Letters to the Editors

Times should stop its bashing of Scientology

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 10, 2000

Re: A cry for justice, editorial, March 3.

The Church of Scientology has helped me create a better life for myself and my family in a myriad of ways. My experience is consistent with that of millions of individuals around the globe who have benefited enormously from Scientology.

Isn't it about time that the St. Petersburg Times altered its policy of blatant and obviously biased Scientology bashing? You have been presented with overwhelming evidence of the wide-ranging beneficial effects of Scientology, yet despite this evidence, you refuse to print any data complimentary to Scientology. Instead you fixate on one tragic incident that happened years ago.

Given your long-term refusal to give Scientology anything remotely approaching fair treatment, your cry for justice is at best a transparent charade and raises many questions about the Times' competence to deal with truth.

You would be doing the public a service if, instead of continuing your decades-long and failing campaign against Scientology, you investigated the origins of the religious hate group that has recently set up in Clearwater.
-- Larry Byrnes, Clearwater

Undermining religious freedom

Re: A cry for justice, March 3.

In this editorial the St. Petersburg Times continues its dedicated assault against the First Amendment. It makes freedom of speech a joke as it takes no responsibility for the truth. Medical examiner Joan Wood did take responsibility for the truth and is being reviled for it in this editorial. The First Amendment doesn't give the freedom to lie. It does say some definite things about freedom of religion though.

The Times' editorial policy regarding my religion is to attack it no matter how many times it has been proven that Scientology is a valid religion with thousands of parishioners in the Clearwater area, not to mention the hundreds who come each week from all over the world to the Scientology's headquarters in downtown Clearwater. Year after year the members of my church have donated countless volunteer hours to projects to help community betterment activities in Clearwater and many other towns in Florida. It is part of our beliefs to do this. The Times ignores this or degrades it with snide innuendo. I get the distinct feeling that the Times' editorial policy is based on the odd idea that Scientology is some kind of opponent of the Times.

Well, perhaps the editorial writer will win some prize or admiration for these attacks. He doesn't have my admiration because he is not only targeting Scientology but also undermining religious freedom. My ancestors came here for both political and religious freedom. I know how wonderful our country's freedoms are, but the St. Petersburg Times makes a nasty joke out of those freedoms, and I can't be silent about that.
-- Colleen Wilhite, Clearwater

Prejudice and suspicion linger

Scientologists have been crying for justice for years in Clearwater. Twenty-five years of prejudice and suspicion are almost gone, with the last vestiges of these seeming to be present only in the editorial staff of the St. Petersburg Times. I am deeply frustrated with this ongoing situation and would like to see it stop.

The editorial last week on the Lisa McPherson case was horrible. How can the Times question the competence of the medical examiner at this late date when it refused to question her competence four years ago? In fact, you lauded her competence when Scientologists said there was something wrong with her findings. Those findings did not match the facts. The Times criticized the church for "attempting to intimidate Dr. Wood." Now that she has said something favorable toward the church, the Times is trying its best to intimidate Wood. But that's okay -- all your readers know the Times is never wrong.
-- Dan Feeley, Clearwater

Mistreatment should result in charges

Re: A cry for justice.

Notwithstanding the specific pathological circumstances which contributed to the death of Lisa McPherson, that she did not get proper and timely professional medical attention is an irrefutable fact.

A further fact is that during her 17 days of physical agony, she was attended by persons with medical training sufficient for them to conclude that continued neglect could very well cause death.

Why Dr. Joan Wood believes it is possible to torture the English meaning of the word "accident" to mean "died due to lack of proper medical attention" is an absurdity. Had the people ministering to McPherson been totally medically ignorant and thus not able to possibly gauge the imperilment in which they placed her, it might be reasonable to stretch the manner of death to casualty by misadventure.

We know, however, that those who were present were trained. Attending were a physician without a proper license, a dentist and a licensed physician who limited his treatment to telephone consultation.

Those responsible at bedside, as well as those supervising, and all others abetting this gross and depraved mistreatment of this young woman should be held criminally responsible for causing the death of a human being. No amount of distortion of the lexicon by Dr. Wood will change that fact.
-- James A. O'Connor, Hudson

Clearwater will suffer

The Church of Scientology is continuing to buy property and removing same from the tax rolls. I pray for the same tax breaks that this cult gets. It got to medical examiner Joan Wood the same way that it got to the IRS. Why are the Scientology people who are alleged to have committed crimes against the body of Lisa McPherson walking around uncharged? As Lisa was dying in a van less than a mile from a hospital, she was driven to a hospital one hour away.

Downtown Clearwater will continue to die, in part, because visitors see the automatons filling the sidewalks and go elsewhere. City plans to develop downtown will be much appreciated by the Church of Scientology.
-- Al Simard, Clearwater

Group is frightening

I am so glad that your newspaper continues to fight and shine the light of truth on the sci-fi group at the downtown Clearwater hotel. The group is so powerful it makes one sick and frankly afraid.

I hope that France follows in the footsteps of Germany and that Tom Cruise and John Travolta stay away from our home as well. Keep up the good work and thanks.
-- Dan Mettee, Harbor Bluffs

Drug-cost study defended

Re: Junk science drove America to drug testing, by Robyn Blumner, Jan. 30.

This Times opinion article refers to an American Civil Liberties Union report by Lewis Maltby, suggesting that the Research Triangle Institute's 1984 report on the costs of drug and alcohol abuse to society should not be used to justify anti-drug programs.

We entirely agree. When we issued our report, we made it clear that it was not appropriate to use our estimates of the economic costs of drug abuse for any cost-benefit analyses to determine if a particular policy or action should be undertaken. What our study, along with more recent studies by other authors, shows is that the costs of drug abuse are enormous.

We strongly object to the ACLU's assertion that our study methodology was flawed and Maltby's implication of dishonesty on our part. We documented our methods with care and published them openly so that people could see the limitations of the analysis. With respect to Maltby's statement that the researchers didn't even attempt to compare people with similar earnings capacities, we noted on page 22 of our report that we adjusted household earnings differences for marijuana and non-marijuana users for factors such as age, gender, race, educational attainment, labor force participation and unemployment. Based on the national earnings data available at the time, we believe this was the best approach.

In our report we also specified data needs and recommended techniques for analyzing more complete data sets that we hoped would be developed. Many of our suggestions have been incorporated into several cost-of-illness studies that have been conducted over the past 15 years.

In fact, the latest study, published in 1998 and reporting cost estimates for 1992 and 1995, estimated the dollar value of lost productivity due to drug abuse at approximately $16-billion in 1995, half of RTI's estimate for 1980 (published in our 1984 report) and well below the $100-billion figure cited in the article.

The latest economic costs study can be obtained by calling (800) 729-6686 or viewed on the Internet at http://www.nida.nih.gov/EconomicCosts/Intro.html.
-- Victoria Franchetti Haynes, president, Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, N.C.

Ads help in fight against tobacco

Re: Television ads credited for drop in teen smoking, March 1.

We are writing to praise you for the excellent article concerning the anti-tobacco movements. We are students at Palm Harbor University High School, and we are members of SWAT who promote the "Truth" message. The purpose of SWAT (Students Working Against Tobacco) is to educate the youth within our community. The tobacco companies purposely target youths between the ages of 11 and 17 with their advertisements. By raising the awareness of young people, we hope they will be better equipped to withstand the tobacco companies' assault.

On March 1, statistics were released that confirm the success of our movements. In the two years since "Truth" has been widely publicized, there has been an astounding drop in teen smoking. In middle schools alone, there was a 54 percent decrease in teen smoking; in high schools, the reduction was 24 percent. These decreases have been attributed to the SWAT program designed by teens and for teens. These statistics show the most dramatic decrease that the community has ever seen.

We would further like to encourage any youth from the targeted age group to participate in Pinellas County SWAT's Sandblast, which will provide a smoke-free beach olympics on Treasure Island Beach on March 25. Registration starts at 9 a.m. For more information, call 825-1229. Throughout the day, SWAT will host the event while informing youth's awareness.
-- Dolly Yuen, teen chair, Emily Camisasca and Kristi Donaldson, Pinellas County SWAT, Palm Harbor

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