A Lesson for Hermandad

* I read with great interest two stories in the March 31 Times, “Deep in Debt, Hermandad Struggles to Ensure Future” and “Volunteer With a Vision,” about Linda Dunlap.

On the one hand we have a partially sighted registered nurse who visits families at rent-by-the-week motels to administer what medical care and attention she can afford to provide. Working on a shoestring budget with a few volunteers, she is bringing help to poor people with no medical resources.

Contrast that with Hermandad, which has received $35 million in government grants yet owes almost $1 million more in back rent, payroll taxes, etc., and $4.2 million more on a stalled, fully equipped medical clinic that sits empty and unused. Given Hermandad’s debt and poor administration, it may never open. They pay $25,000 a month in rent on their two headquarters buildings alone, while they await the next grant from the government.

Can you imagine what Dunlap, actually out there serving the needs of the poor out of her trunk, could do with that $25,000 a month!

On the one hand I see the overblown ambition of Hermandad, contrasted with what appears to be the dedicated hands-on efforts of one lady. Let’s give her $25,000 a month out of the monies Hermandad will get from the government. She is doing the job!

PAUL R. JANZEN

Fullerton