Background Checks For Nursing Home Workers Needn't Be Costly

September 2, 1997

The recent front-page article "Felons find hiring cracks at nursing homes" really puzzles me. The problem is not simply a "hiring crack" but sheer ignorance and lack of knowledge of how to acquire comprehensive criminal background information.

How can nursing homes, hospitals or any business for that matter, conduct background checks when they do not understand the proper way to access all criminal information available? Even most of the so-called "background checking agencies" that many institutions and businesses utilize to conduct their checks are ill-informed as to where and how to find all criminals background information.

To all of you who think that acquiring a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report is the answer: Forget it. An FDLE report, though it may be a good start, is only a preliminary tool in an attempt to uncover a criminal background.

I challenge Rep. Carl Littlefield and Sen. Howard Forman's comments about "the system needs some changes" and that "screenings are expensive."The lawmakers are seemingly misled or misinformed. The checking system needs major changes. But the screening process when properly understood and utilized is quite simple and not expensive. Furthermore, Florida laws are somewhat silent with regard to defining what a criminal background check should encompass. And when the law attempts to define criminal background checking, it is vague, incomplete and clearly inappropriate.

To suggest that "felons are finding hiring cracks" and not accept the responsibility for our own inappropriate and ill-defined hiring practices (which obviously allows criminals to enter our institutions) is a gross injustice to the elderly, fellow employees and citizens of Florida. When we point our finger at the hired felon slipping through the cracks, we are merely avoiding our own irresponsibility and stupidity.


Boca Raton

Privatization would mean security

It's time to privatize Social Security for the benefit of the younger worker and future workers. Under the present system, too much money is going to those who never worked and are not citizens of this nation. For years a loophole in the Social Security Act let municipalities opt out of the system. Congress (Democratic controlled) put an end to that in 1983.

Just before the window of opportunity closed, three Texas counties escaped the Federal Ponzi Pyramid Scheme (scam) known as Social Security. Their experience offers promising news. In 16 years, even meagerly paid workers in those Texas counties have become prosperous investors. Workers there are given a choice of private retirement plans. After a 40-year career, a retired $20,000 per year worker would receive $2,740 per month; at current interest rates under Social Security that same worker would receive a measly $275 per month on average.

Ponzi years ago went to prison for the same scam the federal government is running called Social Security, which is but a refinement of Ponzi's scheme in that it uses taxes to pay off the suckers and cover its other giveaways under this scam.

The sooner privatization takes place, the better it will be for the worker. By eliminating the Social Security bureaucracy, billions will be saved and income taxes further reduced for the benefit of the worker.



Talmudic story sums up religious law

The arguments regarding religion in schools seems to focus not so much on its place but rather on which one shall prevail. Our Founding Fathers, in their infinite wisdom, incorporated into our Constitution a constraint against the government making any laws that would favor any one religion. They were concerned lest this new government develop a state religion. Their concerns were based on historic examples from their ancestral origins. I personally respect the right of any of my fellow citizens to practice their philosophies and beliefs with one provision: That they do not advocate the death, destruction of and/or discrimination against those whose beliefs differ from theirs and that they afford me the same rights and privileges.

I, as a Jew, have distilled my religious beliefs into what I believe my Creator requires of me. It is expressed in a Talmudic story of a famous sage, who is reported to have answered the request of a Gentile to teach him all of the law (Torah) while he stood on one leg. This is what he said: "As you would have others do unto you, do unto them also. This is the whole law, all else is but commentary."



Father's just deserts

Re the article about the two Leesburg children who shot their father with BB guns: "Investigators wondered whom they should charge" and "were at a loss how to proceed."

The authorities should charge the parent(s) who purchased the guns and permitted 6and 8-year-old children to use them as toys. It's poetic justice that the victim was the father and not an innocent playmate.


Pompano Beach

Toyota isn't pushy

party in this deal

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