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August 2002 Editorial:
Have
We Moved Beyond 'Shock'?
Atty. J. Edward Pawlick
August 2002 Print Edition
As a member of the Greatest Generation,
who has personally witnessed the dramatic change from
the depression and World War II atmosphere to the
1960's and beyond, it is dismaying to see that we
have definitely entered into a Fahrenheit
451 syndrome.
Most of us are cynical now. Each has
a wall-to-wall television screen to watch the Patriots.
As long as we are left alone to watch them winning
on our wall-to-wall screen, we are content.
The biggest celebrations each year are
now wedded solely to our big screens. The biggest
are the Super Bowl parties where everyone gathers
to watch the big screens together.
As long as the Patriots are winning,
the people up on Beacon Hill can destroy our democracy
with barely a whimper from the citizens.
Of course, it causes a short demonstration
from some "nuts," but this quickly blows
over.
Will we see any more outrage than that
over the Legislature throwing a petition from 130,000
citizens into the wastebasket?
As a member of the Greatest Generation
who was in the U.S. Navy in WWII (for only a short
period in 1945-1946 because we dropped the atomic
bomb) and was drafted in 1952 to fight the Chinese
army as a private in the Infantry in Korea (that war
ended while I was at sea, but not before my roommate
at Williams died a hero's death), this is still a
tremendous shock.
Although one can never say "all,"
I can assure you that the vast majority of the Greatest
Generation look upon our present "1960-society"
with shock. Where did we go wrong?
Has everyone else given up?
I do not believe so. I believe that
the vast majority of the citizens - even in Massachusetts
- are still capable of shock, but their information
sources (led largely by the Boston
Globe and the public libraries which are censoring
our books and our thoughts) do not tell them the facts.
Have you given up?
We've
Stopped Tobacco Companies from Ruining Children's
Health;
How About Activist Homosexuals?
For 25 years, I've given money
to stop rich tobacco companies from damaging the health
of high school and college students. The mission looked
impossible in the 1970s.
Then four years ago, I discovered a much more serious
health hazard which is now destroying the lives of
many of our youth -- homosexuality.
Once again, large amounts of money are fueling this
tragedy. It includes millions from a member of the
family that owns the Hormel meatpacking company, from
a computer person who just sold his company for $200
million and others.
The lust for power and money from our politicians
is difficult to stop but it can happen. We did so
in the case of tobacco. When I was in college, our
school newspaper was largely supported by advertisements
from the tobacco companies. No one thought much about
it because most people smoked.
But in 1967, Prof. John F. Banzhaf III, from my alma
mater, George Washington Law School, started ASH (Action
on Smoking and Health) to fight the money and power
of the tobacco companies. It seemed then that we were
throwing our money away on a useless effort. But we
weren't. Now it seems to many of us that the effort
might have gone too far in some areas, but we certainly
did make a change for the better in society.
But take a look at homosexuality. Even if we forget
the thousands of tragic deaths from AIDS and just
look at tuberculosis, syphilis and other STDs, increased
drug use, alcohol and all the other horrific health
problems, this is truly the scourge of mankind.
Yet, because some of the activist leaders of this
lifestyle are rich and powerful, the politicians do
not care about anything except getting their money
and support.
When the Hormel meat man (he was ambassador to Luxembourg
under Pres. Clinton) brought his Human Rights Campaign
to Boston for his annual banquet last year, he went
away with $375,000 from the Bay State to help towards
his annual $8 million budget.
Many of our leading politicians were there, including
Atty. Gen. Tom Reilly, Steve Grossman, Senate Leader
Tom Birmingham, Mayor Menino and others.
The villains behind all of this are "money"
and "power."
Homosexual activists in Washington have millions of
dollars they are sending to Massachusetts and across
the country. The computer mogul, Tim Gill, gave $18.5
million last year to homosexual causes according to
an article in USA Today. He made his fortune with
the software company, Quark. Most of the big money
is coming from other high tech moguls. Kathy Levinson
donates about $500,000 per year and David Bohnett
gave about $2 million last year.
Their power and money were used to help elect Bill
Weld as Governor in 1990. As a reward, he gave them
our children and our schools.
This state has become famous across the country, not
only for allowing the activists to inculcate our children
with this horrific practice but also for paying the
"teachers" to do so. We welcome them to
our schoolrooms.
We Set Them Back
But only two years after we started to fight this
scourge of our children, MassNews broke the story
of Fistgate, and many people finally began to understand
what was happening in our schools. The homosexual
activists have expressed their concern about this
setback all across the country. But they continue
their advance across this state with most people still
unaware.
Just last month a bunch of businessmen who run the
Boy Scouts in Boston made talk show host David Brudnoy,
who has suffered terribly because of his passion for
homosexuality, into the role model for the boys in
their charge. At their annual banquet, they made him
the master of ceremonies and praised him.
Why did the businessmen do that? That was made very
clear. The leader of their group, Brock Bigsby, said
that their fund-raising has been damaged as a result
of the national policy against having homosexuals
as leaders.
So, once again -- it was money.
There is no one on the other side of the issue. A
few religious groups at the national level oppose
this as a small part of their religious effort. But
there is not one secular organization - of any size
whatsoever, much less with millions of dollars - that
counters the gross exaggerations and outright lies
that spew forth every day. Not one.
In the Bay State, Brian Camenker and his Parents Rights
Coalition, have done an excellent job of portraying
this as a secular, health issue that should involve
everyone. But he has received little support from
the rich and powerful and is supported mostly by the
little people.
Another 'Impossible' Mission Succeeded
Another impossible mission of mine occurred in 1968
when, as a young lawyer and an adjunct professor at
Penn State, I wrote the first book which advised people
to start buying the cheap "term" life insurance
instead of the expensive types which most people bought.
I advised them to invest the difference in the new
"mutual funds" which had just started to
appear.
The Wall Street Journal and the Christian Science
Monitor were among those which took notice of my book
and gave it laudatory reviews. It was at the same
time that Ralph Nader became famous by writing about
General Motors. But he had no encumbrances, whereas
I had four very important children as a single parent,
which left no time to promote the subject across the
country.
I was very prescient. It is common advice now to buy
term insurance. And everyone invests in mutual funds.
(However, the life insurance companies are very adroit
and still hopelessly confuse many into buying everything
except annual term insurance which is the best buy.)
I predict that ten years from now, everyone will look
back at our political leaders and our school teachers
and ask, "How could you have allowed this health
scourge to happen to innocent teenagers and children?
For shame!!!"
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