Jonathan Sanchez (left to right) Adam Garza, Alexander Renteria, and a man who goes only by 'Don Don' play in the Sanchase Park apartments in the Vickery Meadows neighborhood of Dallas, TX on October 4, 2014. The Ivy Apartments, in the Vickery Meadows area, are where Ebola virus patient Thomas Duncan was staying. (Nathan Hunsinger/The Dallas Morning News)
Neighborhood needs help
The Ebola crisis in Vickery Meadow is truly tragic; tragic for Thomas Duncan, tragic for his family and tragic for his larger community. The fear associated with it is completely understandable, and in many ways it resembles the early days of the AIDS epidemic.
This is a deadly virus that is poorly understood by most of us outside the medical profession. Caution is certainly warranted, but I hope we can prevent this tragedy from spreading by not letting our concern turn into fear or intolerance.
This is a community dominated by immigrants. Torn from home and country, they are survivors, each with a remarkable story of resilience and overcoming great odds.
We have been working on a community garden project in Vickery Meadow for the past several weeks, and we have met some of the people we are now watching on the news. But for living in a different ZIP code, they have reminded us that we are more alike than different.
Dallas has always been a welcoming place for newcomers. It would be easy to let fear and panic cause us to stray from our roots.
Indeed, the national media would welcome stories of panic, strife and confrontation; it certainly sells to a broader audience. So it is imperative that now, more than ever, we show our love and support for the people in this ravaged community.
To paraphrase the saying attributed to Edmund Burke, the only thing necessary for the triumph of fear is for good people to do nothing. Please consider making a donation to the Vickery Meadow Assistance Fund at dallasfoundation.org or the Communities Foundation of Texas Disaster Relief Fund at cftexas.org.
Stephanie Hunt, Dallas
Vickery Meadow boiling
Our system broke down. No flags were raised when Thomas Duncan first walked into Presbyterian Hospital.
Later, Presbyterian corrected itself, saying the system did work and blamed the nurses for not connecting the dots. It seems the official story is still a work in progress.
This crisis also exposed an overall lack of coordination and responsibility. Nobody knew who was supposed to clean Duncan’s apartment, and so a contaminated zone sat around for days.
Then our local TV news teams descended like vultures on the poor folks of Vickery Meadow, exacerbating a health crisis and spreading false information.
Our civic leaders were the only ones who came out all right. Mayor Mike Rawlings and County Judge Clay Jenkins said the right things. Except for District Attorney Craig Watkins, who has considered prosecuting Duncan if he doesn’t die of Ebola.
The root of this crisis is Vickery Meadow. You can’t stuff that many poor immigrants, refugees and undocumented aliens together then look away, as this city has been doing. Vickery Meadow is a boiling pot that will spill over again if we keep ignoring it.
Jason Nancarrow,
Dallas/Preston Hollow
@DFWconspiracy
Some clarity on Ebola
The News coverage of the Ebola virus in Dallas should be studied in journalism schools as an example of excellence in reporting.
Your reporters and editors investigated a story with the complexity of a nuclear bomb and described the history and status of the government’s response to this crisis with crystal clear objectivity and clarity.
Your clarity is even more remarkable given the muddled, misleading and contradictory reports made by the city of Dallas, Dallas County, Presbyterian Hospital, the CDC and Homeland Security.
Your Ebola reporting provides a shining example of why the Founders put freedom of the press in the First Amendment to the Constitution.
Charles Curtis, Dallas/Lake Highlands