Bette Wold, Plaza

Vitalent calls me repeatedly requesting I give platelets/blood. I pay for labs for an annual checkup. I am not charged to donate blood. So….when we get stuck with a needle for our annual checkup – couldn’t we sit the extra 10 minutes to give a donation and save insurance money – and no repeated testing! Win win.

And it’s hard to offer the time to give platelets, but had I been asked to donate while I visited an incarcerated person, I would have gladly done it then – give a sense of worth to incarcerated and the visitor while they spend the time visiting. How about an assisted living facility/nursing home? If I am sitting idle in conversation with a loved one I could be hooked up to a machine. Convenience is the remedy for this shortage.

Prison reform? Why aren’t the incarcerated required to work, get paid, and purchase their own necessities and food? Require responsibility from the inmates. Don’t hospitals/hotels need laundry done? There are ads in papers for assembling, sorting and packing parts. Rather than import from China, build factories in conjunction with prisons. We don’t need more “humanity.” We need more “responsibility.” We need to be a bit more creative thinking.