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Show TIME Submit a Guest Editorial or Opinion at our office, located locat-ed at 538 South State in Orem. Deadlines are Monday 10:00 a.m. All submissions are subject to editing tor length, and The Orem-Geneva Times reserves the right to publish or not to publish a submission. COMMENTARY pinion A2, Thursday, September 18, 2003 (Editorial) A call to learn from the experiences of of hers It was a scene that has undoubtedly played out many times before, and, unfortunately, will play out again. Setting: funeral home. Grieving parents, siblings, relatives, and friends come together to share their pain at the loss of a promising life, cut down in the prime of youth. The anguish is palpable. palpa-ble. Generations with little else in common unite powerfully power-fully in grief. There are tears and hugs, remembering. And there is the overwhelming sense of helplessness. There is no turning back the unfolding events nothing to do but to go forward. The root cause of the tragedy? Drug abuse. We all hear the statistics. We all know about the costs to society in lost earnings, crime, and social welfare. But all of that becomes so secondary when it is your friend who is gone or your JVem yw& City, BY JOAN C. IIAIIN I first began selling New YorkBroadway theater tours back in 1976 as a part of the Bicentennial celebration. New York was a much different city then and especially Times Square. There were no large hotels. It was mostly small shops, small restaurants, and a lot of homeless, pimps and prostitutes hanging out. I remember buying too many tickets for a group and going on the TKTS line to sell them (for the cost of the ticket or below) and getting rid of them all. Don't try that now, a plain clothes policeman will arrest you. Times Square had a flavor fla-vor all its own and we loved it for the ambiance that was The Orem-Geneva Times 538 South State Street Orem, UT 84058 An edition of The Daily Herald, Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc. Subscriptions & Delivery 375-5103 News & Advertising 225-1 340 Fax 2251341 E-mail oremtimesnetworld.com USPS 411-711. Published Thursdays by Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc., 538 South State Street, Orem, Utah 84058. Periodicals postage paid at Orem, Utah 84059. Postmaster: Send address changes to P.O. Box 65, Orem, UT 84059. Member: Audit Bureau of Circulations NEWSSTAND PRICE $0.50 SUBSCRIPTION RATE 1 year-$36.40 (in county) (Sunday & Thursday plus Holiday deliveries) Holiday deliveries include delivery the week of Easter, Memorial, Independence, Pioneer, Labor, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. 1 year- $45.40 (out of county) NEWS We welcome news tips. Call 225-1340 to report news tips or if you have a comment or a question. We welcome letters to the editor. AH letters must include the author's name (printed AND signed) and a telephone number. We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, punctuation, taste and length. Letters are welcome on any topic. friend's kid. Your son or daughter or grandchild or niece or nephew. Your brother broth-er or sister. Someone important impor-tant to you. There was such a case this past week. It was a popular pop-ular young man who had been a champion athlete at one of the local high schools. Handsome and fun-loving and sensitive. A prankster who advanced the cause of the underdog. A loyal friend, cherished by his family. The strength and nobility of the human spirit is revealed in amazing ways, and it was impressive to see the mother of this young man subdue her own pain in the hope of helping others. Despite her heartache, this woman wrote her son's obituary obit-uary with candor about the cause of his death. Included with the tender and personal insights into the young man's personality and strengths were references to peculiar to that area. Then, slowly, it began to change. First, came the Marriott Marque Hotel, the flagship in its chain. Across the street went up the Doubletree Suites, tearing down many shops and a Howard Johnson's Restaurant and occupying the air space above the famous Palace theater. the-ater. Behind the famous Coca Cola sign, the Renaissance Hotel is hidden. Its upscale restaurant faces all of Times Square, and across the street the elegant Crowne Plaza Hotel dominates the skyline. 42nd Street was one of the high crime areas in the city and we warned our groups to stay away from there. At one time, there were 13 theaters showing porno movies. Pimps his struggles struggles in trying to overcome the devastating dev-astating trap in which he found himself. The tribute was a reaching out to friends or associates of the young man who might find themselves them-selves on the same path headed for destruction. It was an eloquent warning to those who might be tempted to experiment and take the initial steps that could lead to their ultimate enslavement. enslave-ment. How often does it happen that ordinary people, caught up in one of the many tragedies and dramas to which humankind is susceptible, suscep-tible, use their experience almost always tinged with pain to help others, and in so doing, become extraordinary extraor-dinary people, capable of remarkable accomplishments? accomplish-ments? And so it is that the support group is formed, the funds are raised, the "most wanted" criminal is hunted 5km and were everywhere, also women of ill repute. The homeless littered lit-tered the streets. Now 42nd Street has been bought by Disney. There is a Disney Store on eh corner, the old Ziegf'eld theater has been lovingly lov-ingly restored to its former glory with a proscenium ringed with peacocks and branches of lemon trees loaded with lemons. Friezes of lovely ladies with 1920s upsweep hairdo's entwined with lights glow on the walls and everywhere you are treated treat-ed with incredible plaster and iron art. Since its reconstruction, reconstruc-tion, Lion King has been playing play-ing to sold out crowds. So, instead of the glamorous ladies of Ziegfeld descending the staircase, we have the incredible puppets of Lion King coming down the aisle. Across the street is the Victory theater, which specializes, special-izes, in of all things, children's theater. Where did the pimps go? Down the block, two theaters the-aters were demolished, one on 42nd Street and back to back with it, one on 43rd Street. Those two theaters were combined com-bined to make one very elegant ele-gant theater, the Ford theater, currently playing 42nd Street. How appropriate is it that the musical 42nd Street should play on 42nd Street? Beautiful hotels are rising on the west side of the block and instead of rags on the street we see the savvy suits and dresses that grace the theater crowd. The new look of the theater district, thanks o Mayor Giuliani, is pleasing, electric, and safe with no more un savory characters (at least noticeable ones). Because of this, people came back to the theater in droves, and the area was flourishing. Then came 911. New York was devastated. Two of its most famous buildings, which had dominated the skyline from anywhere on the island, were gone. As the city and world reeled form the disaster, the Broadway area, for the first time since World War II, went dark. Theaters were closed and lights dimmed. People stayed home, clinging to family and the safety they represented. One year later, the theater District looks much as it did before on the outside. Business is humming and people peo-ple are back in the theater but the mood is not quite the same. Restaurants thank you for coming. Hotels thank me for my business. Strangers stop you on the street, knowing know-ing that you are tourists, and thank you for returning to their city. Your safety is a number one concern. Did you know that New York City has the lowest crime rate in America? down, the cause is found. The image of the phoenix, though often used, is appropriate appro-priate here. According to mythology, the phoenix was a beautiful bird that lived in the Arabian desert for hundreds hun-dreds of years. Eventually, the bird would set itself on fire and become a pile of ashes. The phoenix would then rise from the ashes, renewed, to begin another life. The image symbolized immortality. The world is a better place because of those who are willing to rise from the ashes of their own suffering to try to help others. Such actions are a credit to the humanity and courage of these caring individuals. It is hoped that such sacrifices are not made in vain. Can we truly listen, and learn, from the experiences experi-ences of others, instead of arrogantly pursuing our own course? It is hoped that we can. jVow There is a fire station on 8th Avenue at about 48th Street that lost 13 firemen in the disaster. That station is very close to my hotel. When you walk by, there are flower tributes out in front and framed pictures of the 13 men that died, hanging on the walls. A tribute from Idaho leans against the cement. The fire fighters welcome you in the station to see the tributes. In the center of Battery Park, they have placed the sphere that was once in the middle of the World Trade Center Plaza. It is been and misshapen, and serves as a sharp reminder of all that transpired. It is a miracle mir-acle it survived, as not much else did. The fence of Trinity Church is a memorial covered in tributes, trib-utes, letters, pictures, memorabilia, memo-rabilia, flowers and overlaid with heartache. From everywhere every-where in lower Manhattan the very air is sober with memories. memo-ries. The view from the Brooklyn Bridge is distorted, as is the view form Liberty Island. The Statue of Liberty is still closed and security is tight to even get onto he island. A new white tent for screening is set up in Battery Park and one of my long time travelers remarked that "at least we would stay warm now in the winter as we waited for the ferry." A large statue of a kneeling fireman holding his hat, was commissioned from France by a man from Missouri who wanted to give it to the firefighter fire-fighter in his state. By the merest of coincidences, the statue was going through custom cus-tom of 911. The person that commissioned it decided to give the statute to the firemen of New York. Last summer it was sitting on 8th Avenue and 45th Street on a flatbed trailer waiting for its final placement. place-ment. Hundreds of people stopped to look at it and there were flowers, candles, jewelry and notes placed on it and everyone that passed felt that incredible wave of sorrow that engulfed us all at the tragedy. New York has always been a Phoenix that will continue to rise from its ashes. Its people are resilient, tough and tender. ten-der. It is a city that throbs with excitement, and now with sorrow. New York realizes real-izes that it must survive and to do that it must have you. The business of theater, merchandising, mer-chandising, advertising and finance are the blood that pulses through its veins and you, as theater people, are the heart that beats it. Return! You will be amazed at how welcome and wanted you are, and how normal it all seems. Timpanogos Green 64 KeeUji. I j Heart and Soul Survivors Each day on the average, 1500 Americans attempt suicide and 80 succeed. In fact, suicide claims twice as many lives as homicide. In the last decade science has learned that suicide is a by-product of mental illness that can be treated. It is not a 'weakness of character,' but a biochemical disturbance in the brain, interacting with the environment. In Utah County a new support group has been organized to help family and friends of those who commit suicide. The Heart and Soul Survivors group will meet on the second Tuesday of each month from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center's northeast plaza, 1134 N. 500 West in Provo. The group will not only provide a forum for family fam-ily members and friends, but will also provide guest speakers with specific suggestions on how to integrate back into everyday life. Suicide: the mask of mystery Which obfuscates the plaintive pall of death. It lends its name to heal the history Of one who, lately, breathed his final breath. The question many minds would like to raise: How did that person spend his final days? No one can ever know the heavy load He may have hefted. None can know his pain. Nobody else has walked that self-same road, Nor knew the stimuli that stirred his brain. Suicide: enigma to be solved. How can a human want to end his strife? With what strange malady was he involved? To disassociate one's self from life-Incomprehensible life-Incomprehensible to many souls-May souls-May rudely shatter many protocols. And yet, the awful specter- death of self-Lives self-Lives on in infamy and salty tears. To place one's life, at last, upon the shelf, Begets a kind of calumny for years. Suicide by any other name May, somehow, lessen someone else's guilt. How many others sip a share of blame: Enough to immolate a qualmish quilt. For self-destruction of someone that hurts, May only seem to some as "just deserts." But those who love them never understand The florid flame that sparked their tragic loss. How many wonder in this lovely land How many carry, still, that cruel cross? Suicide is sad enough to grieve The mortal life that seems unduly ended. Nobility and charity believe In placing trust in Him, who condescended. For only He can know and share the pain, And ask the Dear Departed to explain. For those of us, who think that we must know The reasons why some people choose to die: Our mortal minds are still in embryo. No one is sure why any say "Good-by!" Suicide may generate confusion In those who need to navigate its pall. In many ways it brings to a conclusion The tragedy it holds within its thrall. It falls on those who carry on and live, To try to understand, and then, forgive. Preserve and bless the memories they left. Remember every single special day! You must not be eternally bereft, Nor let your life remain in disarray! Recall, forever, all that made them sweet, Remember, some day, you shall surely, meet! 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