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1993-11-07
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Putting People First / November 5, 1993
=======================================
Washington Report
FROM THE TRENCHES
by Kathleen Marquardt
Chairman, Putting People First
...A weekly opinion column about the struggle against "animal rights" and
eco-extremists.
Copyright 1993 Putting People First
Permission to reproduce this column is freely granted on the condition that
credit is given to Putting People First.
Putting People First is a nonprofit organization of citizens who believe in
rights for humans and welfare for animals, and who oppose the goals and
tactics of "animal rights" and environmental extremism.
-----------------------------------------------
Putting People First
PO Box 1707 / 44 N. Last Chance Gulch
Helena, Montana 59624
(406) 442-5700
Fax (406) 449-0942
-----------------------------------------------
I'M FROM THE GOVERNMENT AND I'M HERE TO HELP YOU -- NOT!
First Lady Hillary Clinton is beginning a nationwide tour of
shopping malls, talking about her proposed government health-care plan.
The proposal has changed drastically since the first details were
leaked, and no doubt will change more before Congress is through with
it. But one thing is certain - to guarantee medical care to the
estimated 37 million Americans now without health insurance, all
Americans will have to pay higher taxes.
Most medical problems in the United States today are the result of
preventable causes. Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders says some 18,000
Americans will die in drunken-driving accidents this year. Another
30,000 will die from AIDS. And an estimated 50,000 will die as a result
of violence. Such escalating trends will threaten to bankrupt any
taxpayer funded health care system. In the name of controlling medical
problems and costs, government will have to seize more control over our
"lifestyles."
Already, the federal government is pressuring the states to stiffen
mandatory seatbelt laws, lower speed limits, and even require crash
helmets for bicyclists. Ms. Clinton has declared the White House a
"smoke-free zone." And the President has announced that the nation's
"number-one health priority" is stronger federal gun control, starting
with passage of the Brady Bill.
To help decide what sort of lifestyles to compel or ban, the
government is conducting the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), a $625
million study, estimated to take the next 15 years to complete. Among
its purposes is to study the effects of meat and agricultural chemical
residues on breast cancer.
But a report by the Institute of Medicine, a part of the National
Academy of Sciences, is highly skeptical of WHI. Much of the
information could be obtained in better designed, smaller, more focused
studies that could have a greater chance of success and probably be less
costly, "says the report. Report editor Susan Thaul says the study is
so flawed that taxpayers could "end up with something like the Hubble
telescope" - a grandiose flop.
The real danger is the politicization of science. may not resemble
the Hubble telescope nearly as much as the National Acid Precipitation
Assessment Program (NAPAP). That was a study of "acid rain by the
Environmental Protection Agency. It took 10 years to complete and cost
$500 million.
NAPAP found that the average U.S. lake is no more acidic now than
it was before the Industrial Revolution, and that there was no
measurable increase in the acidity of lakes over the 10-year study. It
concluded that the most effective way to counter acidity in lakes is by
adding lime to the water, for a total cost of about $100,000 per year.
That was the wrong answer. The study was supposed to be an excuse
for regulation in the name of reducing pollution. So in 1990, Congress
simply ignored the results, then went ahead and implemented massive new
Clean Air Act regulations, at a cost of over six billion dollars per
year - without fixing the problem!
Once again, with WHI, we find science in the service of a similar
ideological agenda. Breast cancer in women is about as common as
prostate cancer in men, but already receives 660 times as much funding.
The presumption that eating meat causes breast cancer, and that trace
residues of chemical fertilizers, hormones and pesticides in produce do
the same, is fervently touted by Greens and animal-rights activists.
But, as was the case with NAPAP, the conventional wisdom may be wrong.
Unfortunately, by 2007 (when WHI is projected to be completed), the
President's health-care plan will be law, and costs will be through the
roof. Taxpayers will be demanding action to control costs, just as they
demanded pollution controls in 1990. Once again, we can expect science
to get lost in the demagoguery of the special interests. If the Jeremy
Rifkins of the world succeeded in forcing the "clean air" boondoggle
down our throats despite NAPAP, what is to stop them from forcing their
"Beyond Beef" and "Pure Foods" campaigns on US?
The problem is strangely summed up in the tragic death of the actor
River Phoenix. A child of hippies who met while hitch-hiking, Phoenix
was named after the river of life in Herman Hesse's counterculture
classic Siddhartha. Phoenix was a talented actor, starring in a dozen
movies. He was also a prominent animal rights activist, anti-fur
protester, and vegetarian.
Yet Phoenix, who often denounced eating meat as unhealthy, died on
Halloween at the age of 23, apparently from drugs. "It was the classic
cocaine overreaction," said county fire captain Ray Ribar. "It just
nails some people and stops the heart." Phoenix's brother, Leaf, who
called 911 for assistance, told operators he thought River "had Valium
or something."
Reflecting on this tragedy, we can learn an important lesson:
requiring prescriptions for Valium does not guarantee that it will not
be abused, and banning cocaine does not keep it away from those who want
it. It is a lesson we have learned before: far from eliminating the
problems of alcohol abuse, Prohibition bred bootleggers and speakeasies.
Likewise,no one really believes that the Brady Bill will disarm gang-
bangers, or that banning modern agriculture will cure cancer.
Life is filled with tragedy. we cannot protect the irresponsible
from themselves by taking away the rights of those who are responsible.
But some tragedies are of our own making. If we are to avoid self-
destructive behavior, we must make people responsible for the
consequences of their own actions. The President's national health care
plan is a step in the wrong direction. By transferring more
responsibility to government, it opens the floodgates for government to
regulate every aspect of our lives.