Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 20, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba Focus a13 Widnie is Pitisi Nikii 2000 Clinton debate win big moment for wives by Rhonda Holman Hillary Rodham Clinton didst win my admiration last wednesday but in so handily winning her first sen ate she certainly got my Atten watching her confidently beat representative Rick Lazio to a political pulp in their first debate in the race to replace senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan i help but feel it was a big moment for for All the Early talk about a Clinton co presidency and her Blu Chip Legal and perhaps because of her disastrous debut As a healthcare policy Clinton has been a after a wife who never did stay Home and bake just As she warned she but a wife who after everything was said and done to choose to stand by her revelation that has made her appear to be a loyalty fault White House one Able to be mentioned in the same sentence As Barbara Nancy Rea Rosalyn Betty Pat lady Bird Jacqueline Mamie Eisenhower and Bess that Why it was such a revelation to watch her in the first debate by the first first lady Ever to run for political office As Lazio came at Clin ton with one Nasty Jab after i kept trying to imagine one of those other first ladies surviving such a with the possible exception of who might Well have greeted his impudence with a tart every other first lady Likely would have shrunk from his like Many an american they would have found it awkward and somehow insolent to try to out match a Man Point by argument by not she was armed with facts and plans and statistics and she was prepared to defend her her ideology and her ambition to be a and defend herself she she still May not if for no other reason than that stubborn Carpetbagger but Shes already cast Lazio in the unseemly position of hav ing to be mean to a first to her watch and learn she got my attention wednesday not because i second her Many of which Are fatuous and she got my attention because she staked put and held her with authority and without wives every where need to watch and learn from dont get me there Are Many women who dont Wilt among men when the dinner table or water cooler conversation turns to politics and there Are countless moms and other females who have devoted their lives to Public issues from the grassroots but Many More wives and no wives dont participate in either the process or discussion of having been subtly programmed to defer to the Guys rather than try to match their too Many women remain either uninterested in politics or inter ested Only in the superficial trappings of too Many women cared More about the kiss that Vic president Al Gore assaulted wife Tipper with last month at the democratic National convention than they did about the sub stance of his i know grown women who vote for whichever Candi Date is for crying out still More dont vote at talk politics my advice to women who tend to shrink from politics like a cheap sweater in a hot dryer read new spa and not just this watch and listen to political talk whether hosted by Rush Tim Russert or Gwen decide where you stand on from school vouchers to social Security Reform to National missile talk politics with your female As Well As talk politics with your share your Points of View in letters to the editor and Calls to opinion vote every time a la Dick just in the big by All when a Man in your life says something about politics or policy that you think is a Bunch of take him run for office if you think youd do a Good Job and will take the time to school yourself on the perhaps most important in a world fuelled by Campaign funds if you have Money to contribute to others invest it in causes or candidates in which you Rhonda Holman is a columnist and editorial writer for the Wichita concern for a Good death can go too far in final Days by David Shaywitz after generations in doctors and lawmakers Are paying attention to the importance of allowing sick people a dignified and to the value of helping patients and their families let go and say aggressive medical intervention in terminal cases is increasingly consid ered an avoidable inflicted on a suffering patient by someone occasionally a but More often a family member unable to acknowledge the As an i see this almost every and in grateful that most physicians now go out of their Way to emphasize to patients and their families the limitations of medical techno medical students attend lectures on caring for dying and med ical journals remind doctors of the importance of letting patients die with respect As far As without but As an experience in my own family made this newfound con Cern for a Good death can be taken too far during a patients final my Uncle Marvin was diagnosed a year ago with metastatic late one night last he became acutely Short of breath and was the doctors message was Clear whats the Point of treating it if Hes just going to die anyway if not then or next week rushed to the cancer Centre where he had been undergoing my aunt called his who she said sounded irritated at being Awak ened at 4 to Deal with a terminally ill patient suffering from a bacterial infection of the the doctors message was Clear whats the Point of treating it if Hes just going to die anyway if not then or next my aunt pleaded with the oncologist not to withdraw insisting that even through his extremely painful cancer her husband had Savoured life and the Opportunity to spend More time with his the oncologist eventually order ing antibiotics to treat the pneumonia that had developed in marvins vulnerable i have heard Many conversations among physicians about incidences like this one often with the doctors expressing frustration that yet another family seemed unwilling to accept a difficult my Uncle always a fighter after a couple of Toucan do he recovered from the infection and was soon discharged from the Over the next Sev eral he went to work part attended his granddaughters school enjoyed a fathers Day cake and celebrated his 44th wedding mugging for the camera while my Cousin snapped when he finally passed away in late i dont think anyone would have questioned the Quality of his last few months of doctors see a lot of and it is difficult for them not to become fatal but if facilitating the Transi Tion out of life is to be a skill for the new this should include not Only the avoidance of unnecessary treatment but also vigilance for opportunities to extend life when that makes sense always remembering How much living some patients can compress into an additional an extra an unanticipated i have the pictures to prove David is an intern in medi Cine at the Massachusetts general hos Pital and a clinical fellow at Harvard medical Bill to ban drug use in assisted suicide should be Defeated the new York times said in an editorial yesterday the Senate will soon vote on a Bill making it a fed eral crime to prescribe drugs to assist a patients any doctors convicted would serve a mandatory 20 years in the House approved the known As the pain Relief promotion last president Bill Clinton should veto the Bill if the Senate passes the Bill is an Effort to outlaw physician assisted suicide in the thereby preempting an Oregon state Law that allows such medical the Bills broader effect would be to discourage doctors from giving appropriate pain Relief to terminally ill its language attempts to soften that Impact by stating that alleviating pain through drugs is a legitimate medical purpose even if the use of such a substance May increase the risk of this Safe Harbour is inadequate because the Law gives Federal drug enforcement agents new Power to investigate whether there was intent to cause but intent is not easily determined when aggressive pain Relief May hasten death and when dosage Levels for an individual patient May Well deviate from the Norm to achieve the Likely result is that doctors will be discouraged from pro Viding adequate dosages for fear that they will be targeted for investigation and the Bill is an inappropriate attempt to usurp the Power of states to address the profound question of the right to Oregon voters have made the Deci Sion to allow physician assisted suicide As a reflection of their needs and Oregon death with dignity Law allows a terminally ill patient to receive a lethal dose of drugs Only if judged by two physicians to be of sound mind and to have less than six months to other states May choose not to Legal ize assisted but Oregon voters should be allowed to act on this sensitive medical Issue with out congressional letters to the editor the free press welcomes letters from they must include the authors address and Telephone letters May be letters to the 1355 Mountain r2x fax email . Term limits not enough Ive recently noticed that the Winnipeg free press is significantly concerned about reforming the City of Winnipeg act in order to ensure that Ward Bosses who have overstayed their usefulness Are to be replaced by new faces with new i am sym pathetic to the idea of term limits for City councillors in the sense of open ing up democracy at City Hall by encouraging politicians to run for office in order to serve the to give Back what their Community has Given to instead of becoming professional politicians whose interests Are to be in Power for the Sake of i would strongly suggest that the real crisis at City which is the Issue of politicians accountability to the Public As a cannot be achieved by term limits in real significant Reform to the City of Winnipeg act is required to broaden democracy and to ensure that there is for not Only should we have term we should have recall at any time during the councillors term if citizens Are unhappy with their or maybe we ought to lower the salaries of councillors significantly so As to discourage professional politicians and encourage those who Are interested in it As an not a Voca More significant than anything in order to encourage is that we require a party Structure not necessarily conservative or nip in order to fully participate at the municipal As Many cities have As Long As party politics is removed from the municipal Politi Cal rather than will dominate civic elections in some less than 25 per cent bother to vote in civic elections As citizens elect councillors without knowing what their vision of a City is All Nick Ernette Winnipeg Golden faces detractors Square on surely some might or others possibly at the editorial con tent in Bow Al free although the article focuses on what is called irony lost on Gold its doubly ironic that while accusing Al Golden of charac Ter the free press is now doing that very thing to Gold and has in the past through its Nasty innuendoes directed his to Golden he faces such denigration Square and still holds his head the reference to Golden 12 years on Council could better have been honest enough to recognize the five other councillors who have been longer in the position than Gold to compare the taxes levied by Council on City property owners to those levied by Revenue Canada is nothing less than writers of Lead editorials have the advantage of remaining As just one member of a Board of not exposing themselves to Public scrutiny or which each of your responders must and willingly Ken Gibson Winnipeg dont split vote in Golden favour whats this having been convicted of tax Al was Golden announces Hes going to run for re election to City Council on the same Day he grudgingly Antes up the Money he owes us and to add insult to the arrogant Golden predicts he will win by a landslide despite the fact that Quality folks like Gord Steeves who does not boast a criminal record Are on the get a you Are definitely not the Only game in do i plan to give a Guy who has tried to Rob me once another Opportunity to do creative things with my tax dollars not on your life i just Hope that the vote Doest get allowing Golden to waft Back into City Hall under the Back like a bad Janice Book vital put conference words into action i was a participant in the War affect de children forum organized by the government of Canada and it was a very Busy full of both tragedy and the fact that Canada and Winnipeg Lloyd Axworthy were the Powers behind the Confer ence was another Feather in the Cap of Canadas credibility in the world of foreign but it was also the tremendous out pouring of support and interest of the everyday people in Winnipeg that impressed the staff in the the taxi the fort Garry hotel staff people were not Only Friendly but genuinely interested and concerned with this most horrendous situation of forcing children to fight and die in the wars created by i would like to thank you All for your kindness and support in what was a very tiring now Back in Central it is time to put words into action and dialogue into i leave you with these words from Charles Dickens novel great expectations in their Little worlds in which children have their there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely As Bruce Harris executive director Casa House latin America san Costa Rica recruitment ban Lon term Challenge compliments on your 11 editor children of the Winnipeg conference on War affected children seems to have changed its original focus on child soldiers to a dual Agenda of War affected children and this is unlike the tragedies of millions of children caught up in some of the cur rent 30 or so conflicts of War in the world 14 of them in the Campaign against using an estimated children As combat soldiers has at least some Hope going for our guarded optimism Here stems from the fact on july the United states became the eighth country to sign the International protocol that prohibits worldwide recruitment of children under 18 in armed As we see this is very Good news indeed that the a world made this the bad news is that the current number of signatories of this crucial in namely is still seven signatories Short of having at least All the 15 member states of the in Secu Rity Council sign but even this would still leave uncommitted most of the remaining 142 in members states that attended the in millennium Summit in new York this prohibiting recruit ment and use of As Well As requiring their demobilization in some three dozen countries in the world Sudan and Uganda looks like a very Lon term goal to especially now that Canadas foreign affairs minister will not any longer be one of the prime political movers of these Manfred Winnipeg doonesbury by Garry Trudeau its ear a new transmit ;