Editor,
Most readers of CDN are aware of PeaceHealth’s campaign, “We See You.”
In the context of recent medical services cuts, our community is flummoxed by this message because we believe PeaceHealth management does not “see” us. A chorus of voices has raised concerns about the slashing of St. Joseph Medical Center’s outpatient palliative care program. Countless others have similar concerns but are too ill or too vulnerable to muster the energy to add their voices.
I have contacted numerous PeaceHealth administrators about the cuts, ranging from the systemwide CEO and Chief Medical Officer in Vancouver, Clark County, to the Director of Community Health and Chief Development Officer (CDO) in Bellingham.
Only one PeaceHealth employee responded — the CDO at the local foundation, stating, “There is a whole team of us who are working to find a solution that meets the community’s needs, supports the donor community and maintains the strong reputation of our foundation. More to come!”
Before PeaceHealth launched its “We See You” campaign, those responsible for its creation should have conducted focus groups to determine its potential value. Everyone I’ve asked has a negative impression of the campaign.
PeaceHealth’s “We See You” campaign is imitative, perhaps even a violation of advertising regulations. The Kelowna General Hospital Foundation used the slogan very effectively long before PeaceHealth appropriated it. It’s probably a good thing our Canadian neighbors are so friendly, eh?
We are waiting to be “seen” — and waiting for mission-driven, ethical solutions to the palliative care cuts.
Micki Jackson
Bellingham
Editor,
PeaceHealth is closing its allergy clinic. This may not seem like big news to some, but let me give you the rundown.
This clinic provides immunotherapy — life-changing and life-saving treatment — for 4,000 patients, nearly 40% of whom are on Medicaid. Many of these patients need their allergy shots once a week, some once a month. However, with the clinic closure, these folks are left high and dry, with the nearest immunotherapy clinic accepting Medicaid located in Seattle. That’s a four-plus-hour round trip — not just once, but potentially several times a month.
This decision leaves people with a grim choice: spend precious time and money they don’t have traveling to Seattle, or forgo life-changing treatment. The very people who need it the most, those suffering from severe asthma and allergies, are being let down. As a grandparent of a patient at PeaceHealth, I am personally feeling this sting.
The real kicker here is that PeaceHealth didn’t announce this closure with any sort of contingency plan in place. They’ve left staff members and patients in the lurch, wondering what they will do come September when the closure happens.
It is ridiculous that PeaceHealth, a nonprofit health care organization, has so nonchalantly abandoned its patients. This move is a stark departure from the organization’s mission and its commitment to our community.
The community deserves answers and, most importantly, a solution to ensure that these patients do not lose access to the critical care they need.
Dorine Castleberry
Ferndale
Editor,
If I had given a donation to PeaceHealth recently, I would be livid that outpatient palliative care is going to be discontinued. Perhaps the only way PeaceHealth management might be persuaded to reverse its decision to put outpatient palliative care on the chopping block is for fundraising to slow to a trickle.
Conversations are rampant that major donors are considering suing PeaceHealth for misrepresenting their intentions when they asked prospective donors to provide more than $2 million in seed money to launch the palliative program, with the promise that it would be sustained.
Contact PeaceHealth’s Foundation and let them know you will not donate to them in the future unless outpatient palliative care is restored to full service.
Another possibility for management to change its decision is for PeaceHealth to lose its tax-exempt status.
Dr. Rod Hochman, the chief executive of Providence Medical Group, told an industry publication in 2021 that “nonprofit health care is a misnomer.” He went on to say: It is tax-exempt health care. It still makes profits.
Perhaps, PeaceHealth could donate the old St. Luke’s hospital, which was truly a community hospital, as a homeless shelter if they won’t pay property taxes. It’s been sitting empty and deteriorating for years.
Contact Mayor Seth Fleetwood and the Bellingham City Council and all the candidates that are running for mayor and demand they end PeaceHealth’s tax-exempt status.
Sheri Lambert
Bellingham
Editor,
The Lighthouse Mission does important, vital work caring for homeless people in our community, and I appreciate their serving all people in need. Hans Erchinger-Davis, CEO, (CDN, May 24, 2023) in an effort to explain not hiring LGBTQ staff, states that the Lighthouse Mission can’t separate the message of Jesus from its mission, but they have.
Erchinger-Davis is hiding behind secular “legally valid religious hiring practices” instead of following the message of Jesus — love one another. This isn’t “a preference in ideology” but the difference between choosing love or hate. I am sure that Erchinger-Davis is a caring person deeply committed to serving those in need. He needs to consider the trauma, abuse and murder inflicted upon the LGBTQ community, and how the mission’s hiring practice adds to the harm directed at that community.
To not hire a Christian minister or other Christian staff in a same-sex relationship is a disservice to the people the mission serves and our larger community. It is to misrepresent the message of Jesus, and turn people away from, rather than toward him.
Laura Rink
Bellingham
Editor,
The consequences of not paying on the U.S. debt are disastrous. Just the threat of not raising the debt ceiling in 2011 hurt the American people economically for years.
Let’s be clear:
1. It is the job of Congress to pay the debts we owe. If they fail, the 14th Amendment in the Constitution allows the president to take action.
2. It is inappropriate and extremely risky to create this emergency crisis by using the debt ceiling to bully the country on budget issues. Every single year the House negotiates the budget in the fall. Budget decisions should be carefully considered, not forced last minute under threats of economic and personal devastation to families, communities, states, the nation and the world. There is agreement that the debt must be reduced. Do it this fall.
3. House MAGA Republicans are willing to inflict pain and suffering on their own constituents, weaken our nation and cause significant harm to the global economy with their ransom demand to pass their “Debt-Ceiling-and-Cuts Bill.” It causes almost as much damage but over a longer period of time, and spares the extremely rich from the most negative consequences.
4. This bill conveniently negates the policies and successes of the Biden administration. Why? To blame the failures they are imposing on the Democrats in the 2023 and 2024 elections.
This is politics at its worst.
Christine Kohnert
Mount Vernon
Editor,
Of all the thousands of egregious Trump actions that need reversal, one of the worst was the indictment of journalist Julian Assange.
Instigated by then-CIA director [Mike] Pompeo, Biden has refused to consider dropping the charges. Obama refused to prosecute; he was aware of the significance of press freedom and the public’s right to know, even if the revelations brought the shame of war crimes upon us.
Assange has now been held for four years in the high-security Belmarsh Prison, thousands of protests ignored, including a defense team of 100 lawyers led by Daniel Ellsberg and Jeremy Corbyn.
This year’s Belmarsh Tribunal brought a thousand people to Washington, D.C. They held testimonials from VIPs like Corbyn; Ellsberg; Ben Cohen (whose 16-wheeler truck was painted with Assange murals and parked outside the White House); directors of Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch; Reporters without Borders; and Nils Melzer, the U.N. High Commissioner on Torture (whose book, “The Trial of Julian Assange,” should be required reading). They marched to The Washington Post, whose shameful ignoring of this issue is testimony to “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
Only Democracy Now! posts regular updates on Assange, while others buy into the smears and lies about him. Without Assange, we would not know about Guantanamo, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or the Collateral Murders video of the cynical slaughter of Iraqi civilians — including two Reuters reporters — from an Apache helicopter, while soldiers laughed from above. His disappearance is a lesson to all others: Keep your mouth shut, or this will happen to you. On World Press Freedom Day (May 3, 2023), Biden had the nerve to criticize the Russians, not one word about U.S. crimes.
Dianne Foster
Bellingham
Editor,
Thank you.
Many of us older residents have newspaper-holding muscle memory and it’s good to put that to use with your publication. Your pre-race coverage of Ski to Sea was/is excellent. Looking forward to next week’s after-race paper.
Thanks again.
Matt Elich
Bellingham
Editor,
If Bellingham cyclists make up 3.3% of all transportation mobility, that is approximately 3,069 people. I understand biking and biked for many years. Roeder Avenue has a lovely bike path and is safer than Eldridge Avenue, which is a block away. I live on the water side of Eldridge and we do have limited parking, as that is the bluff.
One of the reasons I bought the property I did was because it had street parking.
What do construction, Amazon, U.S. Postal Service and emergency vehicles do? Park in the street? In the bike path? If they park in the middle of the street, the cars behind will get upset and drive in the bike path to get around them. This is going to be very dangerous.
Give the few their bike lanes, but not on a narrow street with no alley and limited access to a side street, which is already burdened with cars. I am 86, still working, and I need to carry things in my car, not on a bike. I look at this as “elder abuse” as many of these residents are seniors.
We are all heavily taxed on Eldridge and many of the residents have spent thousands of dollars in the last year repairing our bluffs after the 2021 landslide. Now you are taking away our parking? That devalues our property. Are we going to get a property tax break?
Gloria Calderhead
Bellingham
Editor,
During the May 24 Town Hall Listening Session, the county presented potential projects to improve our justice system, including building a new jail. I’ve answered three questions they ask:
My concerns about proposed projects:
• Proposing a bigger jail means we’re not seriously considering an overhaul to our justice system.
• The county will prioritize building a new jail instead of providing services that help people dealing with addiction and behavioral health issues.
• The Implementation Plan project list doesn’t include oversight to ensure funding will be directed to service and diversion programs.
• A jail ballot measure will try to do too much at once, instead of breaking this large project down into manageable bits to ensure success.
• With a focus on building a new jail, the [Stakeholder Advisory Committee] did not fully demonstrate to the public the injustices of our justice system when we allow people to be incarcerated for extended periods of time awaiting trial or competency assessments.
• The county will not provide an opportunity for the public to comment on draft ballot measure language.
Projects I believe will make the biggest difference:
• Increase capacity of effective, existing programs to divert people from incarceration.
• Bolster reentry support services.
• Ensure ongoing efforts to maintain and expand supporting housing programs.
• Continue making changes in court systems.
• Expedite access to competency restoration services.
• Develop a data dashboard to share data within criminal legal system organizations.
• Collect data to measure progress.
Important considerations for Whatcom County Council:
• Draft a ballot measure that proves you’re dedicated to improving our local justice system — prioritize services, then build a new jail.
• Follow other successful programs throughout our country instead of starting from scratch.
• Provide acute behavioral health services within the jail and provide ongoing support in an outside setting.
• Provide transparency around funding and any justice system failures and successes.
Krystal Rodriguez
Bellingham
Commentary response: Nursing-home staffing mandates critical to dignified care