Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2002

By Staff
Accurate coverage of storms lauded
To the editor:
On behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, we sincerely thank you and your staff for your cooperation following the recent tornadoes and storms. By providing accurate coverage during our recovery efforts, you assisted the community in receiving accurate and timely information. Your commitment to your community was clearly demonstrated during this trying time.
It is the job of our staff to provide you with disaster recovery information. It is through your efforts that this information gets to those who were affected by the tornadoes and storms that devastated the area.
You and your staff have been committed to reporting important factual information to the members of your community in a timely manner so that they could begin rebuilding their lives as quickly as possible.
Again, thank you for your efforts. It has been our pleasure to work with you during these stressful and critical times.
Michael Bolch
Federal Coordinating Officer
Leon Shaifer
State Coordinating Officer
Alzheimer's a major health threat
To the editor:
Alzheimer's is an incurable brain disease that affects more than 48,000 people and their families in Mississippi. It is the fourth leading cause of death among adults and costs nearly $18,000 per year for every family caring for a person with this disease at home.
Please let your readers know that there is something they can do.
On Jan. 15, 2003, from 9 a.m.- 11 a.m., the Alzheimer's Association, East Central Branch and a group of local volunteers will hold a training session for volunteer public policy advocates in Meridian. The training will be at the Episcopal Church of the Mediator, 3825 35th Avenue.
Anyone who can give even a few hours a month will be trained to do such things as testify before legislative committees, meet with officials, do policy research, or represent the Alzheimer's Association in coalition meetings. Volunteer advocates can work from home or at the Association's office organizing local activities, writing letters, or helping with telephone campaigns.
Thank you for your help. Readers who want more information can call me at the Alzheimer's number 483-4720.
Barb Dobrosk
Branch Director
Meridian
Clinton: Corrupter of the present'
To the editor,
I quote from a recent David Broder column about former Vice President Al Gore's stepping aside from the 2004 presidential race:
Gore's stepping aside may be nullified by the indefensible Clinton. Clinton's control of the party for the 2002 congressional election made the party even more exhausted by losing the election. His lies in another article, "Clinton calls GOP treatment of Lott hypocritical," continues his indefensible conduct.
The Democratic Party has no relief from this liar, their unhappy past, the corrupter of their present.
Dean Calloway
Meridian
Put pressure on causes of drug abuse
To the editor:
According to the Parent's Music Resource Center in Arlington, Va., violence has been on the increase in our society the last decade or two, which is about the same time that rock music has been on the increase. I believe that there is a connection.
They say that rock music puts the brain (and other organs) into a state of stress. The brain then releases a chemical called opoids that is drug-like in order to reduce the stress and addiction.
As for other popular entertainment today, such as rap music, it serves as a substitute for not knowing one's father, according to Topac Shakur, the late rapper. Thus, the "macho" music. In addition, Dr. James D. Johnson, a black psychology professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, says such music is a matter of black survival, for there has been a drastic increase in "don't careness" and suicide since rap music hit the scene during the late 1980's.
Therefore, I hope that Frank Melton, the newly appointed director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, will put "stress" on the cause of the demand for drugs rather than on the victims, in particular for the youth so that Mississippi will educate more than incarcerate.
Charles Emmanuel
Newton