As a caring person, I am sick of being assailed almost every week in the Ridgewood News with full page images of the rich and powerful in this town congratulating themselves for giving money to Valley Hospital at yet another social function.
The country is in the worst recession in 70 years. People are losing their jobs, houses are being foreclosed, families are breaking up under the economic stress and Ridgewood is looking at a net tax deficit that will amount to millions of dollars.
In contrast, Valley Hospital is at the most profitable it has been in its history and pays not taxes or PILOT to Ridgewood. Despite the hard times for the rest of us, the parties continue and rich donors continue to give the hospital money – and rub our noses in their conspicuous consumption in the color pages of the local paper.