Thank you for your informative and disturbing articles on drug abuse in teenagers.
On April 22, you listed local drug treatment resources currently available. You could not have known of one other very excellent source, which is Reformer’s Unanimous. Our chapter of this organization just opened. We meet at Bible Baptist Church, 145 Clarks Bridge Road in Gainesville.
Reformers Unanimous first started in 1996, and it has very high success rate. We meet at 7 p.m. each Friday. All are welcome and encouraged to come to the meetings. If you have any questions, call Bible Baptist Church at 770-534-2456 and the director or assistant director will be happy to talk with you. We want to help with all types of addictions and all age groups.
Charles A. Ulrich
Gainesville
Letter on Oglesby’s war defense was right
I fully agree with William Saye, whose letter to the editor April 19 rebutted Ted Oglesby’s column of the previous week regarding the Iraq war.
Right-wingers and columnists such as Mr. Oglesby who support continuation of the war in Iraq shamelessly trivialize the number of combat deaths our military has incurred and call for policies guaranteed to cause more.
Comparing more than 4,000 U.S. fatalities in Iraq to the number of alcohol-related deaths in traffic accidents is beyond contempt. Mr. Oglesby should apologize to the families of military men and women who have been killed and wounded in this totally unnecessary "war" of occupation for denigrating their sacrifice.
Furthermore, Mr. Oglesby’s contemptible assertion that those of us who oppose this war may be under the influence of an al-Qaida P.R. machine is ludicrous in the extreme.
Al Dale
Atlanta
Repeat of Bush policies will destroy America
The documentary that aired March 24 and 25 on public television revealed the crafting of the Iraq war. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle and Scooter Libby ignored all reports regarding the failure to find proof of weapons of mass destruction. The warmongers would not entertain reason nor hear the desperate cries from around the world. Even the Pope pleaded for peace.
Despite reservations, Secretary of State Collin Powell went to the United Nations and made the presentation for war. Bush went to Congress and plead his case with no credible link to al-Qaida or the Iraqi citizens. CIA intelligence reports questioning the proposed war were readily silenced. Finally George Tenet, head of the CIA, delivered that now infamous message: "It’s a slam dunk Mr. President."
Reports tell us that prior to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, all warnings were ignored. As a direct result of the Bush war, the segment of our population known as middle class has diminished. America now teeters on the brink of bankruptcy.
If elected, John McCain promises to continue the Bush doctrine by staying in Iraqi and giving tax cuts to the wealthiest and to large corporations. Four more years of a Bush-McCain presidency would level America to the status of a Third World country.
Mary Farrow Smith
Eastanollee