Today's Letters: there's a pill for every problem
By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published August 4, 2007
I am the mother of a 16-year-old autistic son. First, autism is not a mental illness. There are physical situations that precede the condition. The best definition I ever heard came from Bob Doman, the founder of the National Association for Child Development, when he told me he referred to autism as "brain toxicity."
Ryan used to have one to three violent tantrums a day. My husband and I have tried many things to help him recover from this condition. The most effective ones have been:
- Good nutrition and eliminating what he is allergic to. The allergies were determined by tests and simple observation.
- Getting the mercury removed from my son's body. This is the "toxic brain" Doman mentioned.
- Homeschooling Ryan with the National Association for Child Development program.
Ryan is still autistic, but he can help around the house, feed and dress himself. His academic skills and speech continue to improve. He is also very well-behaved. I can take him anywhere in public.
My husband and I totally altered our lives to do what was best for our son. Drugging him would have made my life easier but would not have benefited my son. Our society is educated into "have a problem, take a pill." It is a heartbreaking situation when pharmaceutical companies and doctors care more about their profit margin than the well-being and future of a child.
Kitty Young, Clearwater
Lifesaving medication
My daughter was diagnosed with ADHD - attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder - when she was 3-4 years old. It was a legitimate diagnosis done by the Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources System while she was at a well-known day care center. That was followed up with numerous doctors, both in the physical and mental field.
No parents want to hear their child has such problems. I could never relay to you the numerous doctor appointments, medication trials, counseling appointments, nutrition appointments, and of course the "good parenting" classes to learn how to deal with a child with such medical needs.
I get really angry when people who do not have kids like this are so quick to judge the methods we have to use to get our children in control. They don't have a clue what we go through. People just think we have "bad kids."
I have to tell you how much respect I have for Dr. Mark Cavitt. He saved my daughter's life. With the proper medication (a hypertension medicine), she was able to grow into the beautiful young lady she is today. Her medication gave her control and the calmness to focus on school work and have a social life.
I didn't just make my daughter swallow pills to get through. She was well-monitored with a medication and dosage that worked for her. She didn't start medication until age 5 or 6 and was able to discontinue all meds in her teens. My daughter succeeded in those turbulent years. It wasn't easy, but with the proper support, teachers, medications and doctors there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Mary Cox, St. Petersburg
A dangerous experiment
I commend Robert Farley for his article The atypical dilemma. There is a recklessness involved with the prescribing of antipsychotic drugs. They are being used for purposes and symptoms not approved by the Food and Drug Administration and it's affecting our growing children - the future of our society.
Such drugs are, in effect, being used in an experimental fashion on the general public, except that it is being done in a completely unscientific manner. This experiment doesn't even have the same controls nor has it been given the same respect that would be given to an experiment with laboratory rats. The statistics will be found in our future - good or bad.
Have we become a "pill popping" society only looking for a quick fix for our problems? Do we no longer have the time to handle our most prized possessions - our children?
Shouldn't the FDA be controlling this issue?
Tobie Greenberg, Clearwater
Drugs are not a solution
Thanks for shedding some light on medication as a disastrous solution to educational and behavioral challenges.
I was a second-year teacher in Minnesota when I saw my first drugged third-grader. His parents had put him on medication because he was "nervous." What seemed strange in 1969 had become the usual by 2000.
Instead of fixing problems that children have with their schools, homes or their bodies, the kids are medicated. It's thalidomide for the brain for all we know.
Sharon Hillestad, Clearwater
Diet makes a difference
As an educator, I read your cover feature on atypical drugs with dismay, but not surprise. Given the amount of processed junk food, sugar and caffeine consumed by a typical American child on a daily basis, it could be worthwhile to try an alternative that doesn't solely rely on dispensing dangerous drugs.
On the other hand, there's not much money to be made with that approach. Therein lies the problem.
Gary Compton, Wesley Chapel
Appreciate the value of the arts July 31, Matt Petit's letter to John Fleming
Don't be blind to the value of the arts
As a member of the art community in several capacities, I thoroughly appreciated Matt Petit's response to John Fleming's column regarding the current demise of the visual and performing arts in our community.
Curtailing creativity for dollars to satisfy a sense of greed tends to relegate us to a semibarbaric Third World state. Our priorities are extremely insensitive to the value and spirit of the arts. This situation has been going on for quite some time, although it has accelerated during the last few years. The decline of the arts as a valuable part of education is right in step with the dumbing down of our system.
I silently weep with that wise young man.
Deafness denies one of the orchestration of musical sound.
Being mute denies one the ability to converse and share ideas and thoughts.
Blindness denies one the beauty of a visual experience.
So the official denial of the power of creativity in our society by our leaders can only be judged then as being deaf, dumb and blind.
John M. Angelini, Hudson
Why target arts? July 31, letter
They are not a necessity
I would be happy to answer the question posed by the letter writer regarding why the arts are always targeted in a budget crisis. It is very simple: They are subjective and not a basic necessity to run a community.
I am sick and tired of people who enjoy the arts forcing the rest of us to fund their interests with our money. I have nothing against the arts themselves, nor do I have anything against people who want to spend their own money putting on beauty pageants, going to drag races or attending Civil War re-enactments.
Art funding is a privilege for the people who enjoy it. It is not a right.
Pat Pearlman, Largo
Big Bird, Elmo on toy recall list Aug. 2, story about lead paint on Chinese imports
Remember hidden costs of those cheap imports
So what else is new? We buy from overseas because the goods are made cheaper than we can make them here. But they are cheaper because we are competing with an economy where people live in shacks and our safety standards are (to Chinese manufacturers) laughingly unimportant.
For years, American consumers have hurled derision at American manufacturers and manufactured goods because they are "too expensive." They forget why Chinese goods are so cheap and refuse to understand that they reduce the quality of life for us all by buying goods made in China.
Now the news is full of recalls for lead, and of pet poisonings from Chinese-made pet food. These are just the incidents we know of. God only knows how much dangerous material is imported that we don't know about. Buying Chinese products produces false savings. The hidden costs are exorbitant and sometimes deadly.
Philipp Michel "Mike" Reichold, Largo
Taxpayers funding ideological education Aug. 2, commentary by Gregory Rodriguez
Ideology run amok
Even as a liberal Democrat, I have to say that I agree 100 percent with the point the writer makes here concerning radical professors on college campuses. Inflammatory jerks like Ward Churchill - who called the victims of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks "little Eichmanns" - are only a most extreme example of the kind of ideological subjectivity that is too frequently tolerated in academic communities. In particular, Gregory Rodriguez was especially astute in pointing out that passe right-wing fears of "Marxist" indoctrination are not the issue these days, but rather the psuedo-scholarship of "identity politics."
A course in "Women's Studies" that I took (and dropped) a few years ago at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg was all too typical. I went into this course with an open mind expecting to learn something useful, and I was frankly disappointed. Both the professor, as well as the authors of the assigned reading material, seemed largely preoccupied with the advancement of a radical feminist agenda and with the inculcation of ideological mythology as "scientific" fact. Admittedly, sciences like anthropology and sociology employ an inexact methodology, and it is indeed open to question if what they do quite qualifies as "science," but this course failed to even satisfy the basic tests of rational proof and evidence expected in these social sciences.
John Feeney, St. Petersburg
As immigration status divides families, "you can feel the fear" July 30, story
A slap in the face
It irks me to no end that I'm supposed to feel sympathy for illegal immigrants who are here draining our resources, which are supposed to be available for Americans. These people cross our borders illegally and have their children in our hospitals without paying a dime and raise them with additional government help.
In the end, we have illegal parents and American kids who are in a bind because they assume having a child here will keep them in our country. As far as I'm concerned, the children should be taken away as soon as they are born because the parents are illegal.
When will the government and all these advocates for illegal immigrants understand that these people are here illegally and it's a slap in the face to all immigrants who are here legally?
I shop at stores in my own country and people employed there can't speak English. So could someone explain to me why I feel alienated in my own English-speaking country of America where I was born, raised and educated?
Annette Dearing, Clearwater
As immigration status divides families, "you can feel the fear" July 30, story
Encouraging lawbreakers
Another bleeding heart account of how we should sympathize with, nay, support and encourage lawbreakers: Give them more incentives to bring their cousins in illegally.
Who is forcing people to have babies?
Angelo J. Anello, Land O'Lakes
Blame the embargo July 23, letter
Communism is the problem
The letter writer states that Cuba has insufficient medical equipment due to the U.S. embargo. Nonsense!
Cuba is free to trade with every other country in the world and many of them sell the needed medical equipment. The real reason Cuba lacks adequate medical equipment (among many things) is that the country's communist economy does not produce the funds to afford it.
I think that the Cuban embargo should be lifted, then the truth will be known: It is not the U.S. embargo of trade with Cuba that is the problem, it is the failure of communism.
Arthur Richard, St. Petersburg
Immunizations
Keep up with vaccinations
August is National Immunization Awareness Month. As a new school year approaches, now is the perfect time to catch up on immunization shots. Vaccines are safe and effective, and staying current also helps protect friends, family and co-workers from disease. In Florida, we are proud that approximately 80 percent of 2-year-old children and more than 90 percent of children in child care, kindergarten and seventh grade are current on their shots. While this news is good, we need to do better, and all Floridians can do their part. Check your status and the status of your loved ones with these immunization reminders.
Children: This age group is particularly vulnerable to infection. Kids need vaccines against diphtheria, influenza, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox and polio.
Teenagers: All teens need the vaccine for meningitis and a booster for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (often called whooping cough). They should also be protected against chicken pox if they haven't had the disease or immunization. Parents should also consider having their 11- and 12-year-old girls get the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which protects against the most common types of cervical cancer.
Adults: Adults should also check to make sure their vaccinations are current. For example, the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine should be renewed every 10 years. Adults needing a tetanus booster should receive a one-time combined tetanus-diphtheria and pertussis vaccine. This booster provides protection against whooping cough and prevents the spread of this serious disease to vulnerable infants. In addition, international travelers may need vaccinations that are not routinely recommended in the United States.
If you have missed shots, please check with your doctor about getting back on track. You can also visit www.ImmunizeFlorida.org to print out a chart to keep track of your immunization shots. Contact your county health department or doctor to make an immunization appointment.
Ana M. Viamonte Ros, M.D., Florida surgeon general, Tallahassee
Bay Pines VA hospital
Just do the right thing
Forrest Gump once said, "I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is." Well I may not be a smart man either, but I think I know what the responsible and right thing to do is.
It is totally irresponsible to turn away a man suffering a heart attack from an emergency room. Whether the person is a veteran or not, anyone in a life-threatening situation should not be denied care - anywhere. The right thing for the Bay Pines VA Medical Center to do was to at least get the individual stabilized and then get him to another facility. There is a strong possibility that this 51-year-old man's life could have been saved.
Robert Glass, Seminole
Where is our humanity?
As for the tragedy at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center, I believe everyone is entitled to use the closest emergency room if it is, in fact, an actual emergency.
We are all human beings and it's a sad world when a person is told to go to another hospital just because he isn't a veteran. He is a human being. What's this world coming to? Don't we care about each other anymore?
This man had a 23-year-old daughter who now has no father, and for what? Red tape? That, in itself, is a tragedy.
Karen Russo, Pinellas Park
The best care possible
I'm a veteran (Navy Waves, World War II). I have cancer. I receive my care at the Bay Pines VA Medical Center, and my cancer care has been marvelous. Because of the computer, every doctor knows immediately what every other doctor is doing.
I have a primary physician, a lung doctor, an oncologist and a radiologist. I have had many blood tests, about six scans - and the results go immediately to all my doctors.
Everyone has explained clearly what the possible treatments are and what the possible outcomes can be. They give me all the time I need and even draw diagrams.
A report in the New York Times last Sunday said that "the quality of cancer care varies dramatically in the United States ... the quality of care is uneven."
Granted Bay Pines emergency room made a very bad error recently, but that is not the whole story. I have lived a good long life, so whatever the outcome for me, I will know that I have had the best care possible. And I have really enjoyed the excellent people I have worked with.
Frances Scott, North Redington Beach
No-sex lesson rules Florida July 30, story
Sex-ed should be secular
While I support urging children to abstain from fornication until they are 18 years old, it is wise to give them the information needed to avoid unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
Some minors will always engage in sexual intercourse. The consequences of this activity are experienced by society as a whole. Unwanted babies and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases cost us all.
Some "religious" people may want dire punishment for those who do not obey their notion of God's laws, yet we know that God is infinitely forgiving and merciful.
Our government should be strictly secular and put the well-being of the people, including the children, first.
Daniel Vogel, Tampa
Packing on the pounds? Blame fat friends, family July 26, story
Own your fat
It's no one's fault but your own. When you consume more than your body burns off, you gain weight. That's a plain, simple fact.
I don't need a multimillion dollar, 32-year study telling me it's the fault of my best friend in Tennessee because he likes Cheetos and beer and he made me do it.
R. Binegar, St. Petersburg