Letters
Letters Local Heroes To your comment on the cost of charity (“Tilting,” June 1998): You should be aware that many local charities are well managed by professional staff, well directed by...
...According to the experience of other victims as well as myself, stealth is the essential element of such encounters...
...SAM TAYLOR via e-mai...
...car and light truck stopped running tomorrow, worldwide carbon dioxide emissions would be reduced by just 18 percent...
...We watch the internal-to-external ratio very closely...
...Worth blames personal vehicles for a “worsening pollution problem” that caused a 75 percent jump in asthma rates between 1980 and 1994...
...The same media are now informing us about the benefits to follow from deregulation of utility companies...
...it’s the newspeople who still seem to be “wondering...
...Worth’s assertions notwithstanding, mandating higher fuel economy would hardly “put a big dent in our greenhouse gas emissions...
...In keeping with its longstanding policy regarding any nominee, AARP took no position on the nomination of Clarence Thomas...
...One, “Setting the Record Straight,” explained how the SaturdGM “Risk and Reward” program works for labor and management by rewarding collective results for all based on the success of the enterprise...
...That is, between 89 and 91 cents of every dollar contributed return to the community in the form of support and service...
...Had Bobby not performed this act of egomania, McCarthy could well have been the Democratic nominee...
...On the subject of global climate, government estimates show that if every U.S...
...Since you are about the same vintage as I am, you must remember in early 1968 when Gene McCarthy had the audacity to challenge Lyndon Johnson’s conduct of the Vietnam war and declared himself a candidate...
...How dense do they think we are...
...If the press did its job and covered the operations of the lower levels of government, perhaps the managers and others concerned would work to improve the methods and procedures that the working level in the government must deal with...
...AARP did not support the “Clinton health care plan.’’ Instead its board recommended that the membership support reform measures proposed by Sen...
...DEETS EXECUTIVDEI RECTORA, ARP Washington, DC Gun Nuts In his review of John R. Lott Jr.5 More Guns, Less Crime, (“Guns and Numbers,” June 1998), Jens Ludwig suggests that, despite the certainties trumpeted by the cinematic bearer of the Ten Commandments, the laws of statistics provide inadequate support for the Lott thesis...
...When Bobby saw this, instead of supporting McCarthy, he decided to satisfy his ego and run against him, thus splitting the antiwar vote and giving Hubert Humphrey, a liberal by anyone’s standards but a man forced to apologize for Johnson’s misconduct of the conflict, the best shot at the Democratic nomination after Johnson dropped out...
...The other, “Some Merit,” talked about merit-pay plans for teachers that reward whole schools for collective results measured against predefined outcomes...
...Press coverage would also show what a farce Vice President Gore’s Reinvenung Government is because it has had zero effect at the real level of government...
...BLANCHEJA NTZEN Barteho, IL Breathe Free Rife with inaccuracies, Robert Worth’s June article entitled “Bad Air” should be renamed “Bad Errors...
...AARP research has always shown that members join for a variety of reasons: access to information and education, opportunities to volunteer, advocacy and representation, services and products, discounts...
...JOHN L. BYRON Cocoa Beach, FL Misplaced Reverence Although I usually admire your pragmatic liberalism, your lionization of Bobby Kennedy irritated me (“Tilting,” JulyIAug...
...For example, our local Brevard United Way has been running between 9 percent and 11 percent of receipts for total self-support costs for the eight years I have been involved...
...That’s less than one cup of beer out of six kegs...
...They’re the ones you don’t read about...
...Within months “extra charges” appeared on our bills...
...DIANE STEED, PRESIDENT COALITIONFO R VEHICLEC HOICE Washington, DC Senior Service I was disturbed to read Phillip J. Longman’s review of Dale Van Atta’s recent book (‘An 800-Pound Gorilla on the Ropes,” May 1998...
...Letters Local Heroes To your comment on the cost of charity (“Tilting,” June 1998): You should be aware that many local charities are well managed by professional staff, well directed by volunteers who put great effort and expertise into the work, well integrated with community needs in their services-and very, very efficient...
...I always congratulate the caller on his statistical expertise, but then suggest that he participate in the type of field experiment with which I am familiar: Get yourself mugged...
...The EPA reports that between 1987 and 1996, the ambient ozone concentrations from all sources decreased 15 percent, and excesses of the ozone standard dropped 73 percent...
...George Mitchell and Rep...
...In this vein, whenever I write a letter to the editor questioning some N U study, I receive a response from someone who provides “irrefutable” proof of the More Guns, Less Crime thesis by citing reams of statistics...
...Richard Gephardt...
...WILLIAMM...
...Readerslviewers know very well what deregulation and competition mean...
...Merit pay for educational results is no more difficult than merit pay for investment bankers or Saturn workers...
...LOWEY via e-mail Under- Coverage Your blurb in “Tilting at Wmdmills” about the press not covering the workings of government is not surprising (June 1998...
...Consumers had serious doubts before the fact of deregulation/ competition-soon borne out by increasing costs for local service...
...Although he did not win the New Hampshire primary, he made a significant enough showing to give credence to the growing antiwar sentiment in this country...
...In all probability, he’d have won the nomination even had Bobby not been assassinated...
...I’ll bet many local charities do...
...There would have been no shenanigans outside the convention in Chicago to cause a reaction among voters, so he easily could have won the general election and spared us Spiro Agnew, Watergate, and a host of other misadventures, besides preventing who knows how many American GIs from dying in vain...
...AARP is continually looking at ways to meet the needs and interests of its current and future members, including baby boomers...
...ROBERTJ...
...Last December, it was rated by Fortune magazine as the most effective advocacy organization in the country...
...They also made it quite clear that, had I been carrying a gun, they would have used it on me - thus ending permanently my ability to write letters to the editor questioning NRA statistics...
...Anyone who has ever run a business knows that individual results (except in simple, repetitive functions) will tend to be measured best by peers if the peers are all measured and rewarded on collective results...
...HORACBE...
...On one occasion, when several teenagers jumped me from behind, they became quite annoyed and worked me over when they found I wasn’t carrying any money...
...But over the past 15 years, vehicle emissions have declined dramatically, more than any other major source of air pollution...
...The ”benefits“ have been increased profits for the phone companies, CEOs, businesses, and upper-income users who make frequent long-distance and overseas calls...
...In fact, the data show-and our lungs know-we’re now breathing cleaner air than 15 years ago...
...We are fortunate to live in a free society where we can all express our opinions, but why not lavish praise on someone a little more worthy...
...AARP’s annual revenues of $474 million are nowhere near the 500th company on the Fortune 500 list with revenues in excess of $2 billion...
...The mergers following the break-up of the Bell telephone monopoly make competition a laugh...
...Tilting,” June 1998): The average consumer has known for some years what happened...
...We could fairly easily set collective standards for improvement in education school by school that, if met, brought bonuses like the kind enjoyed on Wall Street-say, two or three times one year’s salary...
...we deal with the realities...
...Newspeople analyze, speculate, tell us what to think...
...If we believe in money as a motivator, this should get the attention of generally underpaid teachers...
...We are “wondering” how long it will take the “information experts” to catch up with us...
...And we do better than Salvation Army...
...BURKE San Francisco, CA Group Rewards The July/August issue juxtaposed two letters in a very enlightening way...
...JACK HALEY via e-mail Wake-Up Call Regarding Charles Peters’ question, “Have you ever wondered what happened to the competition that deregulation was supposed to bring to local telephone service...
...But the media crowd had only high praise for all the benefits to follow...
...The Van Am book is riddled with errors, which Longman repeats...
...In major urban areas, where asthma increases have occurred, personal vehicles now produce ody about one-fifth of the two kinds of emissions that form ground-level ozone, according to a recent AAA study...
...And air quality will continue to improve...
Vol. 30 • September 1998 • No. 9
