Monday, December 19, 2005
Preserve public's access to courts and information
EDITOR:
The Vindicator's Dec. 13 editorial, "Trading on fear to pass vaccine legislation is wrong," was right on the money. It has been a priority of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and the Bush administration to offer pharmaceutical companies liability protection for several years now.
The infamous "Eli Lilly Rider" was slipped into the Homeland Security Bill of 2002 in the dark of the night to offer protection to pharmaceutical companies from the threat of lawsuits from parents of children with autism. Vaccines and their relationship to autism is still a heavily debated issue and it appears vaccine manufacturers are concerned about this fact. Luckily, through a cry of outrage from parents and senators alike, the language was removed from the Homeland Security bill, but Sen. Frist has not been swayed in his efforts. He has been trying to attach this same legislation onto numerous bills without success. His latest tactic is to prey on people's fears. Fear of terrorism and fear of pandemic flus, such as the so called "bird flu."
What people should really be fearful of is the threat of losing their rights insured by the U.S. Constitution and the secretive nature of the newly designed agency BARDA. No government agency should be allowed to operate shielded from the American people's eyes. Even the CIA is not exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. What could BARDA be up to that is so secretive in nature?
If vaccine manufacturers are offered liability protection for vaccines, where will that protection end? With thousands of Vioxx lawsuits waiting to be processed through the courts, and things not looking good for Merck since it appears they may have known the risks but yet withheld that knowledge, it certainly looks like they could use the same help.
If protection is given, where is the incentive for these companies to produce safe and effective drugs? This legislation should be stopped dead in its tracks. We need to let our legislators know that we will not stand by and allow our rights to be trampled on. That we demand safe products from these companies and will accept nothing less. And, that all government agencies are accountable to the American people and should not be permitted to operate in secrecy.
For more information about S 1873 and BARDA and assistance in contacting your representatives and senators, please visit www.a-champ.org.
ANDREA and MATT KELLER
Canfield
Fur belongs on its owner
EDITOR:
'Tis the season to be jolly and to deck the halls with boughs of holly. But it's hard to stay jolly at the sight of humans decked out in their holiday fur, recently peeled from the bodies of our friends, the animals, who share this earth with us. People of conscience no longer wear real fur because they know that a fur garment is made at the high cost of cruelty to the animals concerned.
In the fur industry the animals are ranched, trapped, poisoned, clubbed to death or electrocuted. A ranched animal lives in a tiny wire cage until its fur is full and then it is electrocutedDennis Mangan 12/18/05 (an electrical rod is pushed down its throat, another rod pushed up its rectum, and the current turned on). Most people know of the suffering caused by the jagged steel jaws of the leghold trap, and that sometimes the animal chews its own leg off to get free.
If you are planning a Christmas gift for the woman in your life, or just wanting to indulge "the beautiful you"-- pinch your conscience. If you give up that desire for real fur and refrain from the purchase, you will be a more beautiful person.
These animals who share this planet with us have families and commitments to their families. They have a home of their own called habitat, maybe four miles square (not a wire cage). They experience joy, pain, pleasure, freedom and deprivation of it, just as we do. It is the belief of many thoughtful people down through the ages that we should allow animals their own life and treat them with respect, rather than as a commodity.
Dennis Mangan 12/18/05 This holiday season when fur sellers are touting the glamour of fur, remember the poor little animals who lived in terror trapped, caged and killed in the fur industry. We can all live without fur, and strengthen our characters in so doing. Merry Christmas.
JOAN KOMP
Canfield