TO THE EDITOR: THE NORTHFIELD NEWS IT SEEMS from town meeting as though there are still rumblings about the long-public plans by The Veteran's Place, Inc., to create a transitional living program for homeless veterans at the former Mayo-Delary House on Vine Street.

We are now hearing that the debate is pitting two good causes against each other: helping veterans versus protecting our children. Is that really the issue? Or is it the only "politically correct" reason for opposition?

Let's review the various arguments:

First, that we don't have any homeless veterans visible in Northfield. They will be "transients" brought in from elsewhere.

I didn't realize we were quite so parochial. If every town takes the attitude that we should only host programs that serve only our own citizens, then we need to start building our own small prison for the Northfield folks we ship to Springfield (or even to Kentucky, because no one is willing to "take care of our own" in a Vermont town.)

We also need a few drug rehab programs in town, a small branch of the state hospital, an overnight homeless shelter, several groups homes for troubled kids and for parolees, and probably some other "undesirable" programs for neighbors we currently send elsewhere.

The definition of "transient," incidentally, is a person who goes from town to town looking for a job and a home. So these veterans are, undoubtably, transient. The point of the program is to help them no longer be transient, which benefits all of us.

The homeless are not always visible. They are in crisis shelters in Barre (yes, Barre even takes in homeless folks from Northfield) or they are sleeping on the couch at friends or relatives.

The second concern is that these folks will be ill - recovering from drug or alcohol addictions, or mental trauma.

I would hope so. I would hope that our offers of help go to those who need it, not to healthy, ablebodied folks who just want a free ride.

These are veterans already in recovery. No active "users" will be permitted. Will some need help with relapse? Of course. That is the nature of those cruel illnesses.

Our other option is to not help support recovery; make relapse more likely and more frequent, and further drive up the costs of our health care system. These illnesses, with the co-morbid conditions they bring when untreated, are big cost drivers in health care.

A third concern that has been raised in the past is that property values will be hurt on Vine Street. That assumes that a well-run and maintained, historic building used for supportive housing would detract from property values more than an abandoned, decaying building would (wrong again.)

Does anyone recall how rapidly the Grey Building became an eyesore after it was vacated?

There are only three futures for the Mayo-Delary building: sale to a multi-millionaire who want to gut it for a mansion (those folks tend to pick mountain tops); sale to a landlord who wants to chop it into rental units (probably not worth the investment, and certainly not a plus to the neighborhood); or maintained in the line is has supported in the past: from hospital, to residential care facility, to....residential supported home.

So now, the argument that trumps the others: Its location is inappropriate because it is so close to a school. Our children will be in danger!

Exactly what is the source of that danger, unless it is directly tied to misinformation about people in recovery?

Our children will be in greater danger from people who are engaged in a recovery program than from those on the streets - or in their own homes - who are not?

What do we think? That they will be snatched off the streets into a staffed residence, rather than by a lurking stranger?

If we learned anything in the past year in Vermont, we should have learned that all the statistics are true: that our children are at far greater risk from people known to their families than from strangers.

Are we afraid that some who "relapses" will begin sneaking alcohol and drugs to the nearby kids? Our kids, regrettably, have far easier ways to access alcohol and drugs. They prove it to us every day.

On the contrary, these recovering veterans will have a gift to offer our kids that is priceless.

They will be living evidence of how substances can destroy a life. Is there a young person who will walk by the Mayo-Delary home, see people out on the front porch, and say, "Gee, I hope I can be like that one day?"

Ads for cigarets and booze show the young, happy and healthy, living it up...not those suffering the consequences.

If they see anything at The Veteran's Place, it will most likely be hope.

Hope that rebuilding after life goes awry is, indeed, possible. Hope that when bad things happen, others are willing to lend a hand. Hope that when people tell them we should care about one another, the words have reality.

Hope and trust in the future is the best inoculation we can give our kids in a tough, often uncaring, world.
ANNE DONAHUE
Northfield