As a psychiatrist who specializes in treating addiction, I witness on a daily basis the personal devastation caused by unemployment, a lack of health insurance and the shutdown of state services.
Letter of the day (July 9): State shutdown
July 9, 2011 at 1:50AM
Health care is interrupted by loss of insurance, causing addiction relapse, a worsening of psychiatric and medical conditions, unnecessary hospitalization and death. State employees suddenly find themselves with no income.
The Republican majority evidently feels this is justified by the need to protect people making more than $1 million per year from a modest tax increase they can surely afford. Meanwhile, thousands of Minnesotans suffer damage to their lives that they may never recover from.
Can it be true that protecting the very rich from a modest tax increase is more important than this? Can it be true that Minnesota is no longer the heartland, but instead has become the heartless?
DR. MARK WILLENBRING, ST. PAUL
