|
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
|
|
|
|
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
|
|
Letters to the Editor
An Honor
To the editor: Great article on the women’s hospital at Carswell (“Cancer Cell,” Aug. 24, 2005). And I think writer Betty Brink should consider it an honor that they won’t let her into the hospital anymore. What an awful situation for those women, especially the older women. I plan to send a letter to Kay Bailey Hutchinson about the situation. I doubt that she’d do anything, but she needs to get a lot of letters since she says that she supports women.
Eileen Watson
Fort Worth
Compassionate Submersion
To the editor: Having grown up in the New Orleans area, this disaster (“Submerged,” Sept. 7, 2005) is surreal to me — it’s like watching my childhood sink in the rising water. I’m also angry at the lethargic federal response to the catastrophe. Four days after the deluge, the feds finally show up? Four days of thousands of American citizens languishing without food and water amid the ruins? Four days of people dying in their own feces? Four days of lawlessness with no military presence? Is this compassionate conservatism? This is shameful. The head of FEMA should be fired immediately, and Bush should be impeached for criminal negligence and dereliction of duties.
Frank Perez
Fort Worth
Toxic Toll
To the editor: I have a major problem with Michael Reilly’s response to the excellent piece by K.R. Anderson (“Teflon Toddlers,” Aug. 3, 2005). He says that just because an average of only (!) 200 chemicals found in people’s blood samples in a recent study are labeled toxic, they aren’t necessarily bad for us. Our bodies contain elements like copper, iron, and nitrogen because millions of years of evolution (or God or nature) made us that way. But pesticides, Teflon, heavy metals, and the other 80,000 man-made chemicals currently in commercial use are bad for us. They’re making a lot of us very sick and killing us, as well as permanently polluting the environment and the gene pool. Yes, it is transferred inter-generationally through our genes now.
Cancer was extremely rare in ancient peoples, while the odds of an American acquiring it are now 45 percent for men and 38 percent for women. Autism has increased by 600 percent since the 1980s. Of the 700 new chemicals introduced yearly, the EPA has requested information on 200 and decided to regulate a total of five. The stated “maximum allowable” blood levels of any chemical are based on an assumption of that chemical being the only one that a person is being exposed to — not on the synergistic effect of more than 200 chemicals in our bodies. And the higher susceptibility to damage in children and developing fetuses is not even taken into account. Since asbestos was listed in 1989, only hexavalent chromium has been added to the regulated list; you’ll recall that Erin Brockovich sacrificed a few years of her life for that one.
I am personally affected because someone I love has multiple chemical sensitivity and chronic fatigue, and it’s impossible to convey how difficult it makes your life. This is a direct result of the unbelievably chemically polluted world that our profit-at-any-costs corporations have created, and I dare Mr. Reilly to confess what chemical company or consortium pays him to write such profound nonsense. Whoever they are, they’re not getting their money’s worth, with statements from him like “the goal of complete removal [of toxic chemicals] is both unrealistic and risky.” Risky to whom, Mr. Reilly? DuPont? Dow? Here’s something to Google in your spare time: Bhopal Union Carbide. For confirmation of all of this, see www.mercola.com. Sleep well.
Andrew Williams
Fort Worth
Brainwashed?
To the editor: I’ve been wondering what this whole Cindy Sheehan story is about. Is it a war protest, or is it a Sheehan spectacle? Reading the “Metropolis” piece (“Fighting War with Grief,” Aug. 17, 2005), I got to the part where “heavy-hitting” supporters are backing Cindy Sheehan: MoveOn.org, Michael Moore, U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, and Al Franken. Whoa, red flags! Even people on the extreme left look left at these people.
Sheehan says, “I know the truth.” Are these the people she is getting the “truth” from? Sounds to me more like she is getting a good brainwashing.
Don’t get me wrong. I feel for Mrs. Sheehan. She has lost her son in the war. I cringe every time I hear of a soldier’s death in Iraq. Everyone does. War is hell. So she wants to meet with President Bush and demand an answer as to why her son died in Iraq. Well, excuse me, Cindy — you already did meet with the president, but apparently you weren’t satisfied with the first meeting.
According to the writer, Sheehan was sitting in a lawn chair outside of the Crawford ranch fielding questions from anyone who would listen. Well, a morning talk show host who went to Crawford and tried repeatedly to have a pow-wow with her was finally informed that he was not welcome around her camp. What is Sheehan afraid of?
Christopher C. Black
Grapevine
To the editor: It wasn’t a relaxing vacation for President Bush with negative polls, the Iraqi constitution hopeless, Cindy Sheehan protesting, and even Bush’s bootlickers at Fox News asking tough questions. Time to escape reality.
Bush dodged Cindy Sheehan about killing her son, fled to the reddest states, preached to the choir, hid behind God and the flag, and parroted the same old lies. Earth to Bush: You live in a fantasy world of moronic, neo-con delusions. You rushed to start a needless war that you aren’t winning, and it’s becoming a colossal foreign policy blunder.
It’s time that Americans exercised their constitutional rights and found the guts to stand up to one of the most dishonest, arrogant, reckless, and divisive presidents in this nation’s history. Bush’s folly will likely produce an Islamic state aligned with Iran, allowing the mullahs to hide women’s faces, bomb liquor stores, and chop off hands for petty theft.
After 9/11, tough questions weren’t asked of Bush’s rush to war. Muslim/Arab phobia and ignorance of the Middle East were especially true among Bush’s more fanatical supporters, many of whom still think that Saddam was behind the 9/11 attacks.
After 15,000 American casualties, at least 100,000 dead Iraqis, more than $200 billion dollars wasted, more turmoil and less security in the Middle East, and a loss of respect for America, one must ask if Dubya’s “Freedom for the I-rackis” is really worth it.
Russell Broadway
Sacramento, Calif. (formerly of Dallas)
Email this Article...
