Shriner’s Hospital Future Bleak

Just got a news alert from the S-R saying that Shriner’s Hospital may close.  ( http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/mar/30/shriners-hospital-may-close/ )

I was born with curvature of the spine and not really bothered by it until I was in fourth grade.  Add to that being pigeon-toed, so much that I had to wear orthopedic shoes.  They were profoundly ugly shoes, too, for a nine-year-old. I was afraid I would be ruined for life with those ugly shoes. (I write about them at http://jeaniespokane.blogspot.com/2008/04/ugly-brown-shoes-and-belly-dancer.html .)

Before the shoes, I spent a few days at the Shriner’s Hospital. No surgeries – just tests. Checking my back. Checking my feet. Checking my legs. There were dozens of kids there my age – many paralyzed with polio. Shriner’s has been an indelible part of Spokane. I can’t imagine where these children will go without Shriner’s. This “recession” is like a bad cancer, metastasizing into the bone

I am worried! Hospitals are laying off because of unpaid patient bills. Shriner’s may close. The Post Office is laying off several hundred people. Where is this let-us-call-it-what-it-really-is depression taking us?