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Show (S(o)nfQlAAllAlG Citizen Wednesday, September 22, 1993 Page 2 We all have to move into adulthood Guest editorial Seat belts a cinch to save lives By JILL OWENSBY American Fork Hopsital Public Relations Director Despite overwhelming evidence that seat belts save lives, many Americans still aren't buckling up. Just last week, American Fork Hospital Hos-pital Emergency Center treated two patients, ages 5 and 13, who had both been thrown from cars while rounding corners. Luckily, both patients pa-tients were treated and released, but not after suffering much pain from extensive bruises, cuts, scrapes, and broken bones. Others aren't so lucky. Every year, there are approximately approxi-mately 50,000 fatalities nationally due to auto accidents, 19,000 are children. Proper use of approved safety restraints can reduce the probability prob-ability of death in an accident by 70 and 90 percent. That's four out of five children who would still be alive if they had been properly restrained. Paramedics and hospital personnel person-nel who see the tragic results of motor mo-tor vehicle accidents are strong proponents pro-ponents of seat belt use. A seat belt can be your lifeline if you're involved in even the most minor accident. Crashing at just 30 miles per hour throws an occupant into the dash with the same force as if they were What are a few leaves in view of life's riches? I must confess that I have as many human frailties as most people. Some days even though I use Coast soap with my shower and down a Geritol pill, I still have a tendency to grumble. For example, after a recent windstorm the leaves from thebigblack walnut tree on my neighbor's lot blew down onto my lawn and even into my garage. As I raked and swept I said a few unkind words about that tree. However, sometime later, and perhaps the Coast soap was having an emollient effect upon me, my thoughts changed. I thought of the summer months when a robin sang from a topmost branch and the comforting shade it gave from the hot sun. I thought of the many times I had looked out of my kitchen window and saw the miracle of nature unfold before my eyes. The changing from bud to leaf, from green to gold, and then the falling of the leaves like gold coins from nature's purse. What are a few leaves and a few minutes of raking? Another day. Watching an evening football foot-ball game. My favorite team had pulled a couple of boo-boos and was losing so my frame of mind was not the best. It was then the doorbell rang. I turned to my wife and in tones that were far from musical, I inquired, "Who in the Sam Hill would be coming this time of night?" I answered the ring and there stood a neighbor boy. "My dad would like to borrow a stilson wrench. By now the soothing effect of the Coast soap had lost its effect and the iron from the Geritol had sunk to the vicinity of my posterior. pos-terior. "What in the tarnation does your dad want with a stilson wrench this time of nightr The boy sensed my anger and the friendly smile left his face. "We are having trouble with the bathtub," bath-tub," he replied. I relented as I thought of the times when I had bathroom troubles and put my arm around the boy's shoulder as we went out to the garage where I kept my tools. I watched him as he left and commented Internal government fight over The Food and Drug Administration has outgrown its britches. The FDA is now daring to warn the American Medical Association and the American Heart Association and the American College of Nutrition that the government will not tolerate those organizations orga-nizations daring to tell you what vitamins are good for you. Many experts agree that Vitamin E helps reduce the risk of heart disease, but the FDA wants to categorize Vitamin E in some cases as an "illegal drug" which should be taken off the market. The FDA has been trying for years to get control over dietary supplements, but under the administration of commissioner David Kesaler, the health food stores which make health claims for some food supplements are deemed "snake-oil salesmen." sales-men." Unfortunately, there are enough exaggerated exag-gerated claims to justify criticism. But fortunately, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch and Democrat Rep. Bill Richardson have teamed up to checkmate Commissioner Commis-sioner Kesaler. Together, they are sponsoring the Dietary Di-etary Supplement and Health Education dropped from a three-story building head first. In a five-year period, an estimated 15,000 lives were saved, thanks to proper seat belt use. Another 404,000 injuries were prevented because drivers driv-ers and passengers wore seat belts. Safe drivingmakes sense. Develop good driving skills and follow these life-saving habits whenever you're on the road. Properly use seat belts all the time. Obey speed limits and traffic laws. Don't tailgate. Keep your attention on the road. Don't drive when you're tired or have been drinking. Don't drive if you're taking medication medi-cation that makes you drowsy. If an infant, toddler, or child is in the car, make sure he or she is in an age-appropriate car seat. Don't allow children to play with car locks or door handles. For many, following these simple rules will be difficult and will require re-quire undoing a lifetime of poor driving driv-ing habits. But if they mean a longer lifetime, especially for our children, they will be worth it. Bemusing to myself what a good kid he was. I observed him on many occasions taking out the garbage gar-bage and cutting the lawn. I had watched him on his skateboard and envied his grace. Just before I entered the house I looked up into the sky. Could it be possible the stars were brighter? And the new moon smiling? "Nah," I said to myself. "You are getting a bit daft in your old age." A few mornings ago I arose to see the supper dishes unwashed. My good wife had become soengrossed in genealogy and some of her forebears coming over on the Mayflower May-flower that the thoughts of dishes was far from her mind. Now men, I ask you, is there anything worse to start out a day than to face a mess of dirty dishes? It was the wife's morning to sleep in so while she slept I did the dishes, grumbling all the time about the injustice of life. Suddenly a poem came to me that changed my way of thinking. Thank God for dirty dishes, they have a tale to tell; While other folks go hungry, we're eating very well. With home and health and happiness we shouldn't want to fuss, For by this stack of evidence, God's very good to us. Well, I see the wind is blowing from the north and more leaves are falling. More leaves to rake. So what? Paul Harvey erjs 01993 Paul Harvey Products Inc. Act which would permit supplements to be considered safe UNLESS THE FDA CAN PROVE OTHERWISE. Our bureaucracy is at war with itself over this issue. The federal centers for Disease Control Con-trol has concluded that folic acid can help prevent birth defects. But when a manufacturer manu-facturer of folic acid gave a copy of this report to a customer, the FDA wanted the manufacturer prosecuted! There are some liars in the health food business. It would be very simple for the FDA to prosecute the liars and put a stop to such exaggerated claims, but the bureaucrats appear determined instead to punish the By TOM GRIFFITHS She's leaving home, after living alone for so many years. ' Bye, bye. -The Beatles At some point, we all have to separate - pack up and take off to start making our own lives. And usually college is as good a place as any to start the process that takes us from adolescence to adulthood. So I was thrilled when my daughter asked me to pack her up and drive her to college. Originally she and her mother were supposed sup-posed to make this trip - but her commitment commit-ment to the Utah State University Marching March-ing Band meant she would have to leave for college a week early, and her mother couldn't make the trip. After a divorce, an out-of-the-home father fa-ther gets used to missing out on some of these rites of passage. It is always a treat to be included, and I didn't intend on missing out. As we loaded up the car, I realized how much planning has to go into the move --and --and how much a child's life is taken on the trip. This isn't an overnighter, or a week at camp, or a summer with grandma. This is the symbolic cutting of the apron strings that separates an adult from his or her childhood -- to an extent. And the car was full of stuff. There were bags and bags of clothes; a laundry basket filled with kitchen utensils, plates and glasses, pots and pans; a box of food that won't last as long as she thinks it will; another box with more shoes than I think I've ever owned; boxes with letters from missionaries; a few books; a stereo and tapes; a clarinet and drumsticks; and various vari-ous keepsakes accumulated over 18 yearsof In defense of chocolate and other sickly-sweet things I must put in a word of defense for chocolate. Not just chocolate in general; I know that I would quickly be shot down by those healthy folks who count calories and figure the percent of fat in each bite of food taken in each day. I'm sure they would point out that chocolate choco-late is 90 per cent fat and usually loaded with nuts and caramel and other high-fat, low-nutrient items which shouldn't be taken into your body. In fact, none of those studies they do on how to lower your risk of cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure or early death mention eating more chocolate, more's the pity- , Chocolate, however, still has value to me. There's nothing like that first bite of pure milk chocolate as you start a new book, or in celebration of finishing a big project or heck, in celebration pf finishing lunch, why not? , ' ; ". ' That's why I am an advocate of chocolate kisses. They're just the right size to offer chocolate taste without the whole 250 calories calo-ries worth of a candy bar. Besides, sometimes some-times a candy bar is just too much chocolate. choco-late. With kisses, you can have just as many as you want without getting sick. Kisses require being unwrapped, so you kind of monitor your intake. For instance, milk chocolate chips are tiny too, but they're so easy to eat, you could have 12 ounces gone before you even know what you're doing. iLefttiecs tto GlfiiG ecQiittoG1 Arts Council provides musical treats Editor: Let me express my thanks to the American Ameri-can Fork Arts Council for two musical treats I have enjoyed recently. On Saturday night I saw the show "Oliver," and on Sunday afternoon, I attended at-tended a splendid organ recital in the Alpine Al-pine Stake Tabernacle, played by David Chamberlin. I don't pretend to be a musical critic, but I know what I like to hear. Both of these performances were delightful to me. There's still time to see "Oliver," and on Oct. 17 we can look forward to another organ recital. Now, going from the sublime to the ridiculous, ri-diculous, when are we going to get to hear the candidates who are seeking places on the American Fork City Council? health foods entire health food industry. ; The FDA, jealously defending its prerogatives pre-rogatives and seeking to expand them, is out of step with the new era of preventive medicine. . And for the FDA to dictate to responsible respon-sible medical journals what they may and may not print is unconscionable. Kenneth Scott owns Highland Laboratories Labora-tories in Mount Angel, Ore. An assortment of newsstand publications publica-tions have mentioned taking capsules of coenzyme Q-10 as a potential heart benefit. ben-efit. Kenneth Scott made reprints of one ' such article (from the February 1987 issue is-sue of OMNI magazine) for his customers. custom-ers. ' . FDA agents and an armed U.S. marshal mar-shal entered his home, seized the OMNI reprints and other newspaper and magazine maga-zine articles. This is a Nazi-like book-burning! What's worrisome to all of us who take supplemental vitamins and minerals with demonstrable health benefits is that the FDA under Kessler wants to be a dictator - unless Hatch and Richardson and you somehow manage to de-fang him The Editor's Column By MARC HADDOCK living basically all she has. "Did you leave a lot behind?" I asked. , "Let's see, there's an old sweatshirt . . . ," she answered, unable to think of anything else that remained in the home for her younger sisters to scavenge. She talked with excitement during the entire trip about her new "home," a dorm that would be the dwelling for six girls, each with a small bed, desk and closets and a shared kitchen. She talked enthusiastically about the friends who were going to be there with her. ("There are more kids from our ward going to USU than anywhere else.") About the friends she would meet. (Shehad identified her roommates home towns by matching up their telephone prefixes with those in phone books from throughout the state.) Aboyt her classes. (Her first one was supposed to be at 8:30 a.m., but when the computerized schedule came back, it was at 7:30 a.m.) About her new town. ("I love Logan!") About her new freedom. ("I probably ought to be a little sad," she said when she saw me starting start-ing to choke up a couple of times, "but Fm really looking forward to this." I fought the urge to bring my bittersweet DSCOUGPDGS By RACHEL C. MURDOCK If the situation is grave enough to warrant war-rant it, by George, you could eat the whole bag of kisses too. But more often than not, youH have a few left over for the next crisis or celebration, without harming your innards in-nards too seriously. Speaking of sweet things in need of defense, there's another much-maligned member of our society who some say is too sweet for our own good. It, however, is not tiny, but large. Six feet tall, to be exact, and purple with a green belly. Any pre-schooler could have told you by now that I'm talking about Barney, the dinosaur. Let me first clarify that I am not defend-ingthe defend-ingthe Barney pajamas, lunch boxes, stuffed animals, party goods, barrettes, glasses, socks, shoes, pencils, balloons, sleeping tents, videos or even the Barney underwear which I myself resorted to using as a bribe to encourage my preschooler's potty training. train-ing. (It worked, by the way.) I will, however defend the actual PBS television show of Barney and Friends. I know many a parent has decried the show, calling it sickly-sweet, overly sappy and impossible to stomach. Voting time in October will soon arrive, and I for one, would like to attend a meeting where I could hear from each of these can Candidates ideas are scary Editor: This past week we attended a "Meet the Candidate" night for Kent Walker, who is running for mayor. We are very concerned about his platform. He wants to get rid of our library. All of his ideas were scary, but this one we feel will hurt a lot of people. We would be at a loss without this service. We depend on it for research, tapes, videos and, most of all, the reading of books. We read an average aver-age of 10 books a month. We are on a fixed income so we could not afford to buy this many. Even if we could, we couldn't find a place to keep them. When we do buy them, when we are finished we donate them to the library so that others may enjoy them. '. We have been going to the library all of our lives, and to the American Fork Library for 30 years. We took our children there as Please send Editor: Hi! My name is Aries Up Joos. I'm a fifth grade student from Clayton Elementary School in Englewood, Colo. Our class is studying the geography and history of the United States. We would appreciate it if some of your readers would send us a post Policy on letters to the editor We welcome letters to the editor. All letters should be typewritten and double spaced. Letters must also be signed, and must include the writer's name and telephone tele-phone number. Please send letters to Editor, Newtah News Group, P.O. Box 7, American Fork, Utah, 84003. feelings into the picture; she was so cheef- ful, and this pain is the price of parenthood isn't it? And the reward for doing a gobdu" job - or tor having a good Kid. ci i; n ui. M 't Cache Valley - she because she was arriv ing at her new life, me because we were finally past the highway construction. ' " We climbed the four flights of stairs to her apartment, our arms filled with bags and boxes, us breathing very heavy at the top, and with more excitement than a per- ann AiierVif t a Viova cVia intrruliicAil m A fn tVA cinderblock and brick home she will inhabit for the next eight months. . . The rooms looked remarkably like the -dorm rooms I shared with my cigarette-' smoking roommate from Arco, Idaho, dur-' ing my first semester at Idaho State Uni- - over his shoulder when he filled out the part about whether he wanted a smokingornon: ' smoking roommate, so he lied.) I know she is in for an adventure, and I'm confident her optimism, her positive nature, na-ture, her vivacious essence will carry her ' through with a lot more success than I every realized my first year away from home. But then, I'm her father, and full of the ' unrealistic expectations shared by all fa- -thers. Really, I just hope life is good to her," as she takes this step into adulthood. It all seems so permanent, so inevitable, so irreversible. At least some of the time. ' But maybe part of the old kid is there, ' too. "So," I said, "are you givingyour bedroom' to one of your sisters." ' ' "No way, man," she said. Tve got to have some place to sleep when I come home." Some have even started a"I Hate Barney," club (Their motto -- "You don't have to tell ' the kids you're a member.") But I kind of like the big, purple dinosaur. dino-saur. Or his show, anyway. . ' He talks about how to be a good friend. -He tells kids learning is fun and reading is an adventure. He sings lots of great, old, traditional songs. He teaches kids to be understanding of other's problems. The show encourages creativity and us-' ing imaginations. My kids will run and get paper and crayons, scissors and glue and chalk and show me some creation they've made that they saw on Barney. He tells kids it's okay to say they love other people. I must say, I was in a little of a quandary when my four-year-old was dictating to me a thank-you note from his birthday party. "Thank you for the little basketball and the soft football. I love them and I love you." ' ' ' 1 I debated changing the "love" to "like," ' since the parents are probably the ones -reading the note. But what the heck, I ' decided, this child probably watches Barney too. I do wish someone would fund some new episodes, and I have to draw my limit at y watching the show no more than twice a -day. I do have my limits. Like I do with chocolate. .'.'.. My kids, however, seem to be able to -handle much more of Barney. Like they can chocolate, come to think of it. didates. How aboutit?Whohasauthority to call such a meeting and invite the public?-' -Wanda S. Petersen toddlers and instilled in them a love of. books and all the responsibility of taking' care of them and lovingthem as much as we. do. We are trying to help our grandchildren with the same desire to read and to enjoy the library. We would be totally lost and very sad if I this happened in our city. We are deeply concerned as this mayoral race continues., As the citizens of this city, we urge you voters to get out and meet these gentlemen , who are running for these offices and leant their views about things that will have ah impact on our children and the children of the future. ' 7 We need our library and all the enjoy-' ment and educational resource it is to not just the two of us, but to everyone who lives' here now and those who will be growing ' with us. ' -Name withheld postcards card from your state so we can learn more ' about our country. Thank you for your help. -Aries Up Joos . Clayton Elementary School 4600 S. Fox Englewood, Colo. 80110 |