On behalf of the nurses and physicians of the Emergency Department at River Region, I offer an apology to any patient who has had to wait for emergency care. In so doing, I also need to point out that if you come to the Emergency Department and have to wait, you should consider yourself lucky. This may sound absurd, but it makes sense if you know how our triage process works.

The department is not a first-come, first-served business. Patients are evaluated and seen in the order of the sickest first. This means that if you are in the waiting room, there is someone else being treated who is sicker or more seriously injured than you. While nobody likes to wait, especially with a sick child, patients are there because the staff is taking care of more critical patients.

For years, your Emergency Department has been among the most efficient in the country, with the patient having a length of stay of about two hours. Nationally, the average is a three-hour length of stay. Unfortunately, emergencies don’t follow averages, and there are days in which our system is overwhelmed by a flood of very sick or critical patients. This was precisely the case mentioned in the March 1 letter to the editor.

Inconvenient? Yes. Uncomfortable? Certainly. Again I offer an apology, and we will explore ways to make the wait more tolerable. But I’ve been director of emergency services at River Region for six years now and will put the emergency care here against any in our area in terms of care and efficiency. I thank the community for its continued support.

Chris Jackson, M.D.

Emergency Consultants Inc.

Vicksburg

Let’s look forward, please

It’s no surprise that Gov. Haley Barbour signed a bill for restoration of a monument to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

But with the economic crisis, we need leadership in Mississippi that is inclusive, seeks diverse ideas and finds ways to enhance all of our lives. Visualize the nation giving a statue to Mississippi for the state’s leadership in forward-thinking. Visualize and act, it will become reality and be our contribution to a legacy everyone can be proud.

Karen Frederick

Vicksburg

Sanders has earned support

I read the article on the sentencing of attorney Marshall Sanders. I would like for attorney Sanders to know that I, as a former resident of Vicksburg, wish the best for him and his family at this time.

We all go through things, but he has been such a wonderful and helpful man in the community of Vicksburg and continues to have my support and respect. Good luck to him. I am glad this has wrapped up and he and his family can now move on.

Pam Johnson

Cedar Hill, Texas

Bus errands essential

I read the letter March 1 about a school bus at a grocery store while the driver shopped. What I am not understanding is how people can sit out there and judge these drivers on how they do their jobs.

A lot of these drivers do not have enough time to go home and come back to do their everyday routines.

We have some drivers out there who have more than one job and work in between their routes. To me, it’s not right to sit back and judge these school bus drivers. They work hard each and every day taking children back and forth to school, making sure they have a safe trip there and safe trip back home.

All I want is for people to do is stop judging these drivers. If they could see their everyday routines, they would understand.

Crystal Bass

Vicksburg

Once, we were embryos

The headline of The Vicksburg Post’s Monday front-page article, “Obama gives life to stem cell research” is an oxymoron. The “life” that the president is “giving” through this (embryonic) stem cell researc requires the “death” of every human embryo involved. In fact, the article recognizes this in its next-to-last paragraph, which states, “Bush and his supporters said they were defending said they were defending human life; days-old embryos — typically leftovers from fertility clinics otherwise destined to be thrown away — are destroyed for the stem cells.”

Indeed, Bush and his supporters said this because it is true! Truth is truth, even if no one believes is; and error is error, even if everyone believes it. Either the president and his scientific advisers don’t understand what they are about or don’t care.

Embryonic stem cell research is a violation of the human rights of the newest and most recent additions to the human race. Embryos are the smallest members of our human family — each of us reading this was once an embryo — and as such they deserve legal protection, not cannibalization.

Pray with us for the president and all those who are giving him bad advice and write to him to express your concern for the right-to-life of all Americans entrusted to his care, including those in their pre-birth stages of life.

Joe and Philomena Zelasko

Vicksburg

Peanuts can be trusted

The Mississippi Peanut Promotion Board would like to address the recent peanut salmonella outbreak. Due to a bad decision by a Georgia processor, the U.S. peanut industry has been severely impacted. There has been no evidence that the peanuts themselves were the carriers of the salmonella.

Mississippi is one of the fastest growing peanut-producing states, with nearly 30,000 acres in production. In the span of a few years, peanut fields once found only in the Southern part of the state can now be seen in all regions of the state. Mississippi peanuts are still a safe and viable source of nutrition and protein. Even with glitches in our food supply, Mississippians and Americans should be thankful for American farmers providing the most reliable and safest food source in the world.

We would like to urge people to continue using peanut butter and peanut products. By doing this, you will also be supporting local farmers who help maintain stable local economies.

Josh Miller

Vice chairman

Yazoo City

Learn about disabilities

In celebration of March as Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Month, I would like to encourage all Mississippians to learn more about individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The theme for this year’s celebration is “Just Like You.” It is important to remember that individuals with IDD are just like you and me: they deserve the same respect and support as anyone else. The acceptance and understanding of individuals with IDD can make a difference. One of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health’s (DMH) goals is to reduce the stigma of disability and replace it with an understanding of ability.

One in 10 families in the United States has a family member with IDD. In 2008, approximately 1,200 children with IDD received early intervention services through DMH. In addition, more than 11,000 adolescents and adults with IDD were served in DMH facilities and community service programs. A diagnosis of an intellectual and developmental disability is characterized by limitations in intellectual functioning and difficulties with certain daily living skills. The term IDD covers a broad range of disorders and syndromes, many of which are misunderstood by the general public.

With the support of our partners, such as the ARC of Mississippi and the Mississippi Council on Developmental Disabilities, we look forward to a better tomorrow for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Edwin C. LeGrand III

Executive director

Department of Mental Health

Jackson

Self-defense is the issue

What a disappointment your March 3 follow-up article on the UPS driver and the guard dog was. As I read the article I had these thoughts:

First, I don’t believe what drew public interest was a man hitting a dog. I believe it was because people were stunned in disbelief that a man is being punished for protecting himself.

Second, opinions don’t seem to “vary sharply” on who to blame. Did you read all the letters in your own paper? Not one favored the owner.

Third, “portions” of the video were allowed to be seen? Wow, I bet everybody with an incriminating video would like to pick and choose what is seen. I think it’s called cut and splice.

Fourth, it saddens me that someone who obviously has wealth feels it necessary to pursue this situation with a civil suit. I’m sure the attorney the owner has is the best in town. I just hope the UPS driver has a better attorney.

Last, I would love to see a show of hands of those who would feel safe holding a doggie biscuit while encountering a guard dog.

Ginger Kelly

Vicksburg