This sensible bill will help those leaving Mayview

The closing of Mayview State Hospital is largely supported by persons with mental illness, their families and mental health advocates ("State to Close Mayview Hospital," Aug. 16). With the development of new psychiatric medications and the advent of the recovery philosophy of treatment and support, people with mental illness are leading longer, healthier lives. What concerns us is that people leaving institutions like Mayview need a home and food as well as community-based resources and supports so they can successfully integrate and thrive in the community.

Successful re-integration into community will benefit both patient and community. For this to happen, resources including housing as well as food and support services must be provided on an individual need basis. Each one of these items is necessary and each one requires funding.

Therefore, we support the proposed legislation from state Rep. Dan Frankel (House Bill 54) that would earmark all revenue from the sale of the Mayview facility to create a mental health community services trust fund.

This legislation is successful in two important areas. It addresses the well-being of people with mental illness and the positive impact community supports and living have in their recovery. Individuals and community both have suffered from policies based too often on fear and ignorance that lead to solutions based on isolation and avoidance.

Rep. Frankel's proposal makes wise and prudent use of the funds from the sale of the Mayview property by using that money to provide for these supports and services without tax hikes or fee increases.

With the reality of Mayview's closing, we commend Rep. Frankel for thoughtful legislation that meets the needs of people with mental illness with prudent economics.

RICHARD S. JEVON
McCandless

The writer is a Consumer Health Coalition board member.

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Society's bars

I live in a psychological prison -- the bars are made of stigma, and society put them up. The minute my doctor diagnosed me with schizophrenia, up went the bars. It's now 2007 and society still thinks that I have two personalities, am violent, live under a bridge eating from garbage cans and pushing a shopping cart around while talking to myself. How a society could be so ignorant for so long is beyond me.

My name is James. I have but one personality, have not a violent bone in my body, own my own home and have yet to buy a shopping cart. I work full-time and currently have a good career in the health and human services field. I supervise more than 10 employees and plan on continuing to excel in my field. There are many others just like me leading perfectly normal lives and living all around you.

I take medicine on a daily basis and with the exception of an occasional bout of depression have no symptoms at all. This illness has put me through sheer hell with the worst part being the way society has treated me. I believe that for the most part this society is cold and shallow, but I accept it the way it is. Why then can't you accept me?

JAMES A. KINDLER
Ross

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Indiscreet Steelers

In regard to the recent revelation that some of the Pittsburgh Steelers roam the hall of their floor at the Hilton without clothes ("Benched as Guard, Female Officer Protests," Aug. 16), I can't decide if this is an interesting fact to know or too much information.

My next thought is, why? I would think a hotel atmosphere is a bit different from a locker room.

Also, please, Mr. Rooney, don't increase ticket prices again so the Steelers organization can provide cover-ups for the players. I really think their incomes allow them to purchase robes or a least a big bath towel (lots of back-to-school specials right now).

C'mon, guys, show a little modesty and decorum.

RHONDA NORMAN
Ellwood City

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Let go of the fear

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" -- Emma Lazarus. "There shall be one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 24:22). "Mayor Louis Barletta is doing what is best for his city. He is doing what the government should've done years ago to send them back where they came from" -- a letter in Saturday's PG ("Land of Illegals," Aug. 18). Two voices of greatness followed by one voice of fear.

My family reached America in the 1890s. I can't find any record of their passing through Ellis Island. I suspect they had other issues to deal with -- like surviving and creating a life. I guess that makes me a third-generation anchor baby.

Your family probably had a similar experience. We all couldn't come over on the Mayflower. Between 1815 and 1860, 5 million immigrated, mainly Northern Europeans. Between 1865 and 1890, 10 million followed, mainly from northwestern Europe. Fifteen million, many from Eastern and Southern Europe, immigrated between 1890 and 1915. They gave us our culture, our diversity and our greatness. However, they all have something in common. When they arrived, there was someone suggesting that they "go back where they came from." Unless you are African American or Native American, you are probably the descendant of those immigrants. We should ask ourselves two questions:

What made our ancestors better than those who seek to immigrate today? Why should we believe that these new immigrants will do anything other than help America be great? We must move past our fear and celebrate our greatness.

ALBERT SCHUBERT
Penn Hills

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Help from within

When I first moved here, I was constantly told about how friendly Pittsburghers are. After recent flooding in areas around town, especially Millvale, where the residents are told that they are not able to receive financial help from any government body with the exception of loans ("It's Final: No FEMA Money Due Allegheny County Flood Victims," Aug. 20), I believe it is time that Pittsburghers do something about it.

First, remember this attitude toward those who need it when election time comes and let's help out these people in their time of need. Wouldn't it be nice to see some of the overpaid athletes chip in? Remember, athletes, the fans are the ones who line your fat wallets and are the ones who are expected to pay for your new arenas. So why not be some stand-up individuals and help your community? We all know you can afford to help a lot more than most of us can.

JASON BARD
Beechview

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About kids who hurt

Oh, to live in the irony-free world of the contemporary Republican shill. Lobbying for a group of sporting goods manufacturers on Tuesday's sports page, former Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer bemoans politicians who want to "hurt kids" by banning metal bats in Little League ("Ex-Bush PR Man Advocates Metal Bats," Aug. 21).

One wonders if he would have uttered that lamentable line if he had heard the news, earlier in the day, that his former boss was fighting expansion of the popular CHIP program -- the one that helps states provide health insurance to millions of children whose parents can't otherwise afford it.

I know Mr. Fleischer used to frown on the practice, but maybe someone could ask him a follow-up: Which politician do kids need protection from?

JOHN MILLEA
Harmony

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If they can send workers in, they should be able to get them out

There is something very wrong when mine owners can send men 1,800 feet below the Earth's surface to do their jobs but have not set in place refined techniques to reach these miners within a reasonable, life-saving period of time if and when it all goes horribly awry ("Firm's Chief Lowers Hope of Saving Miners," Aug. 21).

Whether it's lightning, an earthquake or whatever is named to be at fault, plans for a timely rescue should be put in place to coincide exactly with the owners' plans for excavation of their valued product. One should never be ready for execution without the other.

The owners and management seem not concerned enough to adequately plan for these emergencies. At some point they may have to invest in robots to do their mining if they continue to show little regard for their workers.

It seems that the same old story dating from at least a century and a half ago in which the lives of working men in industry, as adjudged by the "barons," are -- under circumstances like these -- expendable.

COLLETTE M. DUFFY
Jefferson Hills

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