Hospital: Denying second Tacoma site is shameful

Re: “Council rejects rezone sought for Tacoma psychiatric hospital,” (TNT, 12/19).

I am embarrassed I voted for Tacoma City Council members who voted to deny the hospital siting so necessary for our mentally ill neighbors.

It makes so much sense to have services for mentally ill people close to the courthouse, hospitals and police stations where the initial encounters take place.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1983 that Tacoma could not block a half-way house for mentally ill persons. Thirty six years later, the City Council repeats the same discriminatory conduct.

The clever sophistry about too many services being located in the neighborhood is the same pablum used throughout history to justify discrimination. Would council members vote to kill a hospital in the same location for African Americans, or Jewish Americans, or the elderly or females? Of course not!

Council members would do well to remember Matthew 25:40 “Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

This story was originally published December 27, 2019 at 5:18 PM with the headline "Hospital: Denying second Tacoma site is shameful."