OCR Text |
Show New Utah American Fork Citizen - Thursday, April 17, 2003 - Page 2 Opinion Urban legend identifies genuine safety issue One of our readers shared excerpts from the story read via the Internet of a very scary car accident: "I had a wreck a couple of weeks ago and totaled our Lincoln Lin-coln Town Car. I hydroplaned on Mwy .'f hetween (lladewater and Kilgore, Texas. I was not hurt, just emotionally rattled! I learned a lesson I'd like to pass on to you. "You may know this already, hut the highway patrolman told me that you should never drive in the rain with your cruise control con-trol on. He said if you did and hydroplaned (which I did) that when your tires were off the road your car would accelerate to a high rate of speed (which it did). "I took off" like I was in an airplane. air-plane. Please pass the word around alxmt not using cruise control when the pavement is wet or icy." A quick poll in the newspaper oJTice revealed that most here had ever heard of this potential safety prohlem either. A Weh site that specializes in urhan legends has identified this story, which has heen circulating since November, as falling under that category. However, the fol Tear down emotional fences The poet Robert Frost wrote, "Before I built a wall I'd ask to know what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give offense. Something there is that doesn't love a wall..." In today's society of six-foot high privacy fences, the art of being a good neighbor seems lost. Recently a four-year dispute between neighbors was resolved by the P.G. planning commission. All commissioners did was hammer ham-mer out a compromise the parties could have made themselves, if they'd taken the time to talk to each other and walk in the other's shoes. My parents have lived in the same neighborhood for over 20 years. A few weeks ago I asked my mom about a nearby house where traditional landscape had been torn away in favor of a more natural, natu-ral, drought tolerant landscape -which I thought looked horrible. "Well, that's just Gene," she said. "He's always doing something some-thing crazy with his yard. I think it looks dumb, but if that's what he likes..." We then laughed over some of the strange landscaping ideas he'd had in the past. My mom had learned to love the neighbor and ignore the landscape. When my husband and I first moved into our home, our neighbors neigh-bors had a little dog that yapped very loudly early in the morning. We could have confronted them about it, but didn't want to start off on the wrong foot. Instead we learned to sleep through it. Since there is no fence boundary bound-ary between our backyards and we have kids the same age, we (MSB (Ml gMsailMI Should there be a cap on how many taxes a city can impose? J Ye there are too many hidden taxes CjNa,, there should be a cap on how much can be taxed CjYes, and also on how much JNq elected officials should make that decision. Should the mayor of Eagle Mountain resign? 33 Yes 1 No, he is mayor and can do what he wants 7 He should learn to delegate and get counseling 1 The council should deem him mentally incompetent. 55 No To respond, mail to P.O. Box 7, American Fork, UT 84003, or deliver deliv-er to 59 W. Main, American Fork, or see www.newutah.com. lowing was also added: "As is usually the case with safety alerts circulating in the form of first-person narratives, we are unable to confirm that this exact incident really happened, hap-pened, but the warning is generally gener-ally valid: Driving at high speeds on wet or icy pavement with the cruise control engaged could make it more difficult for the driver to regain control of the vehicle if it hydroplanes (skids) and therefore result in a deadly accident. "This has been confirmed by sources ranging from insurance companies to state police to the National Automobile Dealers Association, which bluntly advises: advis-es: 'Never use cruise control when road conditions are slippery.' slip-pery.' "'Your cruise control does not know the difference in road surface sur-face types,' explains South Dakota Dako-ta Highway Patrol Trooper Mike Bock on his agency's Web site." We don't know whether this story is real or not either, but we have confirmed that the lesson it teaches is correct according to recognized, authoritative sources. Forewarned is forearmed. became friends at the sandbox. Our kids loved to go pet the dog, and when it died we felt bad, too. When we got a puppy it whined almost constantly it seemed for the first few days. I was worried about the neighbors, but they never complained. In some of the roughest times I've been through, those neighbors were the first to offer help and support. I hate to think I would have missed out on friendship because of a yapping dog. During the course of the recent planning commission meeting, it became apparent to me that these neighbors had never really talked face to face. Sometimes it is tempting to hide behind our fences and never take the time to know who is on the other side, not just in name, but in heart. I see nothing wrong with building build-ing fences, as long as we go outside out-side them once in a while and let others inside. It's easy to fight with the person who lives over there. It's easy to work out differences differ-ences with a friend. It takes two to be good neighbors. neigh-bors. WTe can't control our neighbors' neigh-bors' behavior (and sometimes it will be bad) but we can control ours. We each need to make sure we're part of the solution and not part of the problem. Then we can build neighborhoods of trust and friendship, where physical fences never become emotional walls. Baby listings There is an unwritten law in city planning, and probably other areas, that tells communities to beware of unintended consequences. conse-quences. Basically, what they are telling us is to review every decision thoroughly, thor-oughly, thinking through the results which will come from every action we consider. When we prepare any ordinance ordi-nance which will govern citizens, we work from one direction. We look at the consequence we want to implement, then determine how that should come about. The next step is equally important, impor-tant, but is sometimes glossed over or completely overlooked. That is to consider the other results which would piggyback themselves along with what we enact. One such instance is related to hospitals and health care. On April 14, a new law went into effect, designed to protect privacy pri-vacy of patients in hospitals. That sounds like a wonderful idea, but it has consequences which may or may not have been considered. If they were, they were probably deemed less serious than the orig- April is National Donate Life Springtime is a renewal of life. Bare branches burst forth in blossom. blos-som. Slender green stalks stretch forth from the earth; some as stems of tulips or hyacinths, others oth-ers as blades of grass. This yearly renewal of life is a cause for joy and celebration. It is appropriate, then, that another very intimate and special renewal of life be celebrated in the springtime. The month of April is "National Donate Life Month." It is a time to understand and appreciate appre-ciate the gift of life through organ donation. Organ donation is a miracle in my own life. It was in the month of April, 1989, that my husband was diagnosed with hepatitis. We never knew how or where he contracted con-tracted this disease. We only knew that within three short weeks, he was comatose and was given only days to live. He would die unless he received a liver transplant. As a mother of three very young Looking to Pres. Truman's example On April 12. 1945. Franklin D. Roosevelt, considered by many to be the greatest President of the 20th century, died. The new president was a straight talking Missourian named Harry Truman. Truman had been a farmer, an officer in World War I and a failed businessman. He had also been a judge in Missouri, Mis-souri, then a United States Senator. Harry spent eight years as President, Presi-dent, finishing most of Roosevelt's fourth term, then he won a very close election in 1948 to remain the President for another four years. Those eight years were very controversial. con-troversial. World War II ended with the atomic bombing of Japan. The Cold War began. The first United Nations action happened in Korea Through all of this, Truman was decisive. At the time, he wasn't well liked. He didn't speak very well and he wasn't warm and personable like Roosevelt had been. He also made decisions that were not very popular. One of his first actions as president was to put a sign on his desk that said "The Buck Stops Here.1' Even later in life, Truman would maintain that the job of the president presi-dent was to make the decision, then to take responsibility for the decision deci-sion that had been made. Reader's Forum Thank you to PG Editor: On Tuesday, April 8, 1 was driving driv-ing my Headstart school bus and stopped at the red light at the intersection of State and Center Street in Pleasant Grove. Just then the bells in the bell tower began to play the song, "This Is My Country." It touched me so much that it brought tears to my eyes. Even the four- and five-year-old children on the bus listened. will no longer be printed GMias " inal problem. No one wants the details of their appendicitis attack and subsequent sub-sequent surgery spread all over the community or on the front page of the newspaper. We understand under-stand that. There is also a very serious need for discretion in cases of abuse or certain illnesses which carry stigma with them. But the Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act (HIPPA) has also brought with it other results which affect the public. pub-lic. " For years, many pages in baby books have been filled with newspaper news-paper clippings of a child's birth. I have cut all of my children's out and dutifully pasted them in place. They have been a source of joy and reminiscing as I have looked back through the years. children, and a fourth on the way, I was devastated. How could I possibly pos-sibly face life without him? And then, the miracle occurred. Steve received a new liver. His life continued con-tinued and health was regained, and he was able to welcome the birth of his fourth child, and two years later, his fifth. I shall be eternally grateful for the precious gift that a grieving California family gave. I hope that their tragedy was softened, somehow, some-how, by the knowledge that their loss helped our husband and father live. Perhaps it was "Organ Donor Awareness Week," that April long ago, that prompted that family to donate their loved one's organs, including the liver that saved my Fifty years after Truman's presidency, presi-dency, many Americans are beginning begin-ning to change their minds about Truman. New information indicates that many of his decisions, while unpopular at the time, were actually actual-ly correct Other Americans are beginning to praise this president that didn't blame others for his decisions. Truman Tru-man never said that Congress made him do something; he never blamed the military or anyone else. In a culture cul-ture where blaming someone else has become a national craze, Truman Tru-man is looking better and better. Today, we have people who blame their parents, society or a corporation corpora-tion for their problems and actions. It's too bad we don't all have more of the Truman mentality. If we did, maybe we'd take responsibility for what we said or did and not blame our decisions on someone else. Let's make the right decisions, whether popular or not, and then take responsibility for them, . Our world may be a little better place with some responsibility. As I listened to the belle on a bright clear day, I noticed a unique statue of a father and a boy, a huge beautiful flag waving in the breeze and the beautifully landscaped boulevard. I realized again just how blessed I am to have America as my country. It truly is the grandest of all. I want to thank all those who have made my city of JPleasant Grove an even more pleasant place to live. -Jeniel Humble One interesting addition is finding out that people who have become friends since that time were also in the hospital with me at the same time. Publication of those birth listings list-ings has been at the discretion of the new parents. They have had to sign a release form, which allows flexibility for any who do not want the notification notifica-tion for any reason. But the new law will make those birth listings impossible. There are many other consequences conse-quences associated with the HIPPA. Family members may not be able to get information on their loved one via phone, or in some cases to even learn whether they have been admitted there; clergy members will need additional identification to visit members of their congregations. We only hope there is some way to mitigate the ill effects of such a law to help neighbors, friends and families share their lives with each other in a good way. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. Month husband's life. There are so many people that need, but do not receive, this precious gift of life. Thousands of people have already recognized the importance of giving the gift of life to others. In 2002, there were 22,741 organ transplants and more than 46,000 corneal transplants performed in the United States. Each day, an average of 68 individuals receive an organ transplant, but another 17 on the waiting list die. Organ donation can, and does, save lives. Becoming a donor is not difficult. Being a donor will not cause a decrease in lifesaving medical care. When a loved one dies, the gift of life through organ donation can provide a ray of light in a very dark time. Information about organ donation dona-tion and "National Donate Life Month" can be found at www.organdonor.gov. Linda Butler can be contacted at lindasbutlerjuno.com American Fork Citizen 59 W. Main American Fork, UT 84003 An edition of The Daily Herald, Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc. Subscriptions & DeliveryService..375-5103 News & Advertising 756-7669 Fax 756-5274 E-mail bchristiansennewutah.com USPS 018-580. (ISSN: 1521-6845) Published Thursdays by Pulitzer Newspapers, Inc., 59 West Main, American Fork, Utah 84003. Periodicals postage paid at American Fork, Utah. Postmaster: Send address changes to 59 West Main, American Fork, UT 84003. 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 & New Year's Day. 1 year - $45.40 (out of county) NEWS We welcome news tips. Call 756- 7669 to report a news tip or if you have a comment or a question. We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must include the author's name (printed AND signed) and a telephone number. We reserve the nght to edit letters for clarity, punctuation, punc-tuation, taste and length. Letters are welcome on any topic. I |