LETTER Profits over people
What a wonderful facility the new recreation center is in Waynesburg. A project of the nonprofit Greene County Memorial Hospital Foundation, the center was built in response to a need for a facility to improve the health and well-being of the residents of Greene County. The range of services is impressive: an extensive exercise gym, indoor soccer field, basketball court, walking track, group exercise rooms, personal training, and rooms for children to play in. It’s a facility that would be the envy of any county.
What a great pity, then, that the management of the center was handed over to a for-profit company that recently initiated a confrontational relationship with several of the center’s members. These members were using padlocks to store their possessions in lockers overnight. It was not unreasonable for members to assume this was alright, since there are no signs posted in the locker rooms stating otherwise.
A note was recently taped to each of the padlocked lockers informing members politely that this was not permitted unless users wished to rent the lockers. So far, so good, as that’s not an unreasonable thing to bring to the attention of members. However, the note also stated that any padlocked lockers that had not been rented would be opened with bolt cutters, and the contents removed.
Why on earth would someone in the center’s management make such an aggressive threat towards its members who, remember, had no idea that this was not permitted? Why initiate a confrontational relationship?
This is obviously a fairly trivial matter in the grand scheme of things, but in my opinion it goes right to the heart of a much bigger issue in this society. Privatization — in this case the management of a recreational facility — completely changes the way people are viewed. A nonprofit foundation views people as, in this case, having needs to be met, much as the public sector does in general. A for-profit company, on the other hand, simply views people as a source of private profit.
Robert Hanham
Carmichaels