the zombie nick licata's form letter

i'm really, really, really sad about the sonics. check out my real blog for more info. anyway, here's what nick licata, president of the seattle city council, thought about my sadness:


Thank you for writing me about the sale of the Seattle Sonics to a group
of investors from Oklahoma City. I have been saying for months that I
would like to see the Sonics stay in Seattle, but not at a cost of over
$200 million.

As I stated several months ago, there is no doubt about it, my glib,
foolish remark on the relative unimportance of professional basketball
in Seattle was smug and wrong. In my clumsy way I was trying to point
out that Seattle is a world-class city for a variety of reasons, not
just because of the Sonics.

Public leaders need to ask the right questions, and then listen to the
answers instead of providing good press copy. As an elected official, it
is my job to weigh competing interests and decide what is the best use
of taxpayer dollars. Let me give you some background on this issue.

In 1995, after a City Council vote, the former Coliseum was rebuilt into
KeyArena at the request of the Sonics. That same year, the voters of
King County narrowly voted down a baseball stadium. The State
Legislature and the King County Council overturned that decision. In
1997, state voters narrowly passed a measure for a football stadium.

Partly as a result of voter anger at the baseball stadium vote being
overturned, state voters then passed a series of anti-tax initiatives
that constrained the ability of local governments to pay for basic
services. This forced cuts in services, and has had a lasting impact.
Some governments, such as King County, have had to eliminate entire
lines of business, such as providing swimming pools and park
construction.

Right now the Seattle City Council is considering a tax levy proposal
from Mayor Greg Nickels to provide funding for road and bridge
maintenance. This is needed because a principal funding source for this
basic, core service was removed by an anti-tax measure. One goal of
anti-tax measures was to force local governments to put measures on the
ballot for voters to decide what they want government to do, so this is
in line with the intent expressed by the voters. That is why I believe
it is fair for the City Council to insist on a public vote for any tax
proposal for a new basketball arena.

These initiatives have forced elected officials to carefully choose what
items to fund. For this reason, the Council crafted a set of reasonable
conditions for negotiations, and the Mayor's office began discussions
with the Sonics former ownership.

The economic model for professional basketball includes a reliance on
public subsidies, The level of subsidy required for a NBA franchise has
increased considerably in recent years. The Sonics consider the 1995
version of KeyArena obsolete, only 11 years after its construction. This
is not an isolated case: Memphis built a new arena in 1991, and then
again in 2004. The economic lifespan of NBA arenas is decreasing and the
amount of public subsidy-formerly a small portion-is now expected to be
the overwhelming majority. This is the economic model of the NBA
nowadays.

Keep in mind, the bonds used to finance construction of KeyArena will
not be paid off until 2014, four years after the Sonics lease expires.

The current business model of the NBA depends not only on public
subsidies, but on generating revenues from arenas that are much large
than KeyArena, in order to generate revenue from restaurants and shops.
They want all the revenue the arena can generate, including from
concerts, which are more profitable than Sonics games. NBA arenas are
becoming as much malls as sports arenas. That is why KeyArena is
considered obsolete, not because of any structural defects, or lack of
good sightlines, for example. As the KeyArena business plan notes, it
was rated "Best Venue in the NBA" in 2004, and has won Facilities and
Event Management's "Prime Site" award three times since opening.

The question is, how much is enough? The proposal for a $220 million
KeyArena remodel, when including the remaining debt, and financed at 6%
interest, would cost an annual $40 million tax subsidy for 15 years.

I developed a proposal that would have provided $8-10 million in new
annual revenues for the Sonics. The Mayor of Seattle proposed three
options to the Sonics. One of the options would have provided a $20
million annual increase in revenues for the Sonics. The Sonics former
owners did not respond to any of the offers, and instead sold for $350
million the business they purchased 5 years ago for $200 million. This
was their business choice; they chose to take their profits by selling
the team, rather than accepting one of our offers and submitting it to
the public for a vote.

Sincerely,

Nick Licata

i need help - no metaphor and next paragraphs

this isn't prettied-up at all. but it's basically what i want to say. i'm also including a rough draft of a few of the next paragraphs...

The first step to treatment is diagnosis. Once a clinician is sure of someone’s diagnosis they develop a treatment plan. Unfortunately, the treatment of many psychiatric illnesses is not necessarily successful. While there is a great deal of research on improving treatment, perhaps it would be worthwhile to also take a second look at how we classify patients.

OR

In any medical field, the first step to treating a patient is the assignment of a diagnosis. Once the patient’s symptoms have been catalogued and assigned to the appropriate diagnostic category, physicians can then work from within that diagnostic paradigm to arrive at a treatment plan. Despite this systematic approach to medicine, many mental health patients are unresponsive to treatment. As a scientific community we are diligently searching for more effective methods to reach these patients, but it is critical that we reconsider our diagnostic criteria: it is time that we permit etiology a say and acknowledge that a system of psychiatric nosology is incomplete without an exploration of causes.

OR

The first step to treatment is diagnosis. Once a clinician is sure of someone’s diagnosis they develop a treatment plan. Unfortunately, the treatment of many psychiatric illnesses is not necessarily successful. While there is a great deal of research on improving treatment, perhaps it would be worthwhile to also take a second look at how we classify patients.

AND THEN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH:

To understand this _____, one must turn back the clock to 1980, the year that Mount St. Helens spewed volcanic ash across the Pacific Northwest and the year that the APA rocked the nation with a third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III). By publishing this new diagnostic tome, the APA provided a universal—even international—language for psychiatrists; it instituted a focus on objective, precisely structured diagnoses; and it inaugurated the much lauded multiaxial diagnostic system. However, the makers of DSM-III and each subsequent volume employed a classification system that was atheoretical to causes. Indeed, the revised versions of the DSM concentrate so heavily on symptoms that they risk ignoring etiology. SPEAK ABOUT FORMER ETIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE. Thus, while useful in many ways, this shift in diagnostic practices may have misdirected the field of psychiatric genetics.

The completion of the Human Genome Project has ushered in a new era in psychiatric genetics. Specifically, successes in the identification of risk genes in schizophrenia (e.g., dysbidin, neureglin reviewed by xxx), these successes may be the turning point for genetic studies in depression, anxiety, substance use, bipolar disorder, schizohprenia, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder....

i need help - no modest mouse fire metaphor

not done yet

i need help - modest mouse fire metaphor

so far i think this is the best. beth liked it, mark didn't...

In their album Good News for People Who Love Bad News, the alternative band Modest Mouse observes that “Everyone is a building burning, with no one to put the fire out.” To the casual listener these words may smack of pop-rocker metaphysical angst, but in the context of contemporary psychiatry, the lyrics begin to sound more like an indictment. While many mental health patients are successfully stabilized, countless others are treatment resistant—their fires rage on as mental health practitioners desperately fling pharmaceutical cocktails at the flames and hope for the best. As a scientific community we are diligently searching for more effective methods to fight the blaze of mental illness, but it is also critical that we step back and reconsider the nature of this fire. If every patient is indeed a “building burning,” perhaps it is time that we learn to differentiate between a garden variety fire and an electrical fire and then treat our patients accordingly: it is time that we permit etiology a say and acknowledge that a system of psychiatric nosology is incomplete without an exploration of causes.

since debby probably isn't familiar with modest mouse, i may give it a little different spin and rewrite it without the quote (see i need help - no modest mouse fire metaphor; you'll have to scroll up or down to find it--this isn't a link)...

i need help - candy dish metaphor

i wrote this in about five minutes. in my opinion it's super-freakin' ridiculous. but mark thought it worked best...

in the waiting room of every american doctor's office is a weathered stack of people magazine, a fish tank, and a dish of candies. if one day that dish was filled with antipsychotics, benzos, and anticonvulsants, i would be about as shocked as if brad and angelina suddenly climbed from my magazine and into the fish tank--besides breaking about a million laws, it would sever the traditional "present --> diagnose --> prescribe" formula that forms the backbone of medical practice. however, as a mental health practitioner, the candy-dish approach to psychiatry may sometimes seem more attractive than the hopeless trial of medication cocktails that is the routine for many patients. psyciatric research is chugging away at a more practical solution for the disconnect between diagnosis and treatment--new drugs are in the works (actually that's false, but something like that could go here)--but perhaps it is time that we rethink our methods of classifying patients.

i need help - algebra metaphor

this was my first try. beth thought it had promise but rebecca laughed at the simplicity and struck it down with an iron fist of fury....

The medical model treats patients like algebraic equations. Doctors take a diagnosis, apply the prescribed treatment, and then watch for an improved outcome—if x is diabetes, make y insulin; for syphilis, administer penicillin. But in contemporary psychiatry, mental health practitioners must contend with a frustrating disconnect between diagnosis and treatment. Indeed, patients are sometimes more responsive to a physician’s last-chance pharmaceutical blend than any regiment that is particular to the patients’ diagnoses.