Officials should not forget the community
The Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center was established
just after the race riots in Watts in 1965 to address the immediate
need for quality health care in South Central Los Angeles.
From its early days, King/Drew was a symbol of hope to the
impoverished and underserved minority neighborhoods nearby.
Prior to this, community residents would travel to faraway
county hospitals, such as Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and LAC+USC
Medical Center, for health care.
A pregnant woman, gunshot victim or sick child would have to
travel around 20 minutes to receive immediate care.
The unique mission of this hospital and its close ties to the
community have made it an integral part of the lives of the
estimated 1 million people in Service Planning Area 6 of South
Central Los Angeles.
I have seen patients feel cared for and understood by physicians
and staff who cared for their needs like family would.
Recently approved plans call for transferring services such as
obstetrics, pediatrics, ophthalmology and brain and heart surgery
to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
The community around King/Drew Medical Center deserves access to
quality health care, and this should not be forgotten by those
making necessary and painful cuts in services.
Harbor-UCLA and King/Drew patients will suffer because there are
simply not enough personnel or resources to serve both communities
efficiently.
It is crucial that the changes made today are not accepted as
permanent but rather as temporary solutions to a problem of
behemoth proportions.
Jennifer Ahdout
David Geffen School of Medicine
student,
Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program participant
Don’t let radicals speak for everyone
It is my sincere hope that the Muslim world will soon realize
that the blasphemous and insulting acts of a few childish members
of the ultra right-wing Danish People’s Party do not
represent the overall opinions and convictions of the Danish state
or people.
A video that mocks the Prophet Muhammad has sparked outrage
across the Middle East, even provoking death threats against Danes
in the Palestinian areas.
This reaction is intolerable.
If the goal of a peaceful coexistence between the West and the
Middle East is to materialize, governments the world over must
condemn these violent outbursts and call for restraint.
Last year, 139 people died from violent protests against the
Muhammad cartoons published in a Danish daily.
It is time that the voices of a few extremists are deafened by
the moderate majority.
Christian Bak
Fourth-year student