrolled spending, is like the person maxing out all the credit cards they can get in the belief that their fairy godmother will appear and bail them out – more likely, bankruptcy is the final result, for governments as well as individuals.

President Obama and the rest of the ultra-liberals would evidently like to eliminate opposition from pesky conservatives, especially Republicans, and turn our country into the type of socialism practiced in Greece. 

The European Union Liberals have proven the truism that “socialism is great until they run out of other people’s money”! How long do the Liberals (Progressives) hope to borrow 40 percent of every dollar they’re spending, raising taxes to pay the interest on our ever-increasing debt, before our “rich people” (anyone with a job and paying taxes) go the way of the “Goose That Laid Golden Eggs”?

If you’re too young to understand this reference, ask an adult over 50, back when we used to spend only money  we actually had. The recent increase in the tax rate on the wealthy will be only a drop in the bucket in paying the interest, not to mention the horrendous debt. How long do you think it will take our government to discover that they must raise the taxes on the middle class too they can continue their reckless spending?

The Republicans and concerned moderates should not give in on the Debt Ceiling unless the Liberals agree to some meaningful spending reductions. 

Please contact your Congressmen – I’ll be sending copies of this letter to them.

Mark Schrader

Winchester

Gun control, or reform in the mental health care system?

There has been a renewed focus in the news about gun control due to the Sandy Hook shootings.I think another sad part of this tragedy is the fact that gun control is the first thing that comes to everyone’s minds when bad things like this happen. I think one other thing that needs to be explored is the mental health system in the country. The face of mental health treatment has changed in the last two decades and not for the better. 

Facilities are being closed, and very ill people are not being followed up with to monitor medications and treatment. As someone who has been on both sides of the mental health system, caring for mentally ill people and being diagnosed with mental illness, I can tell you it’s an underserved discipline. People who receive out-patient therapy see a theraxpist maybe once a week and the psychiatrist maybe every three months. The psychiatrist then only spends a total of five minutes, just enough time to write a prescription and move on to the next. If the patient chooses not to continue with therapy, they are not generally followed up with. I am not blaming the therapists, they often have a heavy patient load. I guess it bothers me that after all that happened with innocent people getting gunned down in the past year that our government never considered mental health care reform.

The buildings at the now closed Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center sit and rot. There were patients at Harlem Valley who had lived there since they were very young, and it was the only kind of life they ever knew. What happened to these people, is what I often wonder. Even though the treatments have changed for treating mental illness, I believe that the real problems occur when state and federal budgets have to take a cut. Then, it’s the sick and elderly or kids who get the short end of the stick.

As it stands, the closing of Taconic DDSO in Wassaic, N.Y., is rumored to happen in the next year or so. The state of New York is not making a plan known to staff or consumers’ families as to where they plan to move these people. Something has to change to get mentally ill and mentally challenged people the follow-up care they need and deserve.

When people hear a group home may open in their neighborhoods they panic. People need to educate themselves and should not assume a group home would be a bad thing. Being in a group home means medications are being monitored and staff is there to follow up, 24/7. 

Eleanor O’Toole

Millerton, N.Y.