The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 29

THE ENQUIRER THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 2007 C7 Today's opinion maker Ray Nagln, mayor of New Orleans, in declaring a crackdown on violent crime, including a one-a-day homicide rate: "We're sending a sighal that the system that used to allow you to commit a murder and there were no consequences is over. It has been easier to commit a murder than another crime in New Orleans." E-MAIL: LETTERS ENQUIRER.COM OTHER POINTS OF VIEW (0 dti Minimum wage shouldn't hover near poverty line Populism sure is popular, especially with many Americans even families with six-figure incomes living paycheck to paycheck. You can expect to hear that message early and often from John Edwards, who recently launched his 2008 presidential campaign in New Orleans aeainst the backdroo of sultant by trade, Shulman is the author of the book. The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans." Not only does Shulman a former vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union support bumping the minimum wage, she doesn't think $7.25 is hidi enouirh. work.

Besides, workers tend to take their wage increases and spend them, which pumps money back into the economy. Raising the minimum wage isn't just good for workers. It's good for everyone. Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a columnist and editorial board member of the San Diego Union-Tribune, P.O.

Box 120191, San Diego, CA 92112; e-mail Ruben Navarrette Jr. because everyday Americans want to make more than $9 per hour. They can't make it on $9 per hour. Having a minimum wage hopefully allows people to have a little breathing room so they can actually go get some more training to improve their skills or get another job." That's my point. Why would anyone feel the urgency to get more training or take on another job if they were making a comfortable wage at the job they have? Shulman insisted that working for minimum wage is anything but comfortable.

"The question that needs to be asked is whether we're going to have family sustaining jobs in the 21st century," she said, "and what are the things that we can do to ensure that we have those jobs." But I couldn't stop thinking about the practical effect of all this on workers. If a job as a dishwasher paid $5.15 per hour before Election Day, and now events are such that it may soon pay $7.25 per hour, then isn't the difference that additional $2.10 per hour merely a byproduct of politics? It's the same job, I told her, and it's still worth $5.15 per hour, right? "It's not worth $5.15 per hour," Shulman responded. "That's just what they (employers) can get by with paying." I find it hard to argue with Shul-man's basic point. That is, if the richest country in the world is going to have a minimum wage, we should have the decency to not let it hover near the poverty level. Forget the old saw that raising the minimum wage causes job losses.

Research shows that better paying jobs result in more people going to omy isn't working for them," Shulman told me recently. Pointing out that $7.25 per hour for a 40-hour workweek is still only about $15,000 per year, she would index the federal minimum wage to inflation so it's not a "political football." That would put it at just over $9 per hour. I agree that $5.15 per hour is outrageously low, but $9 seems high, especially for a low-skilled worker. I asked Shulman if there isn't some truth in what some conservatives say about how, if we were to make minimum wage jobs too comfortable, more people might anchor their ambition there and not strive for something better. That set her off.

"Of course people aspire to make more," she said. "I don't know where conservatives are living, but they're not living where normal Americans are living homes and businesses still in ruin due to Hurricane Katrina. And youll hear it from congressional Democrats, who last week took control of the House and Senate. As part of Speaker Nancy Pelo-si's "100-hour agenda," House Democrats intend to pass a bill raising the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour. For Beth Shulman, that's a baby step in the right direction.

A Washington-based lawyer and labor con- Shulman points to the fact that voters in six states (including Ohio) approved ballot initiatives to raise their states' minimum wage, (which she calls) "an affirmation of a real value in America that people hold dear, which is if people are willing to work hard, they should be able to take care of themselves and their families." Many Americans are having trouble doing that, she says. "People really feel that the econ Bronson will return Peter Bronson is on vacation. SB What others say Metaphors among the ruins of Iraq It isn't really a romance turned sour, because it was never sweet. The American military's cocky heroes were supposed to sweep in and carry off a One reporter who writes about the war told me he thinks of the American entrenchment in Iraq more like a marriage that's run out of gas, but you decide to stay together because of the kids. Some women say that the Surge will not work because it's like starting over with an je Contir-3ounial From a Tuesday editorial In the Louisville Courier-Journal: Society has a responsibility to intervene when parents refuse life-saving treatment for their children.

But just how far government's role should extend, into family medical decisions, is open to endless argument The latest such debate has broken out over a bill filed by state Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, to require that middle-school girls be vaccinated against a virus known to cause cervical cancer. ty and bliss, like Richard Maureen Gere did Debra Winger in DOWfJ the finale of "An Officer and a Gentleman." The strategy I nat parents snouia consiaer sucn vaccinations ror weir uaugiueis is obvious. That these immunizations should be required is not so clear, at least until longer-term consequences are better established. What's absolute bunk is the claim by Family Foundation of Kentucky that little girls would interpret being given these shots as permission to sleep with their boyfriends.

irritation with the Iraqis, as though they are the most irksome of cousins or in-laws who have long overstayed their welcome, or children who not only don't thank you for presents but also leave the playroom a mess. The favorite analogy of Rummy and others who pushed the war was parent-child. "If you never take the training wheels off a kid's bicycle," Paul Wolfowitz would say, "hell never learn to ride without them." At times, the American-Iraqi relationship seems so cursed that the most apt metaphor would be a fairy tale like "The Golden Goose" of the Brothers Grimm, in which a girl sees a bling bird that belongs to a despised boy and tries to pluck a feather for herself, but instead her hand gets stuck fast to the goose. Her sister comes along, thinking she can snatch a feather, but she gets stuck as soon as she touches the first girl. Then there's a Surge, when the third sister rushes to help but ends up stuck in a daisy chain of disaster.

With the Surge, as with the invasion of Iraq, Bush is like the presumptuous date "who reserves a hotel room and then asks you to the prom," as my friend Dana Calvo put it. Teddy Kennedy gave a speech at the National Press Club Tuesday about his new legislation that would require congressional approval before troop levels can be increased. Afterward, he was asked if he would try to block the escalation with an amendment to an upcoming Iraq spending request. "The horse will be out of the barn by the time we get there," Kennedy replied. "The president makes his speech now.

We're going to get the appropriation request probably the end of January, early February." He said it could take eight more weeks for Congress to act. "By that time, the troops will already be there," he said. "And then we'll be asked, are we going to deny the body armor to the young men and women over there?" In other words, the president will ask us to the prom once he reserves the hotel room. Maureen Dowd is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Times, 229 W. 43rd New York, NY 10036.

old boyfriend: You think you've learned the pitfalls and can resume with more success you can set benchmarks! but instead you're swiftly ensnared by the same old failures. And the most maddening romances, of course, are those in which you think you have the power, you should have the power, but somehow in the end, you don't have the power. Many Bush officials and lawmakers now talk about the Iraqis with impatience, as though they are deadbeat relatives who have got to stop putting the pinch on us for a billion a week and try harder, in the immortal words of Rummy, "to pull up their socks." They may still speak diplomatically, but in body language, Condo-leezza Rice and her chosen new deputy, John Negroponte, radiate was: Love lift us up where we belongWhere the eagles cryOn a mountain high. Didn't happen. Yet the search goes on, in this country obsessed with hookups and breakups, for the right relationship metaphor to describe our deadly embrace of Iraq.

My colleague Tom Friedman wrote last week: "Whenever I hear this surge idea, I think of a couple who recently got married but the marriage was never very solid. Then one day they say to each other, Hey, let's have a baby, that will bring us It never works. If the underlying union is not there, adding a baby won't help." Juan Williams repeated Tom's metaphor on Fox News, agreeing that "a bad relationship" cannot afford the "pressure" of a newborn. ine vaccine uaraisn is an exuaorainary Dreaiuiiruugn mat uuuiu save many, if not most, of the nearly 4,000 lives lost each year to cervical cancer, as a result of exposure to the human papilloma virus. The reason to give this vaccine to middle-schoolers is that it works better if administered before girls become sexually active.

The burden should be on parents who would deny them such protection, to demand their child's exclusion. A new rule that would require such vaccinations could include an opt-out provision for parents who don't want to safeguard their little girls this way. But Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, D-Louisville, is right What Stein proposes is "common-sense" lawmaking. It will protect women and save lives.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has put the vaccine on its recommended immunization schedule. Kentucky should do the same. The truth about Tourette's is more ordinary than you think '07 INFINITI HZ35 Fki 1 PER MONTH Ifs impossible to navigate through popular culture without having heard about Tourette's syndrome. And why not? Ifs not exactly your ordinary medical affliction.

Unfortunately, for PLUS TAX 39 MONTHS $2,495 DOWN 10K PER YEAR Modelti 87417 most people, Tourette's is equated with its rarest symptom: involuntary outbursts of cursing and other inappropriate language. You probably Information and resources Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky support group for families and children with Tourette's: E-mail loricaldwellfuse.neL Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky support group for adults with Tourette's: E-mail ticsincincyyahoo.com. www.tsa-usa.org: The Tourette Syndrome Association www.tsao.org or 800-543-2675: Tourette Syndrome Association of Ohio; also includes Northern Kentucky "I Have Tourette's But Tourette's Doesn't Have An Emmy Award-winning HBO documentary in which children talk about the difficulties and misunderstandings surrounding having Tourette's. To order, go to www.tsa-usa.org; price is $14.95 or lower for TSA members or those buying in bulk. tourettenowwhattripod.com: Tourette Syndrome Now What? Web site offers positive, accurate, current information on Tourette's, especially designed for parents just learning their children have TS.

Lively message boards of mostly moms of kids with Tourette's. www.tourettesyndrome.net Tourette Syndrome "Plus" site examines Tourette's alongside what are called "co-morbid" conditions that often occur with iL These can include ADHD, obsessive-compulsive disorder and learning disabilities. en.wikipedia.orgwikiTourettes The Wikipedia article on Tourette's is thorough, accurate and well-documented. MSRP $42,450 39 month closed end lusts. Due on delivery: 1st payment ol $449, $2,495 item, $250 doc fee, tig fee, Pius your local county siles tues.

lease based on 10,000 per yeir. 20 cents on wedge, no security deposit, no disposition fee, euess war and tear charges my apply. With approved credit. At least 2 or more offered at this price. Sale ends 13107 Bruce Holtgren would be surprised to know that only about 10 to 15 percent of peo blsMli 'Js lf lJI sf "(111 f.fWi'.l Ht'il'Hll'IM for ple with Tourette's have "that cursing thing," the peculiar urge that is known as coprolalia.

too, used to think Tourette's was synonymous with swearing. Had I known the truth, I might have been diagnosed decades earlier. Those who do exhibit coprolalia and other pronounced symptoms certainly deserve much more respect and compassion than they get More broadly, everyone with Tourette's needs better public understanding, and especially an end to the stigma that surrounds this sometimes bizarre disorder. Tourette's, a genetic affliction, is characterized by two or more "motor tics" involuntary physical movements such as facial grimaces or moving the head, neck or limbs in odd ways and at least one vocal tic, which is usually little more than humming, grunting or whistling. Onset usually comes by mid-childhood, with severity of tics most frequently seen by age 10 or 12.

In the majority of cases, tics then gradually diminish to little or nothing by adulthood. The course of each case is as unique as each individual; there is no such thing as a "typical" case of Tourette's. A freak-show image As medical problems go, Tourette's is, except in the most severe cases, about the most minor imaginable thing to have. It's never fatal, and very rarely a disability. Indeed, coundess people live their whole lives without realizing they have the disorder.

Coundess others know they have it but don't bother with treatment or even getting a diagnosis because they can live with the tics more readily than bother- The Sunday Enquirer. One of the best simple overviews yet of Tourette's came out in a 2005 HBO documentary, "I Have Tourette's But Tourette's Doesn't Have Me." It won an Emmy for outstanding children's programming, and for good reason: The kids in it talk poignandy about how painful it is not only to have such an often annoying affliction, but how badly people misunderstand it These children offer some of the most thoughtful and eloquent observations I've seen about not just Tourette's, but basic respect for others. And it's mainly kids who have Tourette's who are most in need of a break. For almost all the rest of us, it's a harmless nothingburger of a condition. It's certainly not the main thing about me, and it shouldn't be for anyone else either.

A friend once told me that one of the most profoundly wonderful things one human can do for another is to understand. In a world so desperately lacking understanding in so many other areas, I'm adding this small voice toward better public understanding of what Tourette's syndrome is or, at the very least what it is not Bruce Holtgren is an Enquirer copy editor. E-mail bholtgrenenquirer ing with highly imperfect medications and their side effects. It is a cruel coincidence that tios so often peak just as children are entering their middle school years. We all remember how crucial it is to fit in at that age, and having a noticeable case of Tourette's can be a recipe for social disaster.

Public understanding of Tourette's and accommodations for schoolchildren who have it are slowly improving. There's still a long way to go; the freak-show image, unfortunately, still prevails overwhelmingly. The blame for the warped perceptions lies overwhelmingly with the video media the Internet movies and TV. If you search for Tourette" on Google or YouTube, youll get a gazillion hits that almost invariably show the most outrageously extreme examples of motor and vocal tics. Television, with notable exceptions such as Oprah, has sensationalized Tourette's so badly, for so long, that it seems beyond hope that most people will ever know die more prosaic truth.

Give the kids a break Fascination with the most lurid aspect of anything is just human nature. At some point though, we can and should grow up and do better. For a limited time, you can get the Sunday Enquirer for only 99c at Kroger. THE ENQUIRER Cincinnati.Com.