In response to your March 8, 2011 article “Cry for Help,” we would like to correct the statement that the community’s Safe Sleep program provides mothers with car seats to hold infants while they rest. The Charlottesville/Albemarle Health Department offers two separate programs—the Child Safety Seat program and the Charlottesville Area Safe Sleep program. The safety seat program provides free car seats to families who qualify; parents/guardians attend a short class to learn the correct placement and use of the car seat. The Safe Sleep program is aimed at reducing the number of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) cases in our community through educational programs. Portable cribs are available through agency referrals to families who qualify by income and risk factors.
The Health Department does NOT recommend that infants be put to sleep in car seats. The safest place for infants to sleep is alone, on their back, in a crib, in a smoke-free environment, without soft bedding or toys of any kind. Please contact the Health Department (972-6200) for more information about either one of these programs.
Peggy Brown Paviour, MS, CHES
Thomas Jefferson Health District
Charlottesville
Just the facts, Dan
I recently read Dan Catalano’s article titled “Procedural hijinks in the General Assembly” [The Odd Dominion, March 8]. I then wondered if his job is to report the events in the General Assembly from an objective point of view or from his biased point of view. It was quite apparent that he feels that his job is the latter. He presented the Republican measure as an anti-abortion measure. One could have viewed this measure as a pro safety measure for those seeking abortions.
Something that bothered me in his article was that the “Republicans sneakily attached the controversial amendment” without substantiating his assertion. I assume that after the amendment was attached, there was an opportunity for all to read it prior to voting. If that was the case, then it was not sneakily attached. If Mr. Catalano is correct, and it was sneakily attached, then he should have backed up this claim, by explaining exactly what made it sneakily attached. Much of the problem with today’s reporting and discourse has to do with making statements, often made just because of one’s ideology, without evidence to support the statement. Dan Catalano is certainly guilty of making a statement, and then failing to back it up with factual evidence. Regarding the question “Should abortion clinics be regulated as hospitals,” hospitals are regulated. I would offer that abortion clinics should be regulated in a manner to provide the abortion clinic patient an environment that is as safe as if they went into a hospital for that service. If evidence was provided that could show that a person’s health was more at risk in an abortion clinic than it was in a hospital, then I would say that abortion clinics should be regulated as hospitals. The patient’s safety and health should be the most important factor for consideration.
John Pedersen
Fluvanna County
Corrections
Due to reporting errors, last week’s Feedback column misidentified the sponsor of Mike Bisceglia’s Runcast. It is Ragged Mountain Running Shop. In the same column, Bisceglia’s co-host for the podcast “Outside the Box with Mike and Leon” was also misidentified. He is Leon Oliver. C-VILLE regrets these errors.