Jim Gregory asked us if we would post his responses to "Bill White's hall of fame" article today.
I have known Bill White
since he began beating me up in his columns years ago. I have mostly taken the columns
in stride. In fact, when you meet him, he’s a hard guy not to like. His latest
hall of fame article portrays me as a whacky character who despite good
intentions always seems to lose his cool and then, of course, loses his point
with it. However, he and many others at the April 18th
meeting of Northampton County Council, seemed to lose the forest for the trees.
In other words, they missed my main point. However, after the meeting ended,
even though I had calmed down at the time, no one other than a 69 news reporter
even bothered to ask me or my client why we were there. So let me explain why. The County of Northampton has been paying
providers of mental health services millions of taxpayer dollars to house a
handful of clients. That alone is outrageous. However, while doing so, They are
cutting core transportation services for the
elderly clients I serve, which is not necessary and also ridiculous
considering the millions they waste on provider housing. To make my point, I
spoke with one of my clients who had survived the Nazi concentration camps at
Dachau and asked if she would come along to tell her story. I explained to her,
and she readily agreed, that presenting her case to council might help us save
the services that the county intended to cut.
I had climbed the county chain of command to explain the idiocy of their
present policy. They rebuked my efforts and went as far as having our computer
firm pull my internet records to see if
they could slime my character and prevent me from challenging them on this
issue. It didn’t work. I decided to
approach council on the matter. That is when things begun to unravel.
I began my discussion in a
lighthearted manner to address council on the new human services building they
are building and my reasons for opposing it. Then when I began to speak on the
policy matter that I was there to address, President Cusick challenged my right
to speak further and tried his best to prevent me from speaking out. I tried to
rush and get in my point but President Cusick attempted to silence me at every
turn. After that, it turned into a charade and I was essentually rushed from
the podium. I was stunned. In my years as a Bethlehem City councilman we never,
ever, refused the right of a taxpayer to speak.
That is what democracy is
about.
My client was heartbroken and began to cry.
She was crying because she was there to be heard but she was so outraged by my
treatment that she decided that she didn’t want to chance the same
treatment. She did not speak. She was
helped from the room by my friend because she was in tears and incredibly
upset. She sat outside in the hall with
my friend and no one even bothered to ask why she was there. They assumed
wrongly that I brought her as some kind of prop. They were so wrong.
My client, we’ll just call her E.W. for the
sake of privacy, was about five years old when her family was taken to a German
concentration camp at Dachau. You see, her aunt, who was of Polish decent had the incredibly amazing courage to attempt
to hide some of her Jewish friends from the Nazi’s, knowing that by doing so
she could be executed at any time or carted away to a Nazi death camp. The Nazi’s
discovered her secret and hauled her and young E. W. away to Dachau. I never
really discussed with her what happened to her at the camp because once she
explained just a smidgen of the story to
me, I couldn’t stop myself from uncontrollably crying. Eventually, after two
years at the camp, E. W. was freed by the Americans. However, just prior to
their arrival, the Nazi’s began to burn the bodies to hide the crimes. EW, of
course, witnessed these horrors and never forgot them. When she eventually
married and came to America, landing in new Jersey, she was suffering from
serious depression. She then received 31 shock treatments to help her to forget
the horrors. These weren’t garden
variety shock treatments. We are talking “One flew over the cuckoo nest” type treatments. Just one more
horror following her past horrors.
Amazingly she eventually settled into the Lehigh
Valley with her husband and raised an incredibly wonderful and successful
family. She has many grandkids and great grandkids whom she proudly speaks of
whenever we meet. She worked hard at a local nursing home for twenty years and
retired a few years after her husband past away. However, still suffering anxiety and
depression after all these years of trauma and the loss of her beloved husband,
she turned to Northampton County’s Human Service program for help. She asked us for very little, mainly a ride
to doctor’s appointments and a few errands here and there. She is one of around
15 clients whom I serve on a daily basis.
She has been served by our county for about 8 years.
However, as of late, my
county administrator of the Mental health program decided that her model of
care did not include transportation for my elderly clients to their medical
appointments. They said I should train
them to be independent and assist them in taking the Lanta Van. My response was one of disbelief. Are we
seriously going to ask elderly clients, including EW, who are in their 70’s and
80’s and whom have depended on our services for years to essentially take the
bus? Are we seriously going to ask
clients suffering from anxiety and depression and
other disorders to give up their socialization
with their caseworker who in some cases is essentially the only friend they
have? I refused to let this happen and
fought them at every turn and still am. Remembering the compelling life story
of EW (who could not) I ask that she attend the meeting of County council with
me to plead her case. She readily agreed, believing as I did that her incredible life story might not only
help her retain her meager services but also help others who desperately needed
their services. Well to say the least, I
foolishly thought that considering her story, juxtaposed with the story of
wasted millions of taxpayers dollars for provider services to a handful of
clients, Council would listen, and be in
fact mesmerized, by her story.
I never got a chance. I
was cut of right from the start. The
heartbreaking ending here, sadly,
was that EW’s heart was broken again because her story was never told.
And no one there even bothered to ask her about her story, thinking wrongly
that I brought her there against her will or to be used as a prop. In my defense I said, “For God’s sake, just
ask her” No one did. No one bothered.
Now I am slammed in local blogs and
mocked by Mr. White in his latest column
for merely trying to help EW tell her story.
That’s sad. Not for me. I’ve been through this before.
The disturbing thing here
is that EW’s story wasn’t heard and still isn’t being heard.
Jim Gregory, Northampton
County MH caseworker.
Today COAF had the privilege of lunch with candidate for Judge...
She discussed her honest commitment to her existing clients, promising to bring the same honesty and commitment to Nor-Co if elected to the office of Judge. 
...Because she too helped us with Gracedale..JPG)
Glenn Reibman doesn't think so either, He has put out this mailer informing the County electors of the TRUTH relating to John Callahan.
I have known Bill White
since he began beating me up in his columns years ago. I have mostly taken the columns
in stride. In fact, when you meet him, he’s a hard guy not to like. His latest
hall of fame article portrays me as a whacky character who despite good
intentions always seems to lose his cool and then, of course, loses his point
with it. However, he and many others at the April 18th
meeting of Northampton County Council, seemed to lose the forest for the trees.
In other words, they missed my main point. However, after the meeting ended,
even though I had calmed down at the time, no one other than a 69 news reporter
even bothered to ask me or my client why we were there. So let me explain why. The County of Northampton has been paying
providers of mental health services millions of taxpayer dollars to house a
handful of clients. That alone is outrageous. However, while doing so, They are
cutting core transportation services for the
elderly clients I serve, which is not necessary and also ridiculous
considering the millions they waste on provider housing. To make my point, I
spoke with one of my clients who had survived the Nazi concentration camps at
Dachau and asked if she would come along to tell her story. I explained to her,
and she readily agreed, that presenting her case to council might help us save
the services that the county intended to cut.
I had climbed the county chain of command to explain the idiocy of their
present policy. They rebuked my efforts and went as far as having our computer
firm pull my internet records to see if
they could slime my character and prevent me from challenging them on this
issue. It didn’t work. I decided to
approach council on the matter. That is when things begun to unravel.
Needless to say, the comments left County Executive John Stoffa silent and speechless for the remainder of the night (apparent to all present). 
John Stoffa is the worst of the very worst leaders in American history, period! Ilisa Sacknoff who thinks we have forgotten her (we have not), has also been protected by John Stoffa and Ross Marcus, for which reason COAF was born, to protect those that cannot speak for themselves from the abuses perpetrated by her evil intent..jpg)
