Letters to the Editor: July 21, 2023

Disaster averted

Thanks to Zack and the crew from McMinnville’s RP Contractors, whose quick action averted potential disaster.

While working a job on July 17, they noticed flames in the yard of an adjacent vacant house. Fortunately there was water readily available there to douse the flames.

Zack alerted a neighbor to check again later to ensure the flames remained out. Thanks, again, Zack and crew.

Alissa Owen

McMinnville

No respect

I joined the Marines in 1970. My background wasn’t so good, but I got the opportunity to earn a security clearance. I worked hard for it and kept it for four years, until I received my honorable discharge.

Just like many other servicemen and women, and a lot of civilians, I had to prove myself trustworthy. It’s not easy to maintain a security clearance.

Then along comes this moron of a former president, who thinks he can have a Coca-Cola party while displaying our nation’s secrets. This man has no respect for the men and women who work every day in a dangerous environment.

Who knows what this moron has shown to others. He has no idea what a foreign agent even looks like.

How can anyone vote for this man? Just look what he’s done to the Supreme Court. Look what he’s done to the Republican Party. Look what he’s done to our country and its reputation.

The man has shamed everyone who’s ever held a security clearance. If he’s found guilty, he needs to do time.

He’s not the only one at fault, either. He joins members of Congress, the likes of Jim Jordan of Ohio, Marjorie Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, along with others who fear and support this moron.

Lock him up!

Paul Angerano

Carlton

Licensed therapists prevail

Anyone reading this newspaper can assert he or she is a counselor, but only those with a master’s degree in psychology, 2,000 post-graduate hours of supervised practice over two years and passage of a state and/or national exam can claim the title of psychotherapist.

Yet, licensed psychotherapists have never been approved by Medicare to provide mental health services under its insurance plans.

Social workers holding a master’s in social work (MSW) have been accorded Medicare in-network status. Clinical social workers train in psychology to earn their Licensed Clinical Social Worker credentials, but other social workers do not.

Yet social workers can provide psychological services. Go figure.

The importance of this is the level of knowledge and competence Medicare participants receive when they seek mental health counseling.

Fortunately, all that is about to change with Medicare, and to the benefit of the public.

Effective in January 2024, psychotherapists will be reimbursed by Medicare for the therapy they provide. This is a great step forward for the level of mental health service available to Medicare recipients.

Oregon’s Licensed Professional Counselor board and Washington’s Licensed Mental Health Counselor board have been working tirelessly for decades to gain the in-network status qualifying for reimbursement by Medicare.

Congratulations, LPCs and LMHCs. Finally!

Sheila Hunter

McMinnville

Old ways not sustainable

Since President Lyndon Johnson’s signing of an affirmative action executive order in 1965, colleges have been committed to diversifying their student bodies and employers their workforces.

But two years shy of its 50th anniversary, the order was overturned by the now more conservatively aligned U.S. Supreme Court, just as admission applications were arriving at registrar’s offices all over the country.

The uncertainty, anger and panic were instant. We all knew what was likely coming, but it still landed as a collective gut punch.

Ivy League schools are already working to change their policies. But will they go so far as to tackle controversial legacy admissions? I’m not confident of that, at least not in the near term.

According to the Washington Post, historically Black colleges are expecting a surge in admissions, and are revising their admission policies in response to be more selective. The anticipation of students of color seeking a more welcoming environment at such schools is, it would appear, creating an almost overwhelming pool of new applicants.

Further down the road, employers will also be responding. But the bottom line is, it will take years to balance out the abrupt removal of affirmative action in our society.

The challenge is to deliver greater diversity and inclusion without the crutch of affirmative action, which was never meant to be a permanent policy anyway, merely a bridge to an eventual state of true equality.

Now that the Band-Aid has been ripped off, scholastic and business institutions need to help facilitate a future of genuine equality on their own initiative. Because the old ways of systemic discrimination are not sustainable for our future.

Lisa McCracken

McMinnville