Editor’s note: The following is a paid political letter.
Kansans should vote
no on Aug. 2
Please join me in voting NO on August 2. When women become single mothers, their life chances for education, employment, and social well-being decrease significantly. Abortion bans will increase the incidents of mother and infant mortality. Many women every year experience complications of pregnancy; their lives will be endangered when urgent medical care is withheld.
When children are born to mothers who don’t have the resources to care for them, they are set on a precarious path from the moment of birth. If babies are not nurtured well in their first months, they may have life-long issues with attachment, empathy, and human connection, just one tragic example of the serious individual and societal downsides of forcing babies into a world that does not value them.
The US is one of the most socially mean-spirited countries in the developed world. There are no universal rights to prenatal care, parental leave, affordable infant and childcare, or high-quality public education. Compared to almost all other developed countries, the US ranks worst in many social outcomes, including child poverty, people in prison, violent crime, mental illness, and life expectancy, the result of collective neglect of basic physical and social supports for children and families.
It’s one thing to protect an unborn child and it’s another to make a commitment to truly value the life of every child after birth. I look forward to the day when parents and children are valued, but that’s not today in Kansas. I’m voting NO until that day comes.
Cia Verschelden,
911 Colorado St.
Support Pawnee
Mental Health
I worked at Pawnee Mental Health Center from July 1978 until June 2000. In that period of time, I was an alcohol and drug counselor, the interim CEO and the director of administrative services.
I found that the nature of mental illness and the value of Pawnee is misunderstood and unappreciated by many.
Services provided by Pawnee include treatment for the chronically mentally ill; treatment for short term crises and outpatient mental health/ drug and alcohol services. These services take the pressure off of state mental hospitals by treating the chronically mentally ill locally; keep people with short-term crises from having to go to other locations in Kansas for treatment; help many people in their everyday lives become better employees, parents, children and friends and take the pressure off of our community corrections services.
Although many dedicated professionals have been responsible for the success of Pawnee, I would like to mention a special few. The late Mary Heath was largely responsible for developing a data processing system that has lasted, with some modifications, over 30 years; quite an accomplishment in the very complex world of community mental health. Dr. Susan Roviaro was a wonderful, accomplished clinician who was critical in establishing the credibility of the organization in our community. Robbin Cole, CEO, has done a wonderful job in once again making Pawnee a community asset after a rough stretch in the late 1990s.
Please support and appreciate your community mental health center. It helps improve the quality of life in Manhattan much more than most people realize.
Don McCullough
1604 Denholm
