Letter: Twelve Oaks, greed and accountants

Ray Shelton’s cold-hearted response to the closing of Twelve Oaks (“No sympathy for seniors,” Mailbag, Oct. 2), claiming it morally praiseworthy, prompts this response.

It would be easy to criticize him for insensitivity, but that would ignore the bigger issue; him being an inconsequential player on that stage.

Long after the placard bearers have retreated to their homes, smug in the belief that their protests have shamed the developers, whose future actions will go unchanged, those seniors displaced will face uncertainty. As we age we rely more on our surroundings for comfort and security. Take away the familiar, and the death rate for seniors increases. That is the reality these seniors now face; an earlier death.

Would a gradual phase-out, accepting no more residents and letting those who remained live out their lives there — or until convalescent care beckoned — been a burden on those who initiated the closure? A few years delay, at most? Is that such a hardship?

But then, greed showed its ugly head, not economic necessity. When the accountants took over, this nation began a downward spiral. Capitalism for the benefit of the many is becoming the greed capitalism of the few. Shelton may parrot the tenets of the few, but in time it will be fool’s errand. In that regard, I find this nation woefully lacking. To paraphrase what a sage once aptly stated, the greatness of a nation lies not in how the rich and powerful live, but how that nation treats its most weak and vulnerable.

Howard H. Gething
Montrose