Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 21, 1994 TAG: 9408120004
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
I'm one who chose to smoke 30 years ago. For years, everyone told me to quit, and I ignored them. My daughters explained time and time again the results if I didn't. I tried a couple times, but it only lasted a day.
A year ago I could run with my dog a mile, walk a couple miles with my wife at a fast pace, wax a couple cars, or play a couple rounds of golf, and not be tired.
I had read quite a bit about cancer and like most smokers, thought that it would never happen to me.
In January, I was diagnosed with esophagus cancer. The cancer had spread to my lymph nodes, liver and lungs. I was admitted to the hospital, and a stomach tube was placed in my stomach because I couldn't swallow food. A port-a-cath was inserted under the skin near my heart so I could receive chemotherapy. During the next two months, I ate no food through my mouth, had 37 radiation treatments, and was hooked up to a chemotherapy pump for 51 days. I've been sick every day for six months, and still have to take a dose of chemotherapy once a week for two hours. There's no doubt in my mind that all this is the result of smoking.
Barring a miracle, there'll be no more running a mile with the dog and no more 36 holes of golf. The books I read tell me a person has about nine months after esophagus cancer is diagnosed. Only God knows the answer.
But there may be a young man or woman reading this who has just started smoking. Heed this: I'm 49 years old, and, until January, never had a health problem. When I was 18 years old, I ran the mile in 41/2 minutes. Now I can hardly walk a mile in one hour. Quit the cigarettes while you can. I didn't listen, and now have to pay the price. You have a choice.
JIM L. DEEL SALEM
Think, before talking about impeachment
THERE HAVE been a couple very good responses published to R. Keith Whitley's June 24 letter to the editor (``Elect Oliver North; impeach Bill Clinton''). They were good, but simply not strong enough. I swore I'd never again respond to the ranting and ravings of this particular gentleman. However, there are some points neither of the other letters addressed.
Whitley called President Clinton a ``draft dodger,'' and called for his impeachment. He needs to study definitions before calling people names. A draft dodger is someone who was called up for the draft, and refused to go. This wasn't the case with Clinton. Yes, he was an anti-war activist; so were a lot of other young people of his generation. Even real draft dodgers, who left this country and fled to Canada to avoid serving, have received amnesty, and have been forgiven. This was a difficult time in this country's history, when a lot of patriotic people of good conscience had very grave disagreements. The country and the law have forgiven. I guess Whitley must be a higher authority.
Does he know the requirements for impeaching a sitting president? I guess not, or he would never have made such a statement. Criminal offenses must be committed by the president while in office. What crimes does he think Clinton has committed? Issues he's pushed for were clearly laid out in his campaign. He was elected presumably to carry forward with those very issues. Just because we disagree with someone doesn't mean he's committed an impeachable offense.
Hooray for freedom of speech, and a free press that allows even radical nuts to express their opinion and have it printed in the newspaper. I'm sure Whitley agrees.
CHARLES L. BROOKMAN BOONES MILL
Protect Americans' proud heritage
THE UNITED States is wrong to let all these foreigners come into our country. They don't want to work. And after they get here, if something goes wrong where they came from, they curse us, burn our flag and put the blame on us.
In World War I and II, Korea and Vietnam, people came here, went into business, moved in next to you, and said let's be friends. How can you not feel mad, after their kind killed the ones you knew?
I look at the black man, and ask how his people could sell him. How can he say it's my fault, when it was the Dutch who brought blacks here? Who gave him clothes, a roof over his head and taught him of God?
Some say I cannot take away these peoples' rights and their heritage. I don't want to, but I don't want them taking mine either.
My great-grandfather fought and died for the South - a cause he believed in. I thank George Washington for the heritage and right to fly the U.S. flag, and Robert E. Lee for the heritage to be proud to be a Southerner. The Confederate flag was, is and always should be the state flag of Georgia. It is heritage. It should, and I hope it will forever, fly over Danville - the last Confederate capital. It is heritage.
JAMES WILLIAMS SR. BLUE RIDGE
by CNB