Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 120, No. 78, Ed. 1 Sunday, September 29, 2002 Page: 4 of 92
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EDITORIAL
. " ••**'*>. f'MriL* ** J
THE FOLK COUNTY SNIBfWMSE
SUNDAY, SRFKMItt », |
Letters to the editor
It's a dictatorship
To the editor:
Do we have a diversified
presidential cabinet? Yea, we
have, so what? No one has a say
but Bush and Cheney As he said
one time, a dictatorship is not a
bad thing as long as he. Bush, is
the dictator. And he is. Bush is
not a president, but a bully dicta-
tor.
Congress had better wake up
and represent us, the people. We
do not want war with Iraq. Bush
wants war with Iraq before the
November election - to kill for
politics.
George W. Bush has wrecked
our economy. Now he wants to
put American in a non-winnable
war He could not get bin Laden
and he won’t be able to get Hus-
sein either. He should be im-
peached before he gets the idea
of jumping on North Korea or
Cbm* because they are a threat to
the free world. Forget about the
national economy, school reform.
Social Security and prescription
drug help for our elderly.
Folks, wake up and smell the
coffee. Continuing this war is not
for fear or oil. It is simply a ploy
to divert the public's attention
away from the issues. If you are a
Democrat or Republican you
should see this.
I feel sorry for the young men
or women who die in vain for a
war that could be avoided, and
all simply for re-election. The
current administration headed by
their war monger should be
ashamed of themselves.
Jack McDadc
P.O. Box 410
Leggett
God bless America
To the editor:
In observance of the first anni-
versary of the terrorist attacks on
the United States of America, I
felt compelled to write these
words and share them with your
readers:
Duty, honor, country - God
bless you and America!
911 is a wake up call to all
who heard the sounds. . . of des-
perate cries in dirty dust through
blackened skies around.
The towers shake by terrorists’
hate that fear outbreak the
Land...as buildings fall and we
recall the fate of man’s com-
mand!
We see the news...while we
may view helping hands from
everywhere... to places
there...beyond their share be-
cause of love pursue.
How awesome is this quest to
be for America’s freedom stand
against all worry by man’s de-
cree to oust the terrorists’ band!
(Oh Father,)
The time has come to heal by
prayer God’s word in truth
abounds...To arise our Nehe-
miah’s and rebuild the lost and
found. Then our flag keeps fly-
ing. . his torch of love and care to
see!
(In Jesus’ name. Amen.)
Joyce York
3210 Commodore Dr.
Livingston
Two better than one
To the editor:
*»
Lhero -was an article in the
Sunday, Sept 22, Enterprise
about a benefit/memorial to be
f held Sept. 28 for Jay D. Parker.
Jay’s family knew there was to
be a benefit to help cover Jay’s
final expenses, but was not aware
this was going to be called a
memorial. We hope all Jay’s
friends will also attend the me-
morial party the family has
planned for Oct. 26 at the pavil-
ion in Impala Woods. This me-
morial was scheduled for Octo-
ber to give all family and friends
who live out of state time to
make arrangements to take time
off from work.
We hope to see everyone on
Oct. 26. Jay was a great son and
friend and two parties are better
than one.
Pattie Parker
100 Caribou
Onalaska
Do you have an opinion?
The Polk County Enterprise encourages readers to submit letters
expressing their views and opinions. The letters will be published in the
Enterprise’s “Letters to the editor” column on Thursday or Sunday.
The letters may be written on any subject or issue of general interest.
Letters must be accompanied by a name and mailing address and will
be subject to editing for grammar, punctuation, spelling and length.
Letters must include a telephone number for verification. We will not
publish the telephone number.
Readers should keep their letters brief and to the point. Each letter
should contain no more than 6S0 words. Letters exceeding that length
will be subject to editing or withheld from publication.
Letters will also be subject to editing for libelous statements and
commercialism.
This column is not meant as a forum for political candidates,
although we welcome comments from the public concerning campaign
issues. During election campaigns, we will not allow reference to
specific local candidates.
Letters may be submitted in person; mailed to “Letters to the editor,”
Polk County Enterprise, P.O. Box 1276, Livingston, TX 77351; sent to
the Enterprise by fax to (936) 327-7156 or sent via e-mail to
polknews@livingston.net.
Deadline for letters is 5 p.m. Tuesday for Thursday’s newspaper and
noon Friday for Sunday’s newspaper.
w
ONU YOU. CAN MtVINT MUST Flllt.
www.tMekeykeer.eeai
Consumers in lawsuit crossfire
By RICHARD WEEKLEY
President and CEO
Texasa for Lawsuit Reform
Whether it's a crack in a city
sidewalk or a trace of beef in a fast
food french-fry, eventually there
. will be a lawsuit Win or lose, we,
the people, are the ones who will
ultimately pay.
Welcome to the no-man’s land
white most consumers live. It is a
pockmarked battleground squarely
between insurance companies on
one side, and ever more inventive
plaintiff lawyers on the other.
Everyone agrees that when a
wrong is done, the harmed should
be compensated by those found to
be responsible. Unfortunately, the
system of civil justice that is sup-
posed to make sure that the harmed
are made whole has flaws. Com-
pensation too oflen far exceeds all
limits of common sense; theories of
damages under the law have be-
come more and more farfetched;
and settlements reached and judg-
ments rendered almost always
eventually come out of our own
pockets.
Who would disagree that people
harmed by their doctors should be
compensated? But for every 100
doctors in the Lower Rio Grande
Valley, there are 350 medical mal-
practice claims filed. Most of these
lawsuits fail, but every legal de-
fense costs thousands of dollars.
Who pays? We do. First the doctors
are hit with malpractice premium
rate hikes of 100 percent and more.
These higher costs then cause con-
sumer health insurance rates to
dramatically escalate. Employers
then scale back health coverage.
Consumer groups who take fund-
ing from trial lawyers, simply
blame insurance companies who,
they say, want to gouge doctors
because these companies have ost
money in the stock market. But 14
of 17 malpractice underwriters
have left Texas in the last two years
because they can’t raise rates fast
enough to keep up with the litiga-
tion costs. It’s pretty tough to
gouge if you aren’t writing policies,
so this explanation just doesn’t
hold up.
Four years ago, lawsuits alleging
harm from mold were virtually
nonexistent in Texas,
two years, however, T«
40,000 insurant
mold. Yet mtornstianally iwpsnid
experts in unnmoto|y and macro-
bioiogy say that the public hysteria
manufactured over any has atoo-
lutely no foundation in
These feels have not stepped law-
suits r-Uimiwg memory loos ami
neurological damage. For consum-
ers, it is an expensive hoax; insur-
ance rates have doubled for many
homeowners, p/yv f'
After a S32 million “toxic" mold
judgment, the ruse swung into high
gear. Pictures of mold rsmiditean
in environmental "moon suits" in-
spired thousands of others to seek
relief from the supposedly danger-
ous mold in their homes. Mean-
while, continuing legal education
courses are offered on how to beat
sue on behalf of clients with mold
in their homes. Some dubbed it,
“mold for gold."
Responsible nursing homes have
been in the news lately saying that
they are one lawsuit away from
bankruptcy because they can no
longer afford their malpractice in-
surance. A nursing home reform
law with the completely justifiable
those who'
coodi-
m Ultll .,
llJisiitf:
Some food for thought
0#
Just when you had your fill,
there's yet another serving of die-
tary guidelines hot off the press.
After two years of chewing
over the research, the Institute of
Medicine's Food and Nutrition
Board has issued its Dietary Refer-
ence Intakes, a dry-as-saltines set
of guidelines to replace the good
old RDAs (Recommended Dietary
Allowances).
It seems as though the food
pyramid has been taken apart brick
by brick and rebuilt into a wall of
conflicting advice to hit your head
against. Take fat. It's back. A little,
anyway. The new guidelines have
upped the maximum proportion of
daily calorie^ that should : come
from fat, from 30 percent to 35
percent. We now have friendly fats
that we're supposed fq be sure to
get enough of — omega-3 and
omega-6 fatty acids. (Bring on the
anchovies and salmon, sunflower
seeds and flaxseed oil.)
The board blasts the low-fat,
high-carbohydrate regimens that
seemed so sensible a few years ago.
Such' diets cjm actually increase
risk of heart disease by‘ lowering
levels of good cholesterol. *
The thought of Saying, "Hopey,
did you get your fat today?" is ap-
pealing, but you ban take a tasty
thing too far. Sorry, that steak-and-
whipped-cream, high-protein, ldw-
carb Atkins diet-is still not a good
idea, even though it has made a
comeback. (The new guidelines
don’t set a maximum daily protein
intake because the data was inade-
quate and conflicting.)
There are still plenty of bad
fats -- those trans-fatty acids that
are found in fast food and faetpry-
made baked goods. (Hey, govetinor, -
maybe a, trans-fatty acid tax could
pump up state revenues^)
The new guidelines move be-
yond the dinner table by urging
Americans to help themselves to an
hour a day of moderate exercise. It
• '> k '+!•- .*• ■
sounds daunting, but there are ways
to start to get there: walking the
dog, parking farther from work,
getting the kids to walk to school.
You might be tempted to just
cut back on your consumption of
nutritional advice, but that's not the
best option. Stan with some simple
changes: Move more; eat less; and
take any dietary guidelines with a
grain of salt - but not too much.
From The Sacramento Bee
Copley News Service
are was re-
candy enacted . But built into thati(1
reform were plaintiff lawyer de- 01
signed elements that created an'11
open season on all aurring homes
oot side and plaintiff lawyers on*0
the other side, some Texas physi- °°
cians have decided that their pro-y1'
fession has become impractical and **
they are taking early retirement. 1,2
Many long-term care nurses are ***
fleeing a profession they now sec ‘i!
as too risky. For consumers, in9”
many counties in Texas, having a
baby delivered or finding afford-'01
able homeowners insurance is be-'**
coming increasingly difficult ufl
As consumers, we can be grind/1*
amused with stories of lawsuits0"
against fast food companies on'10
behalf of clients who didn’t know*1?
feat eating a lot of double cheese11*
burgers might make them fat. We,ul
can watch while billions of dollars
of state tax revenues evaporate into'j*
higher and higher health insurance*
costs. Or, we can tackle the flaws ^
in our civil justice system, which*'1
are costing us so much money. nc
As a lawsuit reform group, weJfl
believe that compensation for11
“economic” damages should not be’*
limited but that highly subjective
“non-economic” damages in medi-*1
cal malpractice cases should beJli
capped at a reasonable level. Cali-
fornia enacted such a solution in'1'*
1975 and medical malpractice rates
there have remained stable and1^
below the national average ever16
since. There are other solutions to
• iW
this death-by-lawsuit spiral in
which we find ourselves that can go(.^
a long way toward restoring a '
measure of common sense to ourA
civil justice system. v
We are developing, for example,^
legislation which would act as a^
disincentive for those who think of
a lawsuit as a lottery ticket by en-p
couraging parties in litgation toK
reach realistic and reasonable sct-l3|
dements early in the process. Also
important is the recognition by
those serving on civil juries that*
lawsuits should make a harmed
party whole, not an overnight mil-
lionaire. *
Our efforts to win fair changes in
our system have not stopped law-
suits, nor should they. But until the
public itself takes a stand for a civil
justice system driven more by jus-
tice than by greed, we can all ex-
pect to pay more from the middle
of the battlefield.
How to coi
Polk Court
Representati
201..,
sem
75'
State Sen. Todd Staol
P.O. Box 2208
P.O. Box 2208
Palestine, TX 75802
903/729-7717
FAX: 903/723-0408
State Ren. DanF**‘-
POLK COUNTY
ENTERPRISE
ALVIN HOLLEY, PUBLISHER
Telephone Number 936-327-4357
(USPS 437-340)
WEBSITE: www.EastTexasNews.Com
E-MAIL: polknews@livingston.net
Texas 77351 under the Act ofCongress of March 3,1987. Entered as Periodical
Matter at the Post Office at Livingston, TX.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Barbara White..............................Editor........................ Ext. 102
Emily Banks..............................News Editor....................................................Ext. 103
VanThomas..................................Sports Editor.................................. Ext. 107
Greg Peak....................................Area News Editor.......................................... Ext. 106
Vicki Coker................................. Living Section Editor.....................................Ext. 104
Vanesa Brashier.................. ......Special Feature Editor.....................................Ext. 111
Gordon LcBarron........................Photographer
rannnmnN nmwMBvr
Paul Holley____________________________Camcras/Ptaiemaking........................... Ext. 119
Don Holeman.............................Cameras/Platemaking.......................................Ext. 119
Adrian Dunn..............................Pressman........................................................Ext. 120
Lee Torres...................................MailroonVCirculation............. Ext. 120
Kevin Wooten..............................Mailroom/Circulation......................................Ext. 120
Alex Garcia______________________________Mailroom/Circulation......................................Ext. 120
COMPOSITION MPABTMKWT
Jennifer Kingsbury ____________.... Supervisor.........................................................Ext. 118
Jennifer David............................. Graphic/l>pset.................................................Ext. 118
Adam West................................ Graphk/Typset................................................Ext. 118
April Sloan ...._........................... Graphk/Typset.......................—...................Ext. 118
AlWITimsiNG DEPARTMENT
Linda Holley..............................Ad. Manager....................................................Ext. 117
Sandra Jackson____..._________________Ad. Rep.............................................................Ext. 113
Kay Loy Cuevas ___________________Ad. Rep........................ Ext. 112
J.R. Shoe make........................... Ad. Rep.,
CI.ASSIITm OKPANTMKNT
Linda Jacobs..............................Manager..
Patty Hankeid..............................Ad. Rep...
PRINTING DEPARTMENT
Willis Woods ............................. Pressman
Ext. 110
Ext. 109
Ext. 108
Amanda Meshell..........................
.............Ext. 114
Dana Wiggina..............................
.
.............Ext. 114
HI ISINRSS nEPABTtfRNT
Georgia Bailey.............................
..
.............Ext. 115
Barbara Wilson............................
Accounts Receivable............................
.............Ext. 116
Rici Burgess.........
Dee Sisson.............
’ it-’" 7*sl ,-J
I - • Kt |u*11 i • !,• ii1 ,i.
. OrcuiationlSubscriptioiu.
. Rrcrprtoniu
Ext. 103
1. i < j ' l»: i H'lillL’ 111.It lllllt ( ,|ll t \
sa™. L
RATES-
Ml
DM
county; $22.00t>er year out of
^Suntby and Thursday at 100
____of any person, firm or
corrected upon being brought
are tfuacof the writer and not Necessarily those of this
At fivi^stoS^C. Please Scad Address Changes To
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White, Barbara. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 120, No. 78, Ed. 1 Sunday, September 29, 2002, newspaper, September 29, 2002; Livingston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth791085/m1/4/: accessed July 10, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.