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PAGE 4
The Georgia Bulletin
April 24,1980
The Senator
Should Be Watchful
For the first time in his political
life Senator Herman Talmadge is on
the stump for votes. If he wants
re-election (and he does) then this
time he will have to pump palms and
slap a few backs. And the Senator is
one man who knows how to do it.
But when it comes to pleasing his
hearers, on the morning ham and egg
circuit, the senior Senator should
choose his words much more
judiciously.
His statement last week, to a
cheering audience, that the solution to
the Iranian crises tormenting the
nation is simple. Since they have
kidnapped ours - we should now
kidnap theirs. Let us go and take the
Ayatollah Khomeini hostage.
Perhaps the Senator took a
justifiable moment to vent his rage.
Perhaps it was not a politically
pleasing, voter captivating statement.
But it was unworthy of a man who
stands for leadership in the highest
halls of the Republic.
It is a difficult time for our leaders.
There are few nights of easy sleep for
the President. Fifty lives hang in the
balance and to secure their safe
return, firm but gentle persuasion is
the road we must travel. Pressure is on
our Allies - they must demonstrate
their loyalty. And pressure is on the
new Iranian Government. At this
moment of their rebirth, they must
show moral decency and courage. Our
response must be patience and united
trust - for now.
If, by some unfortunate twist of
fate, we find ourselves in that final
frustrating moment deciding that we
must take back what is ours, then
with regretful righteous f ury, let us
execute the bitter scenario. There will
be no evil or illegal kidnapping of any
official, religious or civil, involved. It
will be a matter of a long suffering,
patient community crying to the
heavens for justice. Then going on our
errand swiftly.
May that day of retribution be
completely distant and totally foreign
to our thoughts. The road of
negotiations will succeed. We want
that to happen. It will. It must. In the
meantime, kings, princes or senators
must act their part, pick their words
and put personal ambition to one side.
Especially if the hostages locked up
in the American Embassy in Tehran
must pay the price of that personal,
political ambition.
-NCB
$PORT$ SALARIES
Dave McGill
Even though I remain a sports fan, this is
coming more and more to mean that I
attend and enjoy only college and high
school athletic events. In addition, I read the
sports pages end a sports magazine, and
watch pro games on TV now and then. But
paying the price of tickets hiked up to levels
that will accommodate the ridiculous salaries
of today’s professional athletes has soured
me on going to the ballpark. Money to pay
for the soothing of bruised $150,000-a-year
egos is just not in my wallet.
It was reported recently that one
superstar demanded a contract paying him
$13 million over 10 years, three McDonald’s
franchises, and the right to veto any move of
the team to another city. The flabbergasted
owner of the baseball team, who also owns
McDonald’s, was doubtless puzzled that the
demands didn’t also include more meat on
the hamburgers.
I find it sad when a player with the hustle
and desire of Charlie Criss looks out of place
in professional athletics - NOT because he’s
only 5’-8” tall in a world of slamdunking
skyscrapers, but because of the effort he
puts forth at all times, not to mention the
appreciation he has of his job.
The owners of the pro teams are at fault,
of course, for paying those outrageous
$alaries in the first place. Those ignoramuses
(ignorami?) have placed themselves in a
position where the fictitious conversation
that follows may soon become typical of
reality - maybe even by 1984.
I’ve started riding the bus to work some
days, because of the high cost of gasoline.
Last week, I overheard a pair of pro athletes
talking in the seat behind me. The one
named Willie was black, and the one named
Frank was white; the greed lampooned here
is color-blind.
“Willie, what’s a rich man like you doing
riding a BUS? ” asked Frank.
“I OWN this bus, man! Didn’t you hear
about that?”
“No, I didn’t,” answered Frank. “How’d
you pull that off?”
“The entire city bus line was bought for
me by the owners in my new renegotiated
contract,” Willie explained. “It also pays me
a million five per year until my 105th
birthday. Then two million until I die, and
wait’ll you hear what ELSE!”
“There’s MORE? ”
“Yep! Then I get to take it with me;
$800 thou a year will then be sent to me for
posterity, in care of St. Peter at the Pearly
Gates. I’m also GUARANTEED in the
contract to go THERE instead of the other
place. By the way, Frank, what’re YOU
doing riding the bus?”
“Oh, it’s part of my endorsements
contract. The TV camerias and media people
will be waiting for me when I get off, as part
of a ‘RIDE THE BUS AND SAVE
ENERGY’ campaign. What I like is that we’ll
get middle-class Americans and their little
peewee cars off the highways, then we can
cruise more comfortably in our
Rolls-Royces.”
“I’m for that,” smiled Willie. “Money in
my bus coffers plus room on the freeway!
Two for the price of me. Say, what else is in
your contract, Frank?”
“Well, I get to veto any ticket price
increase that I don’t think is high enough to
cover my demands for the next year. I also
get a million a year, but (wait’ll you hear
this) it’s retroactive to my first year in
tee-league. My agent got a 7% inflation rate
added on, which means my salary is now at
$8.7 million a year and rising.”
“ALL RIII-I-I-IGHT! That’s as much as
Ali makes in a title fight! I’ve got a $uper
agent too. In the recent negotiations, he
demanded concessions from the owners.
They agreed in the contract, so we got the
concessions.”
“The BALLPARK concessions?”
“Right on. Every last coke and hot dog.”
“You know, Willie, we’ve got to do
something about inflation. It’s getting harder
and harder for the average fan to make ends
meet, you know.”
“You care about the FAN? ”
“No, but I care about his wallet. That’s
where the bread is baked for our future
contracts, you know.”
“That’s right. If we players are gonna
own these ballclubs someday, the money’s
gotta come from somewhere.”
“You know, that’s a good point. I’ll have
one of my secretaries call the President and
tell him to do something about it right
away.”
| \The
\_Geioryia
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
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Rev. Monsignor Noel C. Burtenshaw - Editor
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Working Women
Sheila Mallon
BY SHEILA MALLON
My back went out last week. For no
apparent reason - one minute I was fine and
the next moment (somewhere between
sitting and standing) the pain hit.
This happened to me once before about
six years ago. I endured over three months
of agony and spent a small fortune on
neuro-surgeons. Weeks were spent flat on my
back, more weeks in traction and I
consumed large quantities of muscle
relaxants.
My muscles relaxed all right but the pain
didn’t and I began to think that I would
have to have the back surgery the
neuro-surgeons talked about. Suddenly as
quickly as the trouble had come it departed.
I woke one morning and the pain was gone.
It took a long time for me to really believe it
was over. In fact I think it was almost a year
before I dared bend over to pick up
something I dropped.
In the years since then I have had
occasional slight twinges but nothing more
serious till last week. My first thoughts were
“oh no, not back to the neurosurgeons and
their pinsticking non-committal approach.
When you have a back problem with disc
involvement there is so much you can’t do.
Aside from the pain of sitting, standing or
lying down - there are so many tasks that we
ordinarily take for granted that are
impossible. Putting on stockings, or shoes
that have ankle straps, emptying the
dishwasher or making a bed. (on second
thought who cares about the last two). But
there are others, reaching for something in
the lower half of the refrigerator, picking up
grandchildren or getting out of bed without
help.
This time I decided to do what so many
friends urged me to do the last time - go to a
chiropracter or an osteopath.
The first time my back went out, the
thought of someone manipulating what I
was sure was an already severely damaged
spine absolutely struck terror into my
quaking heart.
Since my one experience with
chiropracters was less than confidence
inspiring I was inclined to avoid a repitition
although I have friends with this same
problem who swear by them.
Some years before I had had a brief
episode of pain in the neck (the physical
kind). On the advice of a friend I went to a
chiropracter who took Xrays, manipulated
my spine and told me that it looked from
the Xrays as though I had a vertrabrae
jammed into my skull. After asking me if I
had ever been dropped on my head (my
husband has been asking that for years) he
told me that he had to make a decision on
whether or not to try and break loose that
jammed vertrabrae.
He probably developed a few jammed
vertrabrae himself as I beat a hasty retreat
off the table and out of his office.
But this time with the memory of the last
back episode being made more vivid with
each passing hour of pain — I had to try
something.
A friend suggested that I try the
osteopath who has treated the football
players at Pius for the last nine years. An
osteopath like an M.D. is licensed to practice
medicine. The basic difference is that
osteopaths are trained in spinal
manipulation.
To make a long story short, I went to Dr.
Trimble and after only one treatment
received enough relief so that I could stand
without pain. After the second I was able to
sit with a pillow behind my back and even
very cautiously navigate my way out of bed
unaided.
I am due for one more treatment but I
am feeling so much better that it is probably
gilding the lily. It seems nothing short of
miraculous to have this kind of relief so
soon.
In Sunday’s magazine section there was
an amusing story by Stuart Woods. A
description of his own experience with “A
Pain In the Back.” “He claims that
practitioners who work on the back are in
the same happy position as their colleagues,
the dermatologists; their patients never die,
and they never get well.”
He also quoted Mort Sahl’ as having said
that “the AMA is against chiropracters or
faith healers, or anything that is RAPID.”
I only know that my back is much better
and that thanks to the treatment I received I
can once again buckle my shoes. “Very
carefully.”
ft
Pro Life Close-Up
H
Teresa Gernazian
When the Human Life Issues Seminar was
held in Atlanta on March 15, one of the
speakers was pediatrician Eugene F.
Diamond, M. D. Author of “This Curette for
Hire,” he is a frequent pro life debator on
radio and television. Some readers may have
seen him in the award-winning Birthright
film: Abortion - A Woman’s Decision
(shown in over forty countries).
Focusing his talk on the “Vita is not vita
unless it can be la dolce vita” concept in our
society, he related cases of professionals
withholding nourishment and ordinary
medical procedures for handicapped babies.
One infant at Johns Hopkins hospital with
Down’s Syndrome and intestinal obstruction
was given no food or water; surgery was
withheld (with parental permission); and in
two weeks, the baby died. (This is
dramatized in a film by the Kennedy
Foundation.) One nurse in Decatur, Illinois
had concealed water on her person which
she used to moisten the eyes of a Down’s
Syndrome child in his twelfth day without
nourishment, so that he could at least close
his dessicated eyelids. Dr. Diamond
estimated 90% of Down’s Syndrome
newborns with intestinal obstruction are
being handled with death as a treatment of
choice.
Leading to this mentality, he continued,
are the large amniocentesis programs mostly,
funded by March of Dimes and federal
agencies. The recognition of chromosomal
disorders during prenatal life has had the
effect of establishing a “free fire zone” in
which you can put to death any child with
Down’s Syndrome. Dr. Diamond feels MOD
has taken a Pontius Pilate position for too
Dr. Mildred Jefferson
with Dr. Eugene Diamond
long, backing up remarks of Dr. Mildred
Jefferson, Surgeon General of Boston
University Hospital and former President of
National Right to Life who had stated
earlier: “The March of Dimes has supported
much of the work of the geneticists who are
carrying this forward edge of exterminative
medicine. And our own position to them is -
until they change the ethical dilemma that
they have created and take the steps to
restore the balance by exercising the
traditional roles of medicine then we will
neither collect nor contribute to the MOD.”
Dr. Diamond is Assistant Chairman and
Professor of Pediatrics at Loyola University
Stritch School of Medicine and in private
practice in Chicago. He and his lovely wife,
Rosemary, Director of the Chicago
Birthright, proudly boast of thirteen
Diamonds between 11 and 27 -- one in law
school, one in med school and four in
college. How do they manage? “When we
had six pre-schoolers at home,” he smiled,
“That WAS rather hectic. But one of the
most beautiful relationships in a family is
that of the older ones with the little ones. As
time went on, we used the older ones as
god-parents and this brought about an even
closer bond.”
Dr. Diamond’s excellent book “This
Curette for Hire” can be obtained from
Birthright, Inc., P. O. Box 98361, Atlanta,
Georgia 30359 for $3.95, plus sixty cents
postage.
Resound ... Resound ... Resound
ATLANTA: Have you ever felt you
wanted to tell the world just how wonderful
and beautiful something or someone was but
there just wasn’t a way to do it? Since I do
not have a way to tell the whole world, at
least, maybe, in this small way I can convey
to the readers reached by this paper just how
grateful I, for one, am to be a part of my
parish family - The Church of the Holy
Spirit.
Like a child, every year I think “this is
the best Holy Week ever”. Well, this year “it
WAS the best”. I’m sure I will think this
way, at least till next year when Holy Week
comes again.
Thank you to -
Father Ludden, our Pastor, head of our
household. You guide us and lead us and put
up with us all no matter what.
Father Hogan, our assistant, you lend the
wonderful variety that adds spice to our
lives.
Father McKeever, our resident, our
grandfather image. Your help means so
much to our parish. You anchor us down
with your stability and experience.
Monsignor Burtenshaw, we are so
fortunate the Archbishop sent you to live
with us. In addition to your duties to the
Archdiocese, you still make time to minister
to us on the parish level. Your hour of
meditation on Good Friday will be long
remembered.
Ruth Maguire. Every family needs a
mother, and even though she might blush at
the title, Ruth is our parish mother. Thanks
for everything.
Bob Krick and the Holy Spirit Choir.
Music, music, music! What family is
complete without it. You provide us with
the best. Always beautiful and always in
accordance with the liturgy.
The children of our family - the
parishioners. Like any family, sometimes
there are differences and sometimes there
have been difficulties, but we all seem to
stick together, and, as we grow and mature,
we get closer and closer and better and
better.
This is a SUPER FAMILY - the parish
family of The Church of the Holy Spirit.
Thank God it is mine!
NANCY H. CRENSHAW
CARROLLTON: My deepest thanks to
you for the notice in “Georgia Graphics” re
THE WAY OF THE CROSS broadcast in the
April 3rd edition.
I am happy to tell you we’ve had a good
reaction to the broadcast. One of the
comments I am sure you’d enjoy sharing was
made by a fabric designer connected with
our local fabric factory. She told me that the
manager tuned in WWGC at one o’clock on
Good Friday and that the employees were so
absorbed in the program, “you could hear a
pin drop during the entire two hours!” Some
people had tears in their eyes when they
spoke to me about it.
Monsignor Regan’s singing of the
STABAT MATER certainly enhanced the
program. I am arranging to have the studio
make a copy for you.
KAY MAGENHEIMER
JONESBORO: I would like to thank
Father Peterson for his article under Rural
Reflections, April 10, 1980.
I agree that the use of our land resources
is a moral responsibility, and that our
present land usage (especially of prime
farmland) demands a Christian response.
In this regard I recommend the statement
of the Committee on Social Development
and World Peace (U.S.C.C.) titled: THE
FAMILY FARM. This is available from the
Publication Office, United States Catholic
Conference, 1312 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20005.
FATHER JOHN C. KIERAN
ATLANTA: How is language, (Latin),
relevant to the offering of the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass? Thank God for Vatican II.
People speak English, write in English
sing and “understand” in English. (An
occasional Latin hymn is beautiful) Why not
pray in English when the priest’s words and
our responses are our offering to God?
Think of now, how much sooner children
can comprehend what is going on at Mass;
can KNOW WHAT the priest is saying.
English means to the majority of
Catholics what a beautiful Spanish Mass
means to our Spanish Catholics and brothers
in Christ. We ALL must understand WHAT
is being said. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
is no less sacred because it is in the
vernacular. We still receive the Body and
Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ and if this
central point is overlooked we have missed
the whole point of our worship at Mass. We
are worshipping God, our Father, through
His Son, Jesus Christ, in the power of the
Holy Spirit. Our fundamental Faith is STILL
HERE - and will never change.
I believe that generations now and in the
future will herald Pope John as the saint of
our times, the man who “opened the
windows to let a little fresh air in.” The
Catholic Church embodies all of
Christiandom and Jesus Christ is the Savior
of all of God’s people, not just a select few
and we are to work together in love and in
union with EACH OTHER, employing all of
the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit for the
growth of the Body of Christ. Holy Mother
Church has never been so alive and beautiful
as she is now.
GLORIA SZABO