Month: July 2001
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Read the fine print
Last month I pulled four identical envelopes out of the mailbox, one for each account we have at a local bank. Each contained the same folder filled with fine, closely written legalese entitled, “Privacy Notice.” My bank had sent me a pamphlet that required a magnifying glass, lots of concentration and time to read it.…
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Post 10 commandments at home and church first
The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the city of Elkhart, Ind. to keep their six-foot statue of the Ten Commandments located in front of city hall. I didn’t drive by to see it during a recent visit to the city, but I had just re-read the Ten in a 1942 printing of…
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Gender equality on the job
Sometimes the best man for the job is a woman. But don’t try to convince the man I overheard last week at the service department counter. I was an innocent bystander when this guy walked up to ask for help with his mechanical problems. The woman told him she could help. He looked at her,…
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Yates, post-partum psychosis is a brain disorder
Severe mental illness overwhelms its victims, astonishing everyone with the drastic personality changes until the right medication can be found to stabilize the brain’s chemical imbalance. Last month, Andrea Yates crossed the fine line between a severe post-partum depression into a psychosis in which she is reported to have killed her five children. In a…
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Can not alter the genetic code
As a parent I quickly realized that my children were born self-centered, selfish and stubborn. Without the intervention of their dad, mom, teachers and relatives they would have been quite content to remain that way. One of them at 5 bluntly told the town librarian, “I want to do what I want to do when…