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LETTERS IN THE EDITOR'S MAILBAG.

Article Excerpt
Byline: The Register-Guard

MLK street battle caused hurt

As a legal defense committee volunteer in the inner-city of Plainfield, N.J., I attended many events honoring Martin Luther King Jr. And out here, too. But no more.

After witnessing the tantrum-throwing exhibition before an intimidated Eugene City Council, it was evident that the street-renaming proponents had won the battle but lost the war; and with it much of the aura King truly deserves.

KENNETH RAYMEN

Springfield

Mentally ill are at great risk

I wish to write a simple message on behalf of Measure 30. I am a psychiatrist at the Lane County Mental Health Department involved in the treatment of many good people who have had the misfortune to fall mentally ill. After Measure 28 failed, I watched in this past year as the numbers of people eligible to receive care dwindled and as the county's mental health staff halved.

If Measure 30 fails, it appears that there is going to be more loss - much more loss. Thousands of people will lose all coverage for any illness, and thousands more may lose mental health care, even if they are adjudicated disabled because of mental illness. This translates, quite simply, into great suffering: depression, hallucinations, paranoia and worse, without the resources for relief. Charity cannot fill the gap - it is because charity has never been able to fill the gap that government began to provide these services to the disadvantaged in the first place!

When folks debate about government and economics in their vote on Measure 30, it is worth knowing that there are specific outcomes of their decision on this measure: people's lives. Measure 30 will not restore what has already been lost, but it can prevent further...

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