Letters to the Editor- Lake County

Condell's thanks for village's help

On behalf of Condell Medical Center, I want to thank the village of Libertyville for its support and recent approval of our emergency department expansion, which will further sustain our process for pursuing accreditation as a Level I Trauma Center.

Condell has been working closely with the village and the area's regional Emergency Medical Services system to expand our provision of emergency care. We are thrilled to have received all approvals necessary to begin expansion.

Illinois emergency services is divided into several regions where local hospitals work cooperatively with fire and emergency responders to ensure the proper level of response in the event of a major emergency or trauma.

Region X, which includes Lake County, has unanimously endorsed our decision to expand our Emergency Department and seek Level I Trauma Center status.

The state's Healthcare Planning Board has already approved our project and certified our financial status to complete the emergency department expansion as well as the expansion of a new patient bed tower. With the endorsement of our regional emergency system, Condell is moving forward and will break ground this summer on the expansion of the emergency department.

We intend to implement the changes necessary for Level I Trauma Center status simultaneously with our plans to physically expand the emergency department.

The residents in our region deserve a Level I Trauma Center and Condell is working diligently to make this a reality for Lake County.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our commitment to elevating the level of emergency care in our community.

Julius Marks Jr., Chairman

Board of Directors

Condell Medical Center

Libertyville

Was this not taught in Harrop's school?

I was a bit puzzled about Froma Harrop's contention in her piece reviewing John Ferling's new book, "Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence" (July 10).

She posits that the public's perception of American Revolution is that it was "nice story" and that they hold an erroneous view about the vicious nature of the war. If true, she is inadvertently indicting our secondary and high school curriculum (rightfully so I might add) that covers the Revolutionary era.

There is a massive amount of scholarship as well as first class popular writing on the Revolution that dispels any illusion that the war was "picturesque and a cakewalk", to use her words.

Recent best selling publications that are eminently readable and engaging for the non-scholar -- i.e., the general public -- that would suggest that she is off base, include David McCullough's highly acclaimed "1776" and David Hackett Fisher's Pulitzer Prize winner, "Washington's Crossing." Anyone who reads the late historian Page Smith's popular and comprehensive two volume tome published in 1976, "A New Age Now Begins -- A Peoples History of the American Revolution," will not come away thinking the Revolution was a cakewalk.

While I admire and highly respect John Ferling's writing and find him entertaining and informative, he is hardly the first writer or historian to inform us of the trials, tribulations, tragedies and triumphs in the American Revolution. No, there has been plenty of ink expended to cover that period of our history. Perhaps Ms. Harrop wasn't afforded the opportunity to use some of that ink or preferred not to until now, and that deficiency informed her view of the Revolution.

Joe H. Heater

Palatine