Unfair treatment
EDITOR: … I read with dismay that the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners may give $2 million annually to Trillium Health Resources to build a 100-bed addiction treatment facility that will not be available to women. The stated purpose was to save money from jail overcrowding due to substance abuse and to ease the burden on the hospital and Department of Social Services.
Before my retirement, I served 21 years as a full-time district court judge. I can say with certainty that women have addiction issues that lead them to jail. Further, the burden on DSS comes from women who are addicted and have babies who are born addicted and/or suffering from medical issues that require treatment and intervention by DSS. Excluding women from treatment will not help reduce this burden on DSS.
In this day and age it is unbelievable that we are going to have our local government financially support a treatment facility that excludes a large number of our residents who abuse substances based on their sex.
I applaud the county commissioners for recognizing the need for treatment and attempting to address it. But it is needed for all, male and female. We went through a similar issue with the state when men were provided the DART-Cherry Treatment facility for substance abuse, but women were not provided any state-funded treatment facilities. The state listened to the voices who saw this inequity and opened the Black Mountain Substance Abuse Treatment Center for Women in 2010 to provide an equal level of treatment for women.
I strongly urge our commissioners to tell Trillium it will receive financial support only if they serve both men and women.
Rebecca W. Blackmore, Kure Beach
Editor’s note: The StarNews Editorial Board shares Judge Blackmore’s concerns. The very successful Healing Transitions treatment model that will be used at the facility relies heavily on peer-to-peer engagement and does not allow for a co-ed environment. When we met in December with New Hanover County Manager Chris Coudriet to learn more about the project, he explained that data on addiction populations drove the decision to build the men’s facility first, followed by the women’s section. Both the land and current plans call for a 200-bed facility, with separate areas serving men and women. It is our understanding that lack of funding is the only current roadblock. In addition, Healing Transitions does not have a youth treatment model, another resource that needs to be urgently pursued.
Dems can’t win
EDITOR: So, let me see if I get this. Judges didn’t like the N.C. General Assembly’s election redistricting map because it supposedly disenfranchised persons of color and other minorities, so the court hired an “academic” redistricting expert from California to redistrict North Carolina the way they wanted it.
Then the legislature redistricted it to address the court’s issues. So, after the person of color and other minorities issues are resolved, the three judges think it disenfranchises their friends, the Democrats, so they go out to hire their redistricter again to get what they want.
Here you have it. Democrats can’t win the hearts and minds of North Carolinians with their ideas, so they use the courts and Democratic judges to do it for them.
Dave Miller, Southport
Character still matters
EDITOR: President Trump’s defenders and enablers have forgotten about what Rush Limbaugh used to say almost every day about Bill Clinton -- “character matters.” Clinton was sleazy and he was impeached. At least he was a capable chief executive.
I have been following the antics of Donald Trump since the early 1980s. He’s been a Democrat, an Independent and a Republican. He has been an amoral, narcissistic, congenital liar, unable to take personal responsibility for any failure, through each of his political iterations. He is an embarrassment and a danger to our Republic. This is not about partisan politics. It’s about character and capability. Trump has neither.
Republicans in Congress must find the courage to put an end to this farce of a presidency. Those who do not act are complicit in the chaos and destruction that will follow.
Mark Weathers, Burgaw