by Marlene Fitzwater
As work begins on the property for Joshua’s House, a handful of NIMN protestors, teachers and parents of Garden Valley Elementary School and leaders of the Twin Rivers School District began shouting obscenities at the workers, destroyed part of the construction fencing and spray painted “kids’ lives matter” on the fencing.
We have worked for two years to address neighborhood concerns by attending and hosting more than six community meetings to clarify those concerns and developing a comprehensive Good Neighbor Policy; restructuring our Board of Directors to add eight Natomas community and business leaders; and holding several meetings and phone conversations with Twin Rivers School District leaders.
Sadly, our efforts have not satisfied some folks who continue to spread lies about what Joshua’s House will be like and what residents will be allowed to do – such as walking naked in the neighborhood handing out drugs to children!
Adults – teachers and parents – who continue to lie about the purpose of Joshua’s House and attempt to create fear in the community are denying hospice care to individuals who will then die alone and in pain on the streets. Such behavior only teaches children to hate and ignore those in most need, to ignore laws and encourages illegal activity.
The residents of Joshua’s House will be terminally ill, homeless men and women, discharged into Joshua’s House by one of the four local health systems in our community (Sutter Health, Dignity Health, UC Davis Health, Kaiser Permanente) and will be in their final days of life. Most will be bed-ridden. They will not be allowed to roam outside of Joshua’s House.
People die every day in their homes from terminal diseases and this is true in Natomas and all of Sacramento! They all have access to hospice care if they wish to have it because it is offered to everyone in their homes. Thus, children are walking past houses every day where people are dying!
No one else can die for us, but we don’t have to die alone. Hospice care is about more than helping people die with dignity, it’s about helping them live out life with love.
