Now that life-support has been removed from the former Sacred Heart Hospital, we will watch as her slow premature death takes place. Attached are the sentiments of one of her former employees.
Ah, Yes! You were quite the lady when you came to town back in the sixties. With your skin-tight pre-cast pink quartz slabs, you were the pride of our area, lording over Cumberland from your perch on Haystack Mountain.
Aided by media hype, you were much anticipated and embraced by the community with its generous support. You ushered in a new era of healthcare as big government became involved. And you symbolized the character of Cumberland- proud and hopeful.
Your “owners” had a long standing presence here. Their mission of serving, compassion and unselfish devotion permeated the entire organization of doctors, nurses, all personnel, volunteers and advisors.
Yes, you were a welcomed addition to the community. And you served us well.
Why did you suddenly become irrelevant-stripped of your glory and prestige? How did your bright star fade, then die out?
Was it the infamous merger with your crosstown rival? Or the current mania in this country for bigness, power, control, monopolization? Well, let’s not get into that. Suffice it to say, you became the unwitting, helpless victim of something.
You are still young, strong, adaptable, full of energy and, yes, good looking. Yet your halls and rooms are empty, silent, wasted.
Although your original architecture may have been marred by frequent ‘expansions’, your majestic beauty has endured. You do not deserve to be sentenced to the wrecking ball.
It has been said that any city is judged, not by the monuments it has built, but by those it has destroyed. Cumberland is famous for both.
If there is any consolation in being replaced by a building for the purpose of education, no less a noble undertaking than healthcare, then you have not lost your ground, but have built a bridge to the future. Yet one must wonder, if two hospitals are one too many, how many high schools are one too many?
Ah, Fair Lady, Although you may be spared the all-too- common heart-breaking fate of old age, we are confident you would have aged as gracefully as the Victorians of Cumberland’s downtown.
Harry McCunn
Cumberland
Opinion
An ode to a fair lady whose days sadly are numbered
- Opinion
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‘Forgotten warrior’ not forgotten
The Korean War is often called “The Forgotten War.” My generation remembers the Battle for LZ X-Ray at Ia Drang, The Tet Offensive, and Khe Sahn of the Vietnam War.
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Organization needed to help utilize the Potomac River
I am a committee remember on the Tamiami Trail Scenic Highway which stretches from Palmetto to Venice, Fla.
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Reducing meat consumption can help ease climate change
A review of 12,000 papers on climate change, in the May 15 issue of “Environmental Research Letters,” found that 97 percent of scientists attribute climate change to human activities.
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It’s good to be the queens
One of the many nuggets of knowledge that Crash Davis tried to bestow upon Nuke LaLoosh in the movie Bull Durham was that ‘strikeouts are boring. Besides that, they’re fascist.’
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Harper just needs to stop scoring the wall
• Happy birthday, Brooks Robinson. No. 5 will be 76 tomorrow.
Remember, in the words of Gordon Beard, “Brooks Robinson never asked anybody to name a candy bar after him. In Baltimore people name their children after him.” -
Maryland has stopped being “The Free State”
I am a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans and, last but not least, the National Rifle Association. I am a yearly member of the American Legion.
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Outrageous
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
This amounts to spying on an American news organization — common practice in dictatorships but scary conduct in a democratic system that prizes the public value of an independent watchdog press. -
Save the Bridge Program
Please do not close the Frostburg United Methodist Church Bridge Program. The community and many families need this program. Let me enlighten you about a few things.
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Town of Westernport needs a police force and a curfew
Since the consolidation of Bruce and Valley high schools the town of Westernport rapidly deteriorated from what was once a quite respectable community to a community in a decline in residents, and along with that came a collapse in local government due to lack of knowledge and bad decisions that set the town of Westernport back 60 years.
One bad decision was to give up their police force, and with no constant visual law enforcement it has created an open range for drug dealerss, addicts, thieves, drunks and speeding vehicles that choose to ignore our city laws and speed limits and have totally disregard for the safety of the citizens who are on the streets, especially the children who are like deer, you don’t see them until their in front of you. -
Financial gutting will damage school system
I am writing in response to the Allegany County Commissioners’ efforts to cut local education spending to the lowest possible level allowed under state law.
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‘Forgotten warrior’ not forgotten
