I usually
leave this type of entry to ShoalandaSpeaks. But I’m mad. I’m mad at our brain-dead congress,
government shutdowns, Obamacare, and people like local business man Phillip W. Bentley, who, in no way has the best interest of Shoals citizens foremost in his mind,
even though his business is here.
Below is a
letter to the editor that our “local” news rag the Times Daily (AKA Times Faily
and Totally Decatur) refused to print. I think the fine people of this area would like to know...
RE: Conflict of Interest
Mr. Phil Bentley is the
Chairman of the Huntsville Hospital Healthcare Authority. Mr. Bentley is also
the owner of Bentley Chevrolet Cadillac in Florence
The new hospital planned by
RegionalCare Hospital Partners (d/b/a Eliza Coffee
Memorial Hospital Huntsville
Hospital
When the new hospital is
complete, these patients will be treated locally and valuable (often
life-saving) time will be saved. This time saving will reduce the Huntsville Hospital
If the Huntsville Hospital Board, under Mr. Bentley’s
leadership, continues to play an influential role in the future of healthcare
in the Shoals area, we as citizens should question our continued support of his
business located in our community.
It is interesting to note that
Huntsville Hospital
is affiliated with Helen
Keller Hospital Helen Keller Hospital Helen
Keller Hospital Huntsville Hospital
As a Muscle Shoals resident,
I consider the new hospital an indispensible improvement to the overall health
care available in the entire Shoals (Colbert and Lauderdale counties) area. Therefore,
I urge our citizens to purchase vehicles from other automobile agencies in this
area.
A concerned Shoals area citizen.
Hmmm. I can see why the paper did not publish this letter. Although it is well-written and provides pertinent facts, it is too heavy handed in its request that citizens boycott the auto dealership. If the author had left out those couple of sentences--while leaving IN the part identifying the local business'owner's relationship/role with the hospital group and the name of his business--people would have probably considered the boycott on their own. And the newspaper would have had no legitimate reason to not publish the letter.
ReplyDeleteThey may not have published it, anyway, of course. And that would have told you a much bigger tale about their allegiance. As it is, promoting boycott of a local business is a legitimate reason to not publish. No other motivation can be attributed.
Perhaps someone will do a re-write, leaving out the boycott.
Just as an aside, small community hospitals run on very tight margins and are often threatened with takeovers by large "health systems." Speaking as a former employee of a small community hospital, our community hospitals need our support and citizens ought not to assume that the big hospital in the big city provides better care. It is often not the case, at all. (Getting down off of my own soapbox now.)
And who knows what Obamacare is going to do....
Deb
Since it is a letter to the editor (not necessarily the opinion of the newspaper blah blah blah) and they state they encourage “diverse views” and their email address is vent@...com, not to mention they “reserve the right to edit,” I think they could have published it. TD doesn’t do well to report local news these days.
DeleteObamacare? At this point, I can’t help but wonder how quickly people will change their tune once the reality of the damage it causes hits home. It’s amazing how duped so many American citizens are.
Ahhh. Well, if they state "the right to edit" then they could have published if they had wanted to. Apparently, they didn't want to. Too bad. I think that it would have generated some healthy debate.
DeleteDo you think they refused to publish the letter because no name was signed at the end of it? Our papers won't print anonymous letters (did you write the letter?) I'd find another way to get it out to the media, some independent paper, massive campaign on Facebook or something. I'd definitely think twice before buying a vehicle from him.
ReplyDeletebetty
It's a possibility. I don't know if the original letter to the editor had a name attached or not.
DeleteWow!
ReplyDelete