It's good to see some positive coverage given to Camp La Guardia by the Record. "Homeless shelter is proving successful" (July 24) gives a rare glimpse of healthy changes that have occurred since VOA began administering the 773-bed men's Chester homeless shelter seven years ago. It's time to see and portray big-city social problems, together with our region's suburban and more rural struggles, as connected.
It matters less that residents of Camp La Guardia may have recently lived in the city (though many have also lived upstate and elsewhere during their lifetimes) than it does that they deserve as much as the wealthy and middle class to benefit from the promises of America's social compact. Rather than a place to crash and eat, successful treatment, training and placement programs offered at Camp La Guardia make a genuine difference for its residents — and slowly, by extension, of society's overall fabric.
True patriotism is not simply belligerence and nationalistic pride. Americans fortunate enough to have homes and enough to eat demonstrate love of country, as residents in Orange, Sullivan, Ulster and other counties have done, by lending support to domestic social programs like this and others that make the U.S. a stronger and better nation.
Tom Rue
Monticello