The creation of the Legislative Sunset Advisory Commission was a good move gone seriously astray. The proposal to close several of the State Supported Living Centers and that closures be allowed without consent of the legislature has  had, and continues to have, catastrophic results. In an attempt to stay alive by reducing their census rolls the centers are using pressure tactics to move many residents into privately-run group homes where supervision might or might not be adequate.

What the public doesn’t know is that residents of  SSLCs cannot live in normal society without heavy medication and personal attention. Left without adequate medication many of them would do physical harm to themselves – not to others, but to themselves. Nazi Germany used such people as human guinea pigs before sending them to the gas chambers as unfit. And the general population pled ignorance. We as a people are better than that. It is a moral obligation to care for these unfortunates, to help them live as well as they are capable of, and to prevent their harming themselves.

There are some things the state does better than private industry. Caring for the severely handicapped is one of those things. Of course, it costs a lot of money. Of course, we can reduce the cost of government if we shifted this burden onto the private industry. But private industry is profit-driven and will not perform when there is no profit. No amount of governmental oversight is going to make them do it.

The legislature and the poobahs of the Department of Aging and Disability Services must be made to recognize the moral requirement that we care for these people in the best way possible. Hoping for the best by pushing that responsibility onto others is not the best way. Downsizing government and reducing the tax burden are admirable intentions, but they must not be allowed to happen at the expense of the defenseless.

Sterling H. Rogers

San Marcos