The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page 13

THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR WWW.INDYSTAR.COM Opinion SATURDAY. APRIL 2, 2005 A13 Eye-opening, humorous look at the history of time change berty." However, under the English common law, which served as precedent for our early law, suicide was considered a crime, punishable by a forfeiture of property and an ignominious burial. At the time of the ratification of the 14th Amendment, most states still made assisting suicide unlawful. Well into the last century, case law generally affirmed the illegality of such acts. Therefore, there is no basis for the argument that the right to suicide is so rooted in our tradition that it may be deemed fundamental or implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.

Thus, it does not properly fall within the coverage of the Ninth Amendment. Daniel W. Kelly Terre Haute BOOK REVIEW Nick Crews Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time Author Michael Downing Publisher Shoemaker Hoard Price: $23 It was right to give decision to husband The courts were correct to give Michael Schiavo the right to make the decision to end life support for his wife. I am surprised that the Christian community I belong to objects. When they married, they left their father and mother and became one.

Parental rights and responsibilities were transferred to the couple. I am also disturbed that Terri Schiavo has been compared to a handicapped persoa Her brain damage was not congenital, nor was it caused by an accident. She was bulimic. Her own practice of binging and purging her body of food caused the heart failure, which caused brain damage. It is ironic that her parents went to such lengths to gain control of a decision that was not theirs.

It also is ironic that food was the focus of a significant portion of Terri's life and now is the focus of her death. Sharon Mathews Indianapolis Keep decision out of government's hands More than 30 years ago, I faced the difficult decision of instructing doctors to take my 7-year-old daughter off life-sustaining equipment. Kimi was born with multiple developmental disabilities and had been in and out of hospitals with serious respiratory infections for most of her life. At the time, there was no question in the minds of her physicians that maintaining her bodily functions did not compensate for the fact that she had no quality of life and would face endless future hospitalizations. It was the most difficult decision of my life, yet one I would not change if faced with the same situation today.

A little over a year ago, I signed a do-not-resuscitate order for my 86-year-old mother, who was in the final stages of Parkinson's disease. When she stopped eating, no feeding tubes were inserted; only measures that would make her comfortable were takea She died very peacefully with me holding her hand. I believe that I will be held accountable for those two decisions when my life ends. But I will be forever grateful that I was not burdened with the public display, governmental meddling and opportunistic involvement of others when it came time to make my decisions. If there is any good that comes of the Schiavo case, I hope it is that every parent and spouse will spare their loved ones the doubt and contention suffered by her family during this long ordeal by providing written instructions.

Decisions about ending life should be left to those who know and love the person involved. Donna Roberts Indianapolis DST resembled an innovative strategy for boosting retail sales. After its passage, "Working girls were encouraged to stop on their way home to update their wardrobes with dresses specifically designed for the brighter summer evenings. Daylight specials offered discounts on garden spades, watering cans, even new homes "It was not exactly for nothing that chambers of commerce and other merchants' associations had figured among the earliest and staunchest supporters of daylight-saving time," Downing writes. Politically, it was never an easy sell.

But World War I gave advocates a window of opportunity. "Daylight's proponents wrapped themselves in the flag, appropriating the war effort, and successfully turned the House vote (on DST) in March 1918 into a loyalty test. And they won." President Woodrow Wilson, an avid golfer, in 1918 signed into law the first federal legislation "to save daylight." Downing quotes a Washington Post sports-' writer of the day: "If the government had especially desired to do something to foster and promote golf, it could not have made a better move than to turn the clock ahead." He writes that farmers, in fact, from the first had opposed daylight-saving time. Traditionally, the issue was defined "as a feud between city folk and their country cousins. And in a political battle that simply pitted farmers against factory workers, the likely winner would not be holding a hoe." In "Spring Forward" Downing delivers a funny, readable, well-documented account of the strange social history of daylight-saving time one that finally absolves farmers and cows from unjustified blame.

Crews is a free-lance writer who lives in Plainfield. -hat is the purpose of daylight-saving time?" asks a young man on the Argonne National Laboratory's "Ask a Scientist" Web site. The reply: "The purpose is to maximize daylight hours for farmers so that they can get their work done and still overlap nicely with the rest of the world. At least, this is what I was always told." And so have we all. But as Michael Downing convincingly and entertainingly argues in "Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time," the roots of DST lie not in the farmer's field, but, of all places, on the golf course.

Downing writes that golfers, allied with an array of commercial interests, including Wall Street brokers, sports promoters and major banks and stock exchanges, were the true first boosters of DST, a public policy he calls "the most unscientific ever perpetuated." Downing's history of daylight-saving time offers a thoughtful, provocative and often hilarious look at what he calls "the most sustained political controversy of the past 100 years." Beginning by debunking the myth that Ben Franklin invented DST, Downing conducts his readers through the "deliberate misrepresentation, preposterous piety and unfettered opportunism" that informs a controversy still raging to this day. The modern plan to save daylight by altering clock time was first proposed in 1907 by William Willet, a British architect and golfer who wanted to give his friends more time for summer leisure. Germany adopted the idea; and in 1916 it became the first nation to advance clocks as part of an effort to conserve resources and win I I World War I. Soon nations on both sides of the conflict had adopted DST. Downing writes, "The scheme's American advocates, who had long been dismissed as the caddies for the interests of the leisure class, shifted the battle from the golf links to the trenches.

'Millions of dollars will be saved by the people of the United announced the newly elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 'and our preparedness along industrial lines will be In truth, writes Downing, a I a Checks and balances aren't working Terri Schiavo never had a chance. If, as the judges said, she was fit only to die, then why did we subject her to the surreal and phony morality that said she had to die a "natural" death? What is "natural" about systematically starving and dehydrating a fel- low human being? This is barbarism. What should trouble Americans most about the Schiavo case is its demonstration that the separation of powers and the checks and balances in the Constitution are effectively inoperative. However, we should not blame the judges. Rather, we should blame ourselves for too often allowing tough political and social issues to ferment until the courts, by default, upon them.

In the short run, as clearly occurred in the Schiavo case, judges can prevail In the long run, the ascendancy of the courts can lead to anarchy. Courts have authority and power only to the extent that they have legitimacy. Credibility is their only basis for power. Jon D. Kindred Indianapolis Submitting letters The Star welcomes letters to the to articles, editorials and events must include the author's name, phone number.

Letters are subject in No constitutional right to suicide A letter in the March 31 Star claimed that the U.S. Constitution protected a "right to die" by the Ninth Amendment, which reads: "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." The key to understanding the Ninth Amendment then is to know what rights the people retained at the time our Constitution was ratified. The courts have historically identified for Ninth Amendment protection those rights "so rooted in our tradition that they may be deemed fundamental or implicit in the concept of ordered li Please send your letters to: stareditorindystar.com Letters to the Editor, The Indianapolis Star, P.O. Box 145, Indianapolis, IN 46206-0145 Fax number: (317) 444-8616 By submitting a letter or opinion article, the author grants The Star the right to publish, distribute, archive or use the work in print, electronic, on-line or other format. Newly fanatic son views world through sports filter Respect courage of those who stood for life Terri Schiavo's tragedy may have at least forced many Americans to confront the fundamental issue of human life and its limits.

I claim to have no easy answers, but my deeply held belief is that God alone is the creator and final arbiter of human life. I admire the federal and state public officials who attempted to act in defense of the sanctity of life. While their efforts may raise legitimate constitutional questions, I respect their courage in stating that we "must err in favor of human life" I have a great problem with a judiciary that accepted hearsay evidence and inconclusive medical testimony regarding an incapacitated woman's right and ability to continue living. If there ever was a situation in which we should defer to God's will, this one qualifies. Dr.

David A. Nealy Greenwood editor responding the news. They address and tele- rTj.i to editing. Bunny, who looked like he just ran off the basketball court and into the food court after two hours of March Madness mascot duty. I tried to shelter Joel from the Bunny.

But you can't get from Victoria's Secret to the romper room play area without crossing The Bunny. And that's no accident. Want to sit on the Bunny's lap? That's $12.99 plus tax for the digital photo. Smile! "Look Dad! It's the There he was, the Easter Bunny, occupying the same throne that Santa Claus kept warm from the time the last piece of Halloween candy was sold until the final second before the mall doors swung shut on Christmas Eve. I could explain Santa's presence to Joel much easier than the Bunny's.

Santa had real eyes that blinked. A voice that spoke. A beard that was passable. The Easter Bunny however, was a steroid-injected stuffed animal, legs crossed, whiskers painted, oversized eyes frozen open with a stunned look of amazement. This was "Pacific University!" I shouted.

"The Jack Rabbits!" (Actually the Tigers, but Joel can learn that later in life.) "Nevada plays Specific?" Joel asked. "Who did I pick to win?" We quickly skirted past The Bunny hoping not to catch his watermelon-sized eye. He started to wave to Joel. "Go Specific!" Joel shouted. Dazed, the Bunny returned to his picture-posing tasks.

Joel skipped over to the play area, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I just saved $12.99. Mandell teaches in the Department of Film, Television and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame. My 5-year old son Joel has reached sports consciousness. And I couldn't be happier.

It happened about two weeks after Christmas. It's hard to pinpoint the precise moment, but it began with the Colts, then the Steelers, then the Patriots. Then the entire NFL. Who won? What was the score? Who plays next week? A few months later, his passion for sports poured over into March Madness. Who won? What's the score? Who plays next week? This March, as I watched in a grand moment of father-son bonding, Joel filled out his first set of tourney brackets.

And when The Syracuse (as in The Colts, The Steelers, CULTURE i I rpfjjfgj Ted Mandell off the TV, took my preschooler to the mall, and took shelter from the litany of reminders to watch sharks eat bikini-clad coeds. Whew! The mall. A safe haven where your child can get some exercise during the cold weather months and you can get a free sample of lotion at Bath Body Works to soothe that cracked winter skin. WATCH We strolled toward the chil- dren's play area. "Dad, look, it's the Longhorns!" Joel stopped in front of Victoria's Secret and gazed up at what I like to call the Wall of Thong.

An in-your-face, floor-to-ceiling window display of 30 pairs of women's thong underwear. Apparently, where I saw women's underwear, my 5-year old saw sports. Yes. When mounted to the wall, the shape of the underwear did in fact bear a striking resemblance to the University of Texas Longhorn logo. Hook 'em Horns.

"Dad, who did the Longhorns play in March Madness?" "They lost to Nevada." "Did I pick Nevada to win?" "Yes, you did." "Cool Who does Nevada play next?" Stumped, I looked up at the underwear, across to the Disney Store, then yonder to the Easter and The Pa- triots) lost to Vermontana (he's still learning the names), Joel experienced that same sinking feeling we all have when our pick to win-it-all gets bounced in the first round. But unlike The Syracuse, Joel quickly bounced back and onto the next round of the TV tournament. Onward we went, my son and experiencing CBS' coverage of the NCAA tournament together. Well, most of it. Every TV timeout I had to shield Joel from the slew of CBS promos, pumping the homicides of "CSI" and "Cold Case," or promoting the latest bad-for-TV movie "Spring Break Shark Attack." It's sad.

We couldn't watch a college basketball game on television without regular reminders of the death and fear lurking in prime time. After a series of buzzer-beater moments where I quickly turned the station just before the "CSI" cadaver filled the frame, I turned 0 12345 Old Mwidlan-CarrMUN 846-2536 1-800-990-KIRK (5475) Hours: Sat. 10-8, Sun. 12-5, www.klrkfurniture.com.