With loss of health comes poverty

With loss of health comes poverty

In our current econom- ic times, it’s wrong to make blanket assumptions about people living in poverty such as their being less educated and therefore unable to find employment. There are many facets and reasons for poverty, and it is truly a shame anyone has to live that way in America. I’m living in poverty because of an illness that struck five years ago, and I used all of my resources in the fight for my health. I have been unsuccessful finding a diagnosis and treatment, and giving up is not an option.

I recall a letter in this column in February 2010 said that everyone is one medical crisis away from being wiped out. I am proof that is all too true. I banked on my former excellent health, and I never imagined I could end up living this way. When your health is badly compromised and no one can give you a diagnosis, you’re absolutely powerless.

No one who becomes impoverished wants to live this way, and I personally hate needing help. I tried for two years to find private help to no avail, and I don’t know where I’d be without the “socialistic” programs many find so abhorrent. Walk a mile in the shoes of someone like me, and you’d be glad for a helping hand.

Kathleen M. Taleos, Mineral Ridge

Launch a new attack on lice

To our dismay, St. Christine School still has a terrible lice problem that started in September and is still on-going. They have tried cleaning, shampooing and given the students three days off, but the problem still exists.

The kids are wearing hats and “du-rags” and clothes are put in plastic bags upon entering the school. We have so many unemployed families and the $50 kit which includes the spray for surroundings is not being bought, especially if there is more than one sibling in the family. Parents who are doing everything right are so upset and full of hatred. What can be done? St. Christine’s has to take the bull by the horns and buy these kits, have a meeting with the parents on guidelines to follow. The teachers, principal, students and parents are so frustrated. If we want this school to exist, something has to be done now.

As far as the lady from the Health Department who said that this problem was “no big deal, just a nuisance,” that is ridiculous. Maybe in her world and her surroundings, but not with most of the families from St. Christine’s. The psychological aspect is a lot to be endured.

Rosemarie Carson, Youngstown

‘Occupiers’ get scant appreciation

It would be normal for a vic- tim to focus his resentment on his victimizer, and rather appreciate the activism of those seeking justice on his behalf. But in his Nov. 20 column, “Occupy Y’Town in the Hood,” Bertram de Souza finds it “understandable” that downtown private sector workers whose livelihood has been jeopardized by the Wall Street Gang should “resent” those who are calling out the thieves and decrying the default of officialdom to prosecute the crime wave.

Rather, as Bertram has it, they should direct their protest against street crime in inner-city neighborhoods. I live on Volney between Sherwood and LaClede and observe that the jails are already bursting at the seams with these criminals.

Equally stunning is the anti-Occupy logic an adjacent letter, “‘Occupy’ is awash in contradictions.” Its writer seems to think that his saying something, however mindless, often enough — as in that the U.S. military does what it does in order for “Occupiers” to have the freedom to do what they do — makes it true.

We’re not showing ingratitude. We are ashamed of the Bush/Obama military criminality in the Mideast, undertaken for the oil giants — a neo-con imperialist vision to take the high-ground on the oil spigot (and Israel), all to the prejudice of our “freedoms.”

Bob Scheetz, Youngstown