PHOTO BY BILL FAVtR
OUR SYMPATHIES for baby birds or baby turtles need to result in concern for habitat and protec
tion of nesting sites.
Misplaced Sympathies
BY BILL FAVER
It would seem to be a very natural response to feel
sympathetic toward young animals. Babies of almost
any type grab our attention and we
usually want the best for them. We
translate our cares and concerns
for humans to the babies of our
pets, baby birds, and the babies of
other animals. Sometimes these
feelings can be misplaced sympa
thies.
When we see a black snake
break up a bluebird nest and eat
the eggs or the young birds, we
i'AVKR seldom understand die snake's
needs for food. Our sympathies arc with the baby
birds. It is unlikely that we will understand die snake's
appetite is one reason why the bluebirds will raise two
or three broods a year. 11 all of the young birds were to
live, we could be inundated with bluebirds, and some
of them would die for lack of feeding space.
When we find a baby bird out of its nest, our first
response is to get it back in the nest or to try to raise it
ourselves. We may not realize the bird may have been
too weak to survive and may have been pushed from
the nest by stronger siblings. Even if we get it back in
the nest, it is unlikely to live.
When we learn most baby sea turtles hatching on
our beaches will become food for gulls and ghost
crabs on land and fish and crabs in the ocean, we feel
for the babies and want to protect them. We don't real
ize this process ot hatching and scrambling for safety
and feeding has been going on for millions of years,
and the turtles have survived as a species.
Perhaps many of our sympathies can be considered
misplaced sympathies. Rather than worrying about a
baby bird out of the nest, wc should worry about the
shrinking habitat available to the birds. Or perhaps our
concern for the baby turtles should rest with the loss of
nesting sites on our beaches and die killing of adult
turdes by some humans who should know better.
The natural world needs our sympathies, but they
need to cover the big picture. Those sympathies need
to result in action as well as warm feelings.
GUEST COLUMN
Tax Would Devastate Southeast
BY GKORGE \V. ABBOTT
Of all the regions of the country,
the Southeast has consistently wea
thered recessions and quietly provid
ed its people with jobs and steady
growth. Now, all that could changc.
Various proposals are now being
considered in Washington to sub
stantially increase the federal ciga
rette tax. But whether we end up
with a doubling of the current 24
ccnts-a-pack federal excise lax, or a
SI increase, or even the S2 "mon
ster" tax, as the Washington Post la
beled one proposal, die economic
impact on our region would be dev
astating.
Tobacco is to the Southeast as
logging is to the North west... as pe
troleum is to the Gulf states and
Alaska.. .as wheat is to the Midwest.
Here in the Southeast, tobacco pro
vides about 200, (XX) jobs just in
farming and manufacturing. Hun
dreds of thousands of other jobs are
supplies in retailing, warehousing
and many other direct and non-di
rcct ways.
Based on a Price Waterhouse
study, a Sl-a-pack increase in the
excise tax would remove from our
region more than $485 million in an
nual tobacco-farm leaf sales. More
than 25,675 farming jobs would be
lost; 8,007 tobacco manufacturing
jobs would vanish; 6,878 retail jobs
would be eliminated; and some
1,884 wholesale trade jobs would be
gone.
Thousands of businesses ? from
paper companies to computer manu
facturers to advertisers ? supply the
tobacco industry. With a Sl-a-pack
excise tax increase, more than
14,500 jobs in the Southeast alone
would evaporate from this tobacco
supplier sector of the U.S. economy.
With this loss of workers and pay
checks that buy food, clothing and
everything else families require, a
destructive ripple of tobacco unem
ployment would reach far and wide,
adding another 89,250 Americans to
unemployment in the Southeast.
The total economic damage in
terms of unemployment with a Sl-a
pack increase; 144,247 jobs and
$3.4 billion in paychecks? gone.
At $2 a pack in tax increases, the
pain in our part of the country would
be unthinkable: more than 287,000
workers currendy participating in
the American economic system ?
earning paychecks totaling more
than $6.8 billion and paying taxes ?
would be told to start collecting un
employment checks from the gov
ernment while they look for work
elsewhere. Taken from our
Southeastern cconomy would be
S972 million from tobacco leaf
sales.
Even a "simple" doubling of ihe
federal cigarette tax ? to 48 cents a
pack? would be a severe blow to
our region. More than 42, (XX) work
ers would face unemployment and
more than SI billion would be lost
in paychecks.
But that's not all. Cigarette taxes
traditionally have been a source for
generating revenue at the state level.
A large increase in the federal ciga
rette tax will reduce sales of tobacco
products. That will reduce state cig
arette-tax revenue. While tobacco
excise taxes are low in the
Southeast ? reflecting tobacco's
contribution to the region's economy
in many other ways ? a Sl-a-pack
federal tax increase will cost
Southeastern states SI 55 million.
Will other taxes be raised to make
up the difference? What will be cut?
Education? Support for the elderly?
A federal cigarette tax increase is
a bad idea for other reasons as well:
?Cigarette taxes unfairly hit
those least able to pay ? low- ana
middle-income taxpayers. No matter
how high or low a person's income,
he or she pays the same amount of
cigarette taxes, and that's not fair
economically.
?The government will not bet
the money it expects by raising
taxes. In 1990 and 1991, Canadian
cigarette tax rates rose 45 percent.
But revenue increased only 1 .4 per
cent. Canadians are crossing the bor
der to buy their brands in U.S.
stores. Smuggling and black markets
arc thriving.
?Smokers already pay their
fair share. According to an article
in The Journal of the American
Medical Association (March 17,
1989), "...On balancc, smokers
probably pay their way with ihe cur
rent level of excise tax on ciga
rettes." And that statement was
made before the last two federal ex
cise lax increases and the scores of
slate tax increases enacted since
1989.
?IT America's health-care sys
tem is broken, the government
should fix it ? not just throw more
money at the problem. At both the
state and federal levels, cigarette
taxes arc being proposed to finance
health-care reform. Americans spent
S838 billion on health care in 1992.
But, according to Consumer
Reports, al least S200 billion was
thrown away on "overpriced, use
less... treatments, and on a bloated
bureaucracy."
?A major tax increase will not
deter youth from smoking. Where
this has been tried, the tax didn't do
what its supporters said it was sup
posed to do. Last year, health au
thorities got together to review the
results of a major tax increase enact
ed in California three years earlier.
To the dismay of conference partici
pants, a spokesman for the
California program reported that the
tax appeared "to have had little ef
tect on aaoiescents, ana tnai uieir
rate of smoking was virtually un
changed.
Given all the reasons why a major
tobacco excise tax is a bad idea, a
surprisingly large percentage of
Americans seem to favor such a tax.
Or is il so surprising? Three-fourths
of American adults do not smoke ?
and proponents of the tax have been
doing nothing to discourage the pub
lic from assuming that, if they don't
smoke, there will be no economic
price to pay for this tax.
Workers and employers all over
the country will be paying the price,
but it will hurl far more in the
Southeast. Not since Reconstruction
has the Southeast faced such a criti
cal economic issue.
George W Ahbott is a tobacco
warehouseman, farm supply dealer
and farmer living in Darlington,
SC.
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MORE LETTERS
Anti -Abortion Ad Insert
Provokes Reader Response
To the editor:
Shame on you! You allowed
yourself to be an organ for untrue
propaganda. We pay our money to
buy a paper which is supposed to
have responsible journalism and in
tegrity and, behold, we receive a pa
per containing deliberate lies.
I refer to the anti- "Freedom of
Choice" literature in your July 8 edi
tion. Despite your bias and/or politi
cal motivation, your researchers
should have advised you of the bla
tant errors. Or did they?
There is no such thing as a D & X
abortion procedure. Fetuses arc not
aborted as was stated. If a late-term
termination of pregnancy is neces
sary (due to cndangcrment of the
woman or death of the fetus in
utero) a prostaglandin suppository is
inserted in the cervix, labor is initiat
ed and the products of conception
arc expelled.
The New York abortionist who
tried to terminate a gestation beyond
24 weeks was convicted, sent to
prison and had his license revoked.
Also, any laws regarding termina
tion of pregnancy will have certain
stipulations, as in New York state.
Why not do a research project on
"Freedom of Choice," "Right to
Life," and the implications of the
medication RU 486 to both move
ments ? or would you stir up a hor
net's nest?
Mildred S. Capone
Shallotte
Pro -Lifers Do Pay
To the editor
Pegge Jaynes deplores the "melo
dramatic llyer" produced by pro-lif
crs and then produces her own
melodramatic slander:
"When the Right to Life radicals
start taking care of the millions of
already born tiny tots who lack food,
medicine and two-parent homes,
then I'll take their pleas for the un
bom more seriously," she fumes.
The term "radical" is less than
flattering and usually untrue in fact.
The truth is that we already take
carc of those millions!
Part of it is called "AFDC,"
which pays for many unwanted chil
dren's physical life, and then there
arc thousands of volunteers who as
sist young women in the adoption
proccss.
Like Christians everywhere and
always, we do care and we held re
arrange the consequences of sin.
And Ms Jaynes repeats the distor
tion of the times by writing, "Until
we have a form of birth control that
is medically and socially acceptable,
the numbers of unwanted pregnan
cies will continue to escalate."
We used to have such a method
and could readily reinstate it: it's
called "responsibility". ..the self-dis
cipline of abstinence in the forma
tive years.
The judgment that "young women
should have the final say over their
own bodies and their own destinies"
and, by extension, the same for
young men is a self-centered expres
sion which flouts natural law and the
will of God.
And while there arc flaws in the
effort to impose the will of God by
government, the distortions and
scrcams of the "pro-choice" propa
gandists deserve no consideration.
Karl E. Brandt
Shalloltc
Fortunate Survivor
To the editor:
Thank vou for including the Free
dom of Choice Act insert in your pa
per. Ana Rosa Rodriguez is indeed
one of the few fortunate ones that
survived the murder attempt on her
life through abonion. Complete
shock and utter disbelief is the moral
response to this carnage. But even
more alarming are the attitudes of
those who would ralhcr see people
like Ana Rosa dead.
Randi Moon
Sunset Beach
'Smacks Of Feminism '
To the editor:
1 hope that in the future before
you accept paid ads, you will check
with Neill Key (writer of a letter in
last week's issue) to be sure that
they meet his/her radical standards
and, if they don't, you arc not to ac
cept them.
That letter smacked of radical
feminism at its worst. They think
that their views only arc to be heard,
and all others are to be suppressed.
Bill Stanley
Calabash
About Sewer Plans...
To the editor:
1 would like to ask the engineers
of the proposed Sunset Beach sewer
system why, after the biggest tourist
week in the history of Sunset Beach,
shcllfishing was opened up on Sat
urday, July 10, in front of my house
on the Sunset Beach mainland for
the first time since 1968.
For those that have eyes, let them
sec.
Frank Ncsmith
Sunset Beach
Write Us
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be printed. Letters must be
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right to edit libelous comments.
Address letters to The Brunswick
Beacon, P. 0. Box 2558,
Shallot te, N. C. 28459.
Calling Uncle Sam To Pay The Tab
If you're like me, all it lakes lo
help put our local drought in per
spective is a few feet of video on the
disastrous flooding along the Missis
sippi and Missouri rivers.
It's a daily reminder that we're
not really the guys in charge. For
me, however, it's also another re
minder that we've become too re
liant on the federal government for
my own comfort.
While not against the programs,
I'm deeply disturbed when we don't
seem able or willing to take care of
ourselves or others in our own com
munities. When our first, not last,
instinct, is "Call Washington." It al
so bothers me that more and more
we deliberately put ourselves at
greater risk.
It doesn't help that it is hurricane
season, and my mind is on such
things as flood insurance, Hazel and
Hugo, and building houses on rock
instead of sand. It doesn't help that
we're no longer just building po
dunk fishing shacks on the shore or
in the fioodplain.
The world over, people have al
ways chosen to live and work near
the water, despite the hazards of hur
ricanes or typhoons on the coast and
flooding iong coast and river.
When the water came ? and it al
ways did, people either built back
ana took their chances, or moved
out of flood's way, never to return.
These days we expect govern
ment engineers to tinker with Mo
ther Nature, to build berms and sea
walls, even redirect rivers, so that
Susan
Usher
we can build where we like. And
build, we do.
When ihc water comes ? and soo
ner or later, it always does ? we not
only want help building back, we
expect to recover all or a portion of
our gambling losses. In fact, we ex
pect fellow taxpayers to share the
risk and the pay-off. Doesn't matter
if it's an individual home or busi
ness, government property or even a
sand dune.
Every day I see new examples of
where government is expected to do
what people and communities used
to do. But that's only the beginning.
It seems to me we're expect govern
ment to do it all on a grander scale
than we would have if left to our
own devices.
Where does it stop? Certainly the
flood victims in the Midwest need
help, but how much and who should
provide it? How would 1 feel if the
shoes were switched and my com
munity was facing economic disas
ter or my beach cottage destroyed?
May be I'm just another naive
Don Quixote, fighting batUcs with
windmills. Most people seem to ac
cept this routine as just the way it is,
maybe even as the way it ought to
be. Then again, maybe, just maybe,
some other people haven't figured
out who government really is and
the price we're all paying for our
collective extravagance, even folly.
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