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Where Are We Coming From?
By Ray Pavlak, Winsted
Wow! The Winsted Health Center Foundation has another lawsuit on their hands. This time they are the ones being sued. The Foundation would like to have everyone believe all their problems are coming from a small group of disgruntled dissidents. Wasn't that what the British king said about our Founding Fathers?
"Disgruntled dissidents" is a shopworn term. The old directors of the Winsted Memorial Hospital used it against Code Blue. Tyrants cannot allow any criticism; they must appear as all-knowing and act as all-controlling. So 2002 is a replay of 1995. The old directors of Winsted Memorial brought the hospital to bankruptcy then. With the Nader clique now ruling the Foundation with an iron hand in 2002, we are on our way to losing our Health Center.
I may be just a sentimental romantic or a foolish, childish idealist, but I believe that Americans should try to put their democratic, republican ideals into practice. In an attempt to do just that, about six or so years ago my wife Judy and I joined Code Blue. It was a relatively small group that disagreed with the dictatorial way the board of directors was running the Winsted Memorial Hospital and was calling for it to close.
In order to try to change the minds of the hospital's directors, the members of Code Blue demonstrated, petitioned, wrote and pleaded. The directors would not listen or change. In desperation, Code Blue—led by Claire Nader, Charlene LaVoie, Rev. Michaelsen, Carol Crossman and Fred Hyde—turned to the Superior Court in Litchfield.
This effort failed and the Winsted Memorial Hospital went bankrupt, but the people—including those of Code Blue—did not give up. They formed a nonprofit, non-taxpaying foundation to purchase the hospital campus on Spencer Street, and got Charlotte Hungerford and St. Francis hospitals to set up a Health Center there.
Sadly, very sadly, the era of good times and the mutual trust that accompanied this success did not last. The Foundation was organized under the same bylaws used by the hospital's board of directors. Promises made by Foundation leaders that these flawed bylaws would be reformed were never kept. Rather, the board soon fell under the control of the Nader clique. Many of these were our former Code Blue leaders who once called for democracy and openness. These included Fred Hyde, Claire Nader, Rev. Michaelsen and Carol Crossman.
Faced with this oppressive rule which blocked every road to change, many corporators put into action the tactics they learned in Code Blue. We wrote, petitioned and pleaded with the Foundation's directors, who we found were even more rigid and unwilling to listen than the old hospital's directors.
For these reasons we are seeking help to improve the situation by filing a suit with the Superior Court in Litchfield—a suit which we believe is so necessary to protect the future of the Winsted Health Center that we are paying the cost out of our own pockets.
Having learned from the past, we will prevail!
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