May 16, 2008 10:48 am
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One’s destination in life is too often determined by which road they initially took to get there.
Carol Sensabaugh, a wonderful Gazette opinion page contributor, whose letters I have always read with great interest, responded to a column that I wrote concerning the closing of one of the mental health departments at Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center. That closing was necessitated, in part, due to the hospital’s failure to merge with its successful cousin in Lewiston, Mount St. Mary’s Hospital.
My column, “Crossing Nessman’s line,” said that had the merger been successful then, according to then-administrator Angelo Calbone, St. Mary’s plans were to increase the size of the mental heath facilities at the current site of Memorial and place the near-opulent Our Lady of Peace Nursing Care Residence (itself a merger between two independent skilled nursing facilities with similar names) at the Pine Avenue facility. This, with maintaining a full-service emergency room and a small acute care facility at Memorial, would have made it easier for staffers without automobiles to come to work and for resident families and friends to visit those aging loved ones who would spend the end of their lives in a beautiful environment much like OLP’s.
The letter strongly suggested that I was against seniors having a nice place to live the balance of their lives in the dignity they deserve. While both Memorial’s Schoellkopf Nursing Home and the $34 million OLP provide that with excellence, Sensabaugh’s statement made little sense to me.
While OLP was certainly complimented by the glowing reviews that both Sensabaugh and I gave to the Lewiston facility, it baffled administrators at OLP and left them wondering how she came to that conclusion. In hopes of possibly correcting something that I may have written that may have caused some confusion, I telephoned her and left a message; however my call remains unanswered. Now, I am left to only project how she may have arrived at her conclusion, and can only guess that her destination was determined by the initial, emotional road that she took to get there — as we all have too often done.
Recently at a city council meeting, I ran into former city controller Pat Brown and I once again apologized to him. I have known his accounting family for many years. His father, Harold, is an icon of integrity and someone for whom I have always had a great deal of respect — as I do for all of his children. On the platform of his impeccable credentials, Pat ran against David Broderick for county treasurer. I supported Broderick and said that due to Pat’s wife, Maria, being city controller and his brother, Christopher, being a director on our largest public expense center, the Niagara Falls Board of Education, I didn’t want all of the city resident’s public financial decisions made at a single Thanksgiving dinner table. While what I said was what I felt, mine were not rational either.
I admitted to Pat that the initial road that I took to arrive at my conclusion of non-support for him was largely based upon the unrelated actions of his wife, in her capacity as city controller, and how she factored into former Mayor Anello’s reckless actions that nearly closed our precious library system. As rightfully and emotionally as Pat supported his wife Maria, I supported the library and disregarded Pat’s credentials for county treasurer. Perhaps Sensabaugh was similarly defending OLP, and missed the credentials of the general benefits that a Memorial-St. Mary’s merger would have had for the area.
I do have my flaws and as I hope that Pat Brown will forgive me for my library emotions overtaking my political rationality, I also kneel to wash the road dust off the feet of Carol Sensabaugh and forgive her for arriving at her destination. I am sure that I owe a few others apologies likewise.
Perhaps, one day, we can all walk down the road towards perfection together.
Ken Hamilton is a Niagara Falls resident. His columns run Fridays in the Gazette. He welcomes feedback at Ken Hamilton930@aol.com.
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