Letters to the Editor online edition: 3/16

3/16/2017

Editor’s Note: These letters are published online only.

Nursing home workers deserve praise

Despite the hard work and low pay, the staff members at Genesis Health Care on Whiteford Road are ‘‘unsung heroes” (March 6, ‘‘Don’t blame all nursing homes”).

The building is always spotlessly clean, thanks to the housekeeping department.

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There is always a plentiful supply of towels, sheets, blankets, thanks to laundry workers.

Necessary repairs are made by the guys in maintenance.

Meals are excellent, thanks to dietary workers.

The days are long and boring for residents, enter the activities department.

And above all, the real back-breaking work falls on the nurses and aides. The constant lifting, dressing, feeding of residents who cannot help themselves. Somebody needs something every minute.

If anybody in the world is overworked and underpaid, it’s nurses and aides.

BARBARA THOMAN

123rd Street

 

Carson only repeated what Obama said

In the March 14 editorial, ‘‘Surgeon as Flounder,” Dr. Ben Carson was criticized as “a fish on the shore.”

While I agree that his words were not carefully chosen, I am concerned that this is biased editorializing, unless you also report that others, including President Obama, made the same reference.

In December of 2015, then-President Obama made similar comments during a naturalization ceremony at the National Archives. He said, “And perhaps, like some of you, these new arrivals might have had some moments of doubt, wondering if they had made a mistake in leaving everything and everyone they ever knew behind. So life in America was not always easy. It wasn’t always easy for new immigrants. Certainly it wasn’t easy for those of African heritage who had not come here voluntarily, and yet in their own way were immigrants themselves. There was discrimination and hardship and poverty. But, like you, they no doubt found inspiration in all those who had come before them. And they were able to muster faith that, here in America, they might build a better life and give their children something more.

I am wondering if The Blade editorial page made the same disparaging conclusions when those words were spoken by Mr. Obama.

CHUCK CAMPBELL

Tanglewood Drive