Thursday, March 4,2010 -Thomasville Times - 5
OPINION
Thomasville Times
MICHAEL B. STARN
Publisher
mstarn@hpe.com
•
LYNN WAGNER
Advertising Director
lwagner@hpe.com
LISA M. WALL
Editor
editor@tvilletimes.com
•
ZACH KEPLEY
Sports Editor
tvillesports@yahoo.com
Letters to the
Editor
To the Editor
To all of those who called,
visited, emailed, texted, or
wrote in to express their con
cerns about my unscheduled
visit to High Point Regional
recently, I am pleased to
report that I am feeling great
and back at work. I want to
publicly thank High Point Ro
tary Club, High Point Country
Club, Guilford County EMS
personnel, and the entire
medical team at High Point
Regional Hospital for then-
care and concern after I faint
ed. WhUe I was being treated,
I kept thanking everyone for
aU of the special attention
I was receiving — and to a
person — they kept reminding
me that everyone receives the
same level of care. What that
reinforced in me is that we are
lucky to live in such a special
place with caring and dedicat
ed professionals throughout
our community. Again, thank
you to aU who expressed their
concern for my well-being.
Howard Coble
Member of Congress
To the Editor
On behalf of the American
Cancer Society and Relay
For Life of Davidson County,
we would like to extend a
huge THANK YOU to the
Creasey family and to aU
the volimteers who helped
make the “Extreme Walk
Through Tours” a success.
Volunteers are the heart of
the American Cancer Soci
ety and are what make our
organization so remarkable
in the fight against cancer.
Thank you, to the Relay For
Life Committee — Sherry
McBride (accoimting chair
of Relay For Life), Caro
lina Cancer Services, Robyn
Dezego and once again our
Relay family... The Creaseys!
It was great to partner
with Carolina Cancer Ser
vices on this project. It’s
was great to see two cancer
organizations come together
and serve the community
of Davidson County.
In a nation where more
than one mfilion people will
be diagnosed with cancer
this year, Davidson County is
inviting you to celebrate life
at our Annual Relay For Life
event held on May 21-22,2010,
at Thomasville High School.
The American Cancer
Society Relay For Life is a
unique fund raising event
in which teams of partici
pants take turns walking the.
track overnight in an effort
to fight cancer. Teams cam-
pout, eat and play games.
The message of the event
is cancer can be conquered.
This year’s theme is “Hero’s
Of Hope” in honor of Tricia
Creasey. Mrs. Creasey is our
Survivorship Chairman of the
Relay For Life and invites aU
cancer survivors to come and
support Relay through partici
pating in the Survivor Lap at
the event. This emotional lap
honors the courage of aU who
have defeated cancer. All sur
vivors (anyone who has ever
been diagnosed with cancer)
aU walk the opening lap —
unified in victory and in hope.
The atmosphere of Relay
For Life is one of cama
raderie and celebration,
providing an opportunity
for cancer survivors to pass
the torch of hope on to
those stiU battling cancer or
those that might be touched
by cancer in the future.
If you are a cancer survivor,
a local business, a church,
or family and would like to
take part in the Relay For Life
of Davidson County, please
call your American Cancer
Society at (336) 404-8965.
For more information
on cancer, caU the Ameri
can Cancer Society at (800)
ACS-2345, available 24 hovurs
a day, seven days a week,
or visit www.cancer.org.
Jami Myers
American Cancer Society
To the Editor
Go Storm! We want to
congratulate the Davidson
County Community College
men’s basketball team — the
Storm — on winning the
NJCAA Division III Region
10 Championship Tourna
ment Feb. 27 in Brinkley Gym.
The team will be back in the
gym Saturday, March 6, at 3
p.m., playing for the District
7 Championship against
Montgomery CoUege-Ger-
mantown of Maryland; the
winning team will play for the
national championship title in
Delhi, New York, March 11-13.
In January, we were both
privileged to watch this team’s
dramatic win over the UNC
Junior Varsity team, previ
ously unbeaten for the season.
At the Storm Watch view
ing party in the new DCCC
Conference Center, where
the spillover crowd gathered
because Brinkley Gym was
sold out, we witnessed the
Storm beat Carolina 101-69. It
was a proud moment for the
entire community, just as it
was when the DCCC Storm
women’s voUeybaU team also
vied for the national champi
onship in Minnesota in 2009.
Sports championships make
us proud, and we are so glad
that athletics have attracted
additional attention to DCCC
and given students extra
opportunities outside the
classroom. But what makes us
even more proud is the college
itself and the way it is grow
ing and changing to meet new
needs. DCCC is the commu
nity’s college, and sports are
just one more way that we
can cheer on this college, its
students, and our community
If you’re not already a
Storm fan, we hope you
will become one soon!
J. Larry Link
Lexington
Don Clinard
Thomasville
Voyeurism dressed as a public service
VIEWPOINT
. i
MONA CHAREN
Syndicated Columnist
It’s none of my business
what Barack Obama’s LDL
cholesterol level is. And I
don’t have to know that he
is using nicotine therapy to
attempt to kick his smok
ing habit. But aU of this
and more is dutifully passed
along after the president’s
annual physical. Want to
know his resting heart
rate? It’s available. And
we’re told that President
Obama has been instructed
by his physicians to “eat
healthier” and “moder
ate his alcohol intake.”
What to make of this an
nual invasion of privacy?
We’ve been privy to similar
details about other presi
dents — sometimes to an ex
cruciating degree (President
Carter revealed his troubles
with hemorrhoids). In part,
this may be a response to
President Eisenhower’s 1955
heart attack. Treatment was
less sophisticated then, and
the president spent seven
weeks in the hospital. That
was discomfiting enough, but
with the advent of nuclear
weapons, the Cold War,
and the “football,” anxiety
about a possibly debilitated
president led to passage of
the 25th amendment to the
Constitution, which provided
for the smooth transition
of power in the event the
sitting president should die
or become incapacitated.
But a Cold War sensitivity
to the president’s health is
not the whole explanation
for our current fetish for
private health informa
tion. After aU, Bill Clinton’s
refusal to release his medical
records didn’t undermine
confidence in his ability to
fulfiU his term. So some
thing else is going on.
Surely, it’s one part voyeur
ism. They dress it up as a
public service but it’s gossip
aU the same. Whenever a
public figure undergoes
a medical test or surgery,
we get minute-by-minute
updates on his condition
and fuU-color graphics of
the affected part of the poor
sop’s body. When former
president Clinton checked
into an N.Y. hospital to have
a stent placed in one of his
arteries, CNN and the other
cable channels were ready
with easels and experts to
walk us through it as if
each of us were a family
member. It was the same
when Dick Cheney suffered
a recent heart attack.
Concern for even the
smallest details of a person’s
health is the proper realm
of family and close friends,
don’t you think? To broad
cast your stent operation or
upper GI series or whatever
on MSNBC is undignified
— or what the 18th cen
tury would probably have
called too “familiar.”
Besides, there lurks
beneath all of this pro
fessed concern another
sentiment — less noble.
In the case of Cheney,
several news t5q)es expressed
the “hope” that the former
vice president was sticking
to his diet and exercise regi
men. When Clinton became
fil, the AP reminded us of
his eating habits: “Clinton’s
legend as a voracious and
unhealthy eater was sealed
in 1992, when the newly
minted presidential candi
date took reporters on jogs
to McDoiiald’s. He liked
hamburgers, steaks, French
fries -rJlots of them — and
was a ,sloppy eater who could
gobble an apple (core and
all) in two bites and ask for
more.” It surfaces again and
again — a bossy smugness
about other people’s health.
We have arrived at a
cultural moment when no
one would dream of wax
ing judgmental about your
sexual life or your manners,
but we feel free to place you
in metaphorical stocks for
offenses against health.
To prove yourself, show us
your HDL-to-LDL ratio!
The busybodies who ask
about the health habits of
prominent people must imag
ine that they are performing
a public service of some sort.
Don’t we hear incessantly
about the crisis of obesity
and sedentary habits? But
while it makes sense to
encourage the society as
a whole to curb its outsize
appetite for red meat, fried
potatoes, and sugary sodas,
it’s hardly fair to single out
individuals for scolding. In
the first place, it’s none of
our business. And secondly,
it’s completely unfair. Nature
is unpredictable. Some who
exercise and eat a low-fat
diet nevertheless have high
cholesterol levels. And the
reverse is often true as weU.
But finally, it comes down
to this: We are mortal. We
sicken and die. This is
a problem that not even
Barack Obama claimed to be
able to solve. Ailing people
need sympathy and support.
But Americans have veered
awfully close to treating
iUness as a character flaw.
To find out more about
Mona Charen and read
features by other Creators
Syndicate columnists and
cartoonists, visit the Cre
ators Syndicate web page
at www.creators.com.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
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will not be printed. Letters should be no more than 400 words, unless otherwise approved
by editor. Limited to one letter evei^ 30 days. All letters are subject to editing.
EMAIL: Editor@tviIletimes.com
FAX: 888-3632
MAIL: Letters to the Editor
Thomasville Times
210 Church Ave.
High Point, N.C. 27262-
EDITORIALS
All unsigned editorials are the
consensus of Editor Lisa Wall and
Sports Editor Zach Kepley