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Show A10 Wednesday, August 10, 2005 pitoi PUBLIC FORUM LETTERS TO THE EDITOR What Is your opinion? The Express welcomes letters let-ters from its readers concerning any subject pertinent perti-nent to the Uintah Basin. There are no restrictions as to contents, if not libelous or vindictive and of reasonable length (two typewritten double spaced pages). Letters must be submitted exclusively to the Express and bear the writer's full name, signature, signa-ture, phone number and address. Letters for the sole purpose of expressing thanks to individuals or groups will not be printed in the forum. Letters may be mailed, faxed at 789-8690 or through e-mail at editorvemal.com. The name or names of those submitting letters must appear on all published letters. let-ters. All letters are subject to condensation. Letters express the opinion of the writer and are not necessarily nec-essarily the opinion of the Express Editor. Bike track Our BMX track is leased from Uintah Recreation. The lease is up this month, and rumor has it that they want to tear it down to build a school there. Once again we get something some-thing good going for our kids and they want to take it away. We have people of all ages who race on that track. For many it has become a family fam-ily event. We have ABA races once a month and we bring in people from the Wasatch Front and Wyoming. They stay the whole weekend and stay at our motels, and eat at our restaurants. That's revenue for our town. We have received tons of compliments on our track here from people who come from out of town. The ABA has told us that they are shocked at how many riders we have signed up to ride our track, and it is open to anybody any-body not just ABA members. I don't know about you, but I would rather have my son riding his bike someplace safe where there is always adult supervision to insure safety. All of us that love this track have worked really hard to get it going and to keep it going. I know that I am speaking for a lot of people when I say that this track is a great thing for Vernal and should be left alone. I know that there will be a lot of devastated kids and adults if we lose this track. Anybody wanting want-ing to express their support please call Uintah Recreation and help us keep our track. BMX Mom Penny Cannon Vernal Tattoo... Continued from A1 The building is not on a permanent foundation. "As a hobby shed it is fine, but a commercial facility requires a permanent foundation," he said. Several neighbors at the public hearing on the appeal supported the business. "Originally I was opposed to it because I thought it might impact the rural atmosphere of the area, but after talking to the Kumps I can go along with it when they limit customers to two a day," said Linda Hacking, Maeser resident. Uintah County Deputy Attorney Ed Peterson, who is a neighbor to the Kumps, said according to the building ordinance the facility cannot be used for the proposed purpose. Residents told the commissioners that there are many instances where businesses are allowed in an A-l zone. Prior to January 2004 a home occupation could be approved with a detached shed or storage facility. Now the outside facilities are not allowed for home businesses, Peterson said. Both commissioners at the hearing said they were opposed to granting the conditional use permit, but voted to table their decision for one week, while they thoroughly evaluate the request. Keith Kump after the meeting said these types of businesses go on every day in the county. Bill proposes changes in grazing fees The Bureau of Land Management (SIM) announced Tuesday that it will prepare a supplement sup-plement to the final Environmental Impact Statement on proposed changes to its grazing regulations. The BLM proposed these grazing regulation changes in December 2003 and published a final Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed pro-posed changes on June 17, 2005. The Bureau plans to publish its supplemental impact statement in the near future. BLM Director Kathleen Clarke said, "This decision reflects the BLM's desire to go the extra mile to ensure that the agency has fully considered consid-ered all comments and views on the proposed change." The BLM's grazing regulatory proposal known as a "rule" is aimed at improving the agency's management of grazing on 160 million acres of public lands. More specifically, the proposed pro-posed rule seeks to: improve the agency's working relationships with public land ranchers, conserve rangeland resources, and enhance administrative efficiency. The Bureau undertook this regulatory initiative initia-tive in recognition of the economic and social benefits of public lands grazing, as well as the role of ranching in preserving open space and wildlife habitat in the rapidly growing West Details on the BLM's proposed grazing regulations regu-lations can be accessed on the agency's national websiteatwww.blm.govgrazing. I h Elderly at risk for suicide A noted psychoanalyst, Bruno Bettelheim, committed suicide at age 86. Why did a man whose indomitable will to live helped him survive sur-vive the horrors of a concentration camp succumb suc-cumb to suicide in old age? Among Bettelheim's losses were the death of his wife, a limiting stroke, a move from one coast to the other, a move to a retirement home, and rumors about a possible estrangement from a child. The elderly (over 65) constitute 13 percent of the population but represent about 19 percent of suicides double the U.S. rate. The suicide risk grows steadily during a lifetime and culminates culmi-nates with the highest rates in the 75 and older age range. White males account for 84 percent of elderly suicides, five times the rate for women. Why? Why, after living a lifetime and weathering many personal storms, do elderly white males choose to commit suicide? Identity. Males have identity systems based on achievement achieve-ment and occupational success. With retirement or loss of job skills, an older male faces an identity iden-tity crisis. "Who am I now that I no longer do what I used to do?" For the first time in his life, he experiences a loss of status. Individuals like Bettelheim have achieved much. The contrast between their former and present contributions is great. Loss of interests, hobbies, and active lifestyle. Rigidity and lack of openness to new experiences lead to social isolation and a depressive outlook. Loss of loved ones. Loss of a mate hits men especially hard. Widowers have a high risk for suicide during the first two years following the death of their spouse. The loss changes everything. every-thing. Not only does a man lose his confidant, friend, sexual partner and companion, but he also loses accustomed services of meal preparation prepa-ration and other skills for daily living. Being recently bereaved by the loss of a family member or friend is also a risk factor. Loss of social network. In addition, wives often maintain the family and social connections. In old age, widowers may be quite isolated from family attachments or social interactions. Their social world contracts dramatically. The relational rela-tional connections gained through their work and their wives have been broken. Living alone or being socially isolated are high risk factors. Anxiety about health. The diagnosis of a catastrophic cata-strophic health problem, disability, or chronic pain that affects independence or mobility may trigger to suicidal thinking. Anticipatory anxiety about illness and imagining themselves to be a burden to loved ones are far more lethal than the actual physical illness itself. The elderly thought to have the "best" reasons rea-sons for suicide - those diagnosed with terminal illness or intractable pain, don't have elevated suicide rates. Only two to four percent of suicide sui-cide victims were diagnosed with a terminal illness ill-ness at the time of their deaths. They face death and make the most of their remaining time. In fact, research has shown that two-thirds of older adults were in relatively good physical health when they died by suicide. Depression, alcoholism and suicide. These losses lead to depression. Undiagnosed and untreated depression is the main factor in suicide sui-cide among the elderly. Upwards of 80 percent of the cases of suicide among the elderly were clinically clini-cally depressed at the time of the suicide. Thirty-eight Thirty-eight percent had a substance abuse disorder. Besides depression, the most lethal factor is alcoholism. According to Dr. Nancy Osgood of Virginia Commonwealth UniversityMedical College, alcohol abuse, depression, and suicidal thoughts form a deadly triad. It is difficult to sort out the effects of the three causes. Some elderly drink to medicate their depression, depres-sion, which, in turn, causes more depression. Others have a drinking problem that causes depression that triggers more drinking in a vicious downward spiral. One-third of these drinking problems start in older age. Two-thirds of drinking among the elderly is a result of lifelong problems with alcoholism. The personality and coping skills that kept these people reasonably connected with family and friends begin to fade. They look back at a lifetime of failed marriages, family and job troubles. They are disgusted with themselves. They can't face the next turn in the road. Suicide among alcoholics is 50 to 70 percent greater than in the general population. Studies of alcoholics show that between 30 and 60 percent per-cent suffer from depression. At least 75 percent of depressed older Americans are not receiving treatment for depression. Both depression and alcoholism are treatable diseases. The combination of losses. The loss of identity, iden-tity, income, friends, spouse, independence, and mobility coupled with retirement, catastrophic health problems, and other social changes, can be coped with if such losses come one at a time. The danger in old age is that many of these losses occur simultaneously and overwhelm the coping skills of the elderly. The combination of losses is often lethal. It leads to depression and problem drinking. Getting help. Did Bettelheim make a rational ratio-nal choice to end his life, or did he succumb to depression? In talking about survival in a concentration con-centration camp, he wrote: "To have found meaning mean-ing in life is thus the only certain antidote to the deliberate seeking of death. But at the same time in a strange dialectical way, it is death that endows life with its deepest, most unique meaning." mean-ing." With help for his depression, he might have been able to recapture meaning in the midst of his many losses, and to choose life once more. For more information on the elderly or suicide, sui-cide, you can visit Val Farmer's website at www. valfarmer.com Val Farmer is a clinical psychologist with MeritCare in Fargo, North Dakota. He specializes special-izes in rural mental health and family business consultation. IT'S BEEN 50 HOT LATELY THAT I'VE BEEN A FEEDIN'MYOL' HEN CRACKED ICE SO SHE WILL . QUIT LATIN' HARD BOILED Gin's Gems Puritanism still rules our culture By Virginia Harrington Express Writer After hundreds of years, the Puritan ethic of the original settlers of what would become the United States of America still rules our culture. I thought we had progressed beyond that but I was wrong. It was 36 years ago. I was on a Braniff plane, alone, with three children. The oldest had just turned four, the middle child was two and a half and the baby was eight weeks. Part way through the flight the baby became fussy, indicating it was time to eat. By the time a woman has breast fed three babies, she is expert at flipping a blanket across her chest and getting the baby fed with little to no exposure. That's what I was doing when the stewardess (that's what flight attendants were called back then) leaned over and told me I couldn't "do that" on their airplane. I asked her if she would rather have the baby cry and disturb the other passengers for the rest of the trip. This only made her angry. She told me I could either take the baby into the bathroom or I would have to leave the plane. We were flying at 30,000 feet and it was a non-stop flight. Leaving the plane didn't seem like the proper option. I asked her if she would sit with my other two children while I finished feeding the baby in the bathroom. She said I would have to take all three of them with me. Sure, two pre-schoolers, a baby and an adult in a tiny cubicle of a bathroom on an airplane. I tried to reason with her and looked around for support from other passengers. There was none. I was told the pilot would handle "the situation" sit-uation" when we landed if I didn't stop feeding the baby. Remember, a blanket fully covered my chest and the baby's entire body. Nothing was exposed. However, I chose not to be arrested or detained upon landing. I removed the baby from the breast and pulled out a bottle of water for him. Naturally, he wasn't satisfied with that and continued to be fussy the rest of the flight. Everyone else on the plane seemed quite content that I had finally stopped my immoral behavior. I truly thought that type of incident had stopped. I believed our culture had become more reasonable than that. Then last week a nursing mother was thrown out of a Quilted Bear on the Wasatch Front. Utah law states that women have the right to nurse their babies in public regardless of exposure. expo-sure. This woman had a blanket over her so there was minimal exposure. Yet she was told to leave. As I examine this situation, the only conclusion conclu-sion I can draw is that U.S. culture still makes every possible attempt to deny that we are biological bio-logical beings. "Polite" society doesn't allow human biology to enter conversations, let alone to be acknowledged by behavior. That's unfortunate unfortu-nate because regardless of whether we are here by divine design or by evolution, we are biological. biologi-cal. Nursing a baby is the most basic of biological functions. It not only provides the infant with nutrition, it safeguards against diseases by passing pass-ing the mother's antibodies to the baby through the milk. It also strengthens the bond between mother and child. It's easier and less costly than formula. Nothing in this world makes more sense than breast feeding a baby. Where has our culture gone wrong? We allow our children to watch violence in the movies, on television, in computerized games, even on the news. But we can't possibly expose them to the sight of a nursing mother for fear of undermining undermin-ing their morals! This is the remnants of Puritanism. For the Puritans who settled at Plymouth Rock, any and all aspects of biology had to be hidden. Yet violence vio-lence against the native population was acceptable. accept-able. It's way past time to change this ethic. Accept biology; reject violence. God help us Bill O'Reilly byBillOreilly The relentless attack on public displays dis-plays of spirituality spiritual-ity and religion by progressive secular ists has been extremely extreme-ly effective world wide. Churchgoing in Western Europe, for example, has collapsed in many countries. Harvard professor Niall Ferguson calls the decline of Christianity in Europe "one of the most remarkable phenomena of our times." Ferguson cites a Gallup Poll that shows barely 20 percent of Western Europeans attend church services at least once a week. The number is 47 percent and falling in the USA. In Britain, only 10 percent of those polled said they would be willing will-ing to die for their religious beliefs. And guess who loves that statistic? Can you say the Islama-fascists? Islama-fascists? The decline of religious influence in the West can be seen in two very important areas. First, how the world is responding to the terrorist jihad. And second, how societies deal with citizens citi-zens who commit the most dastardly of crimes. As this column has stated before, if all the world's nations would unite against terrorism, it could not exist If the fundamental moral tenet of protecting the lives of innocent people superceded superced-ed all other political concerns, Osama bin-Laden and the boys would be on the gallows right now. But that is not the case as we all know. Terrorist acts are routinely justified and accepted by people who feel little for their fellow fel-low man. A once-proud country like Spain essentially surrendered to Al Qaeda after those killers bombed a Spanish train. The citizens of Spain had to know that pulling out of Iraq after that bombing gave Al Qaeda a huge victory. But many Spanish citizens simply didn't care. To them Al Qaeda should be someone else's prob lem. In America, the anti-religious forces are led by the ACLU and activist liberal judges who are aided by an increasingly secular media. It is no accident that we have thousands of child sex offenders running wild in this country. The crime of child sexual abuse used to be second only to murder. Now the ACLU defends the North American Man-Boy Love Association in court claiming their free speech rights are being violated. The Founding Fathers knew that religion, if handled correctly, could be a powerful force for good. The moral guidance provided by The Ten Commandments constrains bad behavior, that's why the Commandments appeared in Scripture. But now, the secularists insist there is no place in the public square for the Commandments. There is no place for constraints that may offend. Think it over. If every human being chose to set up his or her own moral program, there would never be a consensus of what is proper and what is not There would never be universal outrage over terrorism or terrible crimes. Moral outrage is the only way to defeat terrible ter-rible behavior. Today, many of us don't even know what terrible behavior is. Could gangsta rap music have existed 30 years ago? How about partial birth abortion? Hitler and Tojo were defeated by men and women who were willing to die so those villains could not enslave and kill other human beings. It was moral outrage over Pearl Harbor that led to the demise of the dictators. We had a semblance of the same moral outrage in America after 911 but that is ebbing away. The terrorists and perverts understand that only moral outrage will beat them back. A person or nation with no moral compass will never be able to summon up that outrage. A human being that lives in the gray area of right and wrong is likely not to make a stand against evil And that's what the evildoers are counting on COPYRIGHT2005BillOReilly.com. |