Thursday, September 14, 2006
It's not just about Progress House
There's a thoughtful editorial in today's News Tribune about the land use issue in my Sept. 11 posting and the right of citizens to protect property within their city's limits. I posted a quick reaction on the new blog of the editorial writers. I'll share that comment here because in all the fuss, the people we should most be worried about could be forgotten:
"I'm not sure if you welcome comments after editorials are written, but speaking as an individual member of the Lakewood City Council, I appreciated the breadth of your editorial. The underlying issue is whether a city's residents have a say in how the state uses land inside city boundaries.
"There are separate issues about Progress House specifically. I give tours at a museum on the grounds of Western State Hospital. I have met many of the mentally ill clients, and many of the family members who are visiting or accompanying them. Many times these family members include children, who often reflect the stress that the grown-ups around them are under. All three groups - the mentally ill, their family members, and the kids - deserve and need our support.
"It is monstrous that state government wants to expose these vulnerable people to rapists and robbers. You could only cook up such a plan inside the protected castles of Olympia."
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"I'm not sure if you welcome comments after editorials are written, but speaking as an individual member of the Lakewood City Council, I appreciated the breadth of your editorial. The underlying issue is whether a city's residents have a say in how the state uses land inside city boundaries.
"There are separate issues about Progress House specifically. I give tours at a museum on the grounds of Western State Hospital. I have met many of the mentally ill clients, and many of the family members who are visiting or accompanying them. Many times these family members include children, who often reflect the stress that the grown-ups around them are under. All three groups - the mentally ill, their family members, and the kids - deserve and need our support.
"It is monstrous that state government wants to expose these vulnerable people to rapists and robbers. You could only cook up such a plan inside the protected castles of Olympia."
