Pubdate: Mon, 27 Apr 1998
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Author: Patrick L. DeVillier

FEDS' INDIFFERENCE

Editor -- ``Stunned AIDS activists . . .'' Yes, one more time we allow
ourselves to be stunned by our government. We have to be stunned.

To move beyond that leads to cynicism.

Unfortunately, it is obvious that our government is very serving of
special interests and that the larger issues of genuinely caring for
one another has been left to the realm of those individuals who do at
a grassroots level.

Hypocrisy reigns supreme in the higher echelons of the government of
the United States. Plain and simple.

Let us not delude ourselves and think for a moment that the welfare of
the community is more important than the welfare of special interests.

Our government is short-sighted (e.g., eliminating V.A. programs, such
as the dramatic chopping of treatment programs available at the Menlo
Park centers) and indifferent to the variable needs of its citizens.

Our government officials are so far removed from the realities at the
street level that very few of them even have the capacity to have
empathy, much less take action that would demonstrate a commitment to
community.

Stunned . . . yes and struggling to avoid cynicism.

PATRICK L. DeVILLIER Petaluma