Tuesday evening the Fort Worth community encountered a traumatic event. Saturday afternoon the TCU community will have the opportunity to help the larger world. Allow us to take a moment and commend those involved in the TCU LEAPS program. TCU LEAPS provides community service opportunities for members of the TCU community in more than 20 nonprofit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, the Tarrant County Food Bank and the Fort Worth Boys and Girls Clubs. TCU LEAPS participants will work on various projects in Fort Worth from 12:30 to 4 p.m. Marcy Paul, program coordinator for the Women's Resource Center, said the TCU community should take the opportunity to lend assistance to Fort Worth. "While in college, many forget that there are people outside the walls of the university," she said. "We tend to forget the larger community." We urge students, faculty and staff to do something beneficial for the Fort Worth community. With downtown and surrounding areas left in shambles, take a few hours and help someone in the area who needs your assistance. Take one day, and help build a house for a family whose problems are greater than planning ski trips to Aspen or Breckenridge. Or spend an afternoon delivering food to those who do not have the opportunity to choose between chicken strips and baked ham. Spare a few hours of one weekend to brighten the lives of some children who are in need of solid role models.
Verdict sends smokers a signal
A California Superior Court jury ruled Monday that an ex-smoker is entitled to $20 million in punitive damages from tobacco giants R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. and Philip Morris Inc. In addition, plaintiff Leslie Whiteley, who developed lung cancer after 25 years of smoking, won $1.7 million in compensatory damages last week. Her lawyers asked for $115 million which would represent 1 percent of the companies' earnings. When I read this story on Tuesday, I felt joy for this woman who had been misled by the giant cigarette companies and believed cigarette smoking was not harmful. Money won't cure Whiteley's disease, which doctors say will likely take her life within the year, but it will send a message to cigarette companies, right? Wrong. While the award may send a message to R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris, I'm a little more worried about the message that the ruling will send to the rest of the smokers in the world. You see, what makes Whiteley's case different from other cases that have been won against major tobacco companies is that she started smoking after tobacco companies were required to print the Surgeon General's Warning on all tobacco products. Whiteley says she began smoking in 1972 at the age of 13. The government began requiring that tobacco companies inform their customers of the risks of smoking in the 1960s. Now, I'm not sure what the education system in California is like, but I know that at 13, I could read the words, "Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health," and understand that smoking was bad for you. Apparently at least nine other people, the exact number of jurors needed to return the ruling, agreed that the companies were misleading and negligent. So, what does this ruling say to me? Maybe I should go ahead and take up chain smoking. From what I hear, smoking does wonders for stress and relaxation, and that's something that every college student could use. Sure, smoking will still cause my death, but hey, it will be a slow death so I will probably have plenty of time to raise a family and do many other things with my life. Then, when I get sick, I will sue the major tobacco companies for hundreds of millions of dollars, thus providing for my family well into the future. Don't misunderstand me though, I believe that tobacco companies owe a lot more money to people than $20 million or even the $206 billion they were forced to pay to cover health care costs several years ago, but what I am saying is that people like Whiteley don't deserve this money. There are plenty of people who live every day with the effects of smoking who began smoking well before warning labels were placed on cigarette packs. They are the old women pulling oxygen tanks behind them in the grocery stores and the old men who can't climb a flight of stairs in their house because of spots on their lungs. It is likely that these people started smoking for the same reasons that Whiteley began smoking, but the difference is that they were addicted well before they ever knew it could kill them. When Whiteley took that first drag she was no different than any 13-year-old who will start smoking today. So unless the government is expecting tobacco companies to pay money to every person who is dying of cancer, emphysema or any other smoking-related disease, this verdict needs to be overturned.
James Zwilling is a freshman news-editorial and business major from Phoenix, Az. He can be reached at (james_zwilling@usa.net).
For the first time in my life, I witnessed a terrible accident while driving westbound down I-30 near the Beach Street exit about 2:45 a.m. Saturday. A blue pickup truck had lost control and run into the guardrail, only to bounce off and careen across four lanes of traffic into a parked car on the shoulder of the road. The parked car was hit from the rear, and it spun around spewing gasoline across the freeway from its now ruptured gas tank. Immediately, the gasoline ignited, causing the car to become engulfed in flames as a trail of fire burned across the road. The pickup truck that hit the car from behind then plunged into a ditch by the shoulder. Fortunately, I managed to avoid getting into the accident and was able to get my truck off the road onto the shoulder. As soon as I stopped, I ran across the freeway to help those involved. Miraculously, there was no one inside the burning car, but there were two men inside the pickup truck. Their vehicle had been badly damaged with the front end compressed to less than two and a half feet. The men inside, though obviously shaken, only had minor cuts and abrasions on their faces. However, I do not consider that accident the most terrible event that morning. Instead, I feel it is more horrendous that I saw at least four vehicles, which were also at the forefront of the scene, keep driving past the accident without ever stopping. Did it not occur to those people that flames nearly a foot high were shooting up underneath their tires? Or did it just make more sense to these inhumane individuals to leave the scene and go on with their "busy" lives, ignoring that the event ever happened? Since the accident occurred, I have spoken with several of my friends about this incident. Sadly, all of my friends said it was typical seeing such repulsive behavior in people. How in the world has society regressed to a point that it contains such cold and heartless individuals? The people who kept on driving should hope and pray that if they ever become involved in a major accident that someone driving next to them feels the responsibility to render aid to them. With any luck, those four vehicles leaving the scene were not an accurate representation of the earth's population. Perhaps I can stay comfortably numb by thinking that the four most callous individuals in the world were simply congregated together on the freeway that morning. Maybe, just maybe, this will cause them to think about what they have done, and perhaps next time their actions will more closely resemble the rest of humanity.
Robert Davis is a senior computer science major from Garland. He can be reached at (rddavis@delta.is.tcu.edu).
"Fewer people would be sucked into something which, on later reflection, they wish they hadn't done." - Gregg Franzwa, professor of philosophy,
"It looks like she won't get in again. I've been here for five hours now." - Gunther Russell, a parent,
"As far as tornadoes go, the city has been very lucky, but I guess our luck ran out." - Kenneth Barr, Fort Worth mayor,
Columnist's answer to question of Jesus' identity needs to include faith and more introspection I agree with Matt Colglazier that intellectual inquiries into our faith have their place in the public forum. Everyone will die. Thus, there is not a person whom this does not affect. I would like to respond to your entire column. However, word constraints will allow me to only touch on a few areas. You wonder "Was Jesus the Son of God?" Your life experiences thus far have led you to conclude that the answer "seems to be no." That is the funny thing about faith. Faith never seems. I have rarely met a person who knows that Jesus is not the Son of God. However, everyone I know who has experienced Christ in his or her life knows that he is. Those who do not believe, seem to think, while those who do believe, know. Just something to think about. You also mentioned that "God is different now, and so his son must be different too." We change, and life is constantly changing around us. But God's love is always the same. That is why faith can be so powerful. Having something that we can believe in, something solid as a rock, can help us keep all of life's "changes" in perspective. "It's hard to keep believing in a traditional Jesus because we can no longer live in a traditional world." I realize that the world seems like it is spinning much faster than it was 2,000 years ago. However, we still live on a rock, in the middle of an infinite amount of space, with billions of other human beings. Human nature has not changed. Human fears and needs remain the same. It does not really matter that the world is different because, either way, we fall short of perfection, which leads us to the fact that we need a savior. Realizing this is the first step. Whether or not you believe that Jesus is your savior is step two.
- Dusty Hill, senior speech communication major |
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