To the Editor:

One should write about what they know. After 71 yrs., I finally KNOW what catastrophic illness is, and how mentally as well as physically it devastates life as you know it, and leaves one staring at financial ruin. I KNOW how irrelevant we really are in the medical maelstrom of physicians and facilities designed to treat the seriously ill and afflicted. I now KNOW ignorance becomes our worst enemy in discourse with arrogant medical professionals that pass us like an Olympic torch to other physicians, ignoring our questions and concerns with regard to our illness. We are treated like errant misbehaving children if we question their tardiness, and their flagrant disregard for the unerring fact we all have a finite amount of time.

We lived during an unpopular war, and viewed the indignities experienced by returning war weary soldiers, replete with mental and physical scars they have carried for life. We experienced civil unrest on unprecedented levels, and saw social dictates evolve that ultimately resulted in much needed change. We have seen technology advance on levels we could never imagine, much less become part of normal everyday life. “Ok boomer”, we were altered by these and other life events, but most of us never put aside our childhood teachings; i.e., becoming a steward of elements that encompass the human condition. We should not discard maxims of kindness and compassion. This should be who we are, or aspire to be. We have survived and earned the unmitigated right to question, be informed, and addressed with civility, tenets of courtesy that should not be ignored. Six million people walked to their extermination without questions…

Dylan Thomas said it eloquently in his villanelle “Do not go gentle into that good night.”
“Old age should burn and rave at close of day…”

Dreena Birdsall

Kill Devil Hills

FOR MORE COLUMNS AND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, CHECK OUT OUR OPINION SECTION HERE.