Letters

A different kind of mother’s day gift

This Mother’s Day, I’d like to thank all the expectant mothers who plan to donate their baby’s umbilical cord blood to a public cord blood bank, such as San Diego Cord Blood Bank.

Your compassion means that someone with a life-threatening disease may get a second chance at life. Donated cord blood that meets the requirements can be listed on the Be The Match Registry^® and made available to anyone who needs a blood stem cell transplant.

Cord blood, usually disposed of after birth, is rich in blood-forming cells and can be used to help treat more than 70 different diseases, including leukemia and other blood cancers. Cord blood donations are especially needed from African American and Asian communities, as patients within these communities have difficulty finding donor matches.

There is no cost to donate to a public cord blood bank and donation is safe for moms and babies. Cord blood is collected right after birth and does not change the labor or delivery.

There is no greater gift than the gift of life.

Since its inception, the San Diego Cord Blood Bank has banked 2,100 cord blood units from generous moms in San Diego and surrounding areas and shipped 149 units for transplants, but more donations are needed to help save more lives. Visit BeTheMatch.org/cord to learn more.

Happy Mother’s Day!

—Robert J. Tressler, vice president, cell biology and therapy, San Diego Blood Bank, via email 

Wanting accountability

First, what happened to all of the funds reported in the 2012 Grand Jury report to have been sitting idly waiting for earmarked special interest projects? [See “Downtown News Briefs: City announces plan for year-round homeless shelter.”] News articles months ago indicated that such money still hasn’t been unlocked. Why wasn’t that repurposed before we went further into debt?

Second, why are we funding new buildings for books in a digital age before we build affordable housing? I agree that a digital book is not the same as a physical book. However, there are plenty of already built beautiful places in San Diego to browse physical books. In fact, by going over budget on the new library, we have created a very expensive site already. Meanwhile there aren’t places to house the people who live on the streets.

Let’s stop warehousing people and start warehousing our city’s physical collection of books. Spend the money slated for new library buildings to fund digital books and services for the homeless. Let’s create small WiFi/Internet centers or cafes for those who don’t have access. Let’s use bookmobiles and existing renovated/new libraries as both spaces to browse and a way to pick up physical books. Soon drones can deliver these physical books. Then let’s sell the old properties and spend the proceeds and the money slated for new libraries on our most vulnerable citizens instead.

—Shannon Biggs, via sandiegodowntownnews.com