The Kerrville Times from Kerrville, Texas • Page 4

4 Tuesday, November 10, 1992 EDITORIAL Veterans deserve our appreciation Wednesday is Veterans Day, a day when America honors all who served in its armed forces. There arc presently some 27 million living Americans who served in the military and sacrificed on behalf of our nation's ideals and freedom. They deserve our recognition. Two Veterans Day ceremonies arc planned in the Hill Country, at the Kerrville Veterans Administration Medical Center and at the Admiral Nimitz Museum in Fredcricksburg. The VAMC program begins at 10:30 a.m.

Wednesday in the chapel of the Nursing Home Care Unit. The Nimitz program focuses on women veterans who served in the Pacific War. "Quiet Shadows: Women in the Pacific War," is a photographic exhibit illustrating the stories of women who served. Grand opening of the commemorative exhibit is scheduled for Veterans Day at 1:30 p.m. in the ballroom of the Admiral Nimitz Museum.

The exhibition will be on display until Jan. 1 and will also travel to different cities. Women veterans arc getting additional recognition this year. President Bush has signed a congressional resolution proclamation designating this as "National Women Veterans Recognition Week," intended to focus attention on the significant contributions and sacrifices of women in the Armed Forces throughout U.S. history.

All veterans deserve our nation's grateful appreciation. Take part in a Veterans Day celebration; remember the sacrifices of those who served. Today in history By The Associated Press Today is Tuesday, Nov. 10, the 315th day of 1992. There are 51 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History: On Nov. 10, 1871, journalist and explorer Henry M. Stanley located missing Scottish missionary David Livingstone in central Africa. Stanley delivered his now- famous greeting: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" To which Livingstone replied: "Yes, and I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you." On this date: In 1483, Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation, was born in Eisleben, Germany.

In 1775, the U.S. Marines were organized under authority of the Continental Congress. In 1917,41 suffragists were arrested in front of the White House. In 1919, the American Legion held its first national convention, in Minneapolis. In 1928, Hirohito was enthroned as Emperor of Japan.

In 1942, 50 years ago, Winston Churchill delivered a speech in London in which he said, "I have not become the King's First Minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire." In 1951, direct-dial coast-to- coast telephone service began as Mayor M. Leslie Denning of Englewood, N.J., called his counterpart in Alameda, Calif. In 1954, the Iwo Jima Memorial a group of servicemen raising the American flag was dedicated in Arlington, Va. In 1969, the children's educational program "Sesame Street" made its debut on PBS. In 1975, the U.N.

General Assembly approved a resolution equating Zionism with racism (the world body repealed the resolution in December 1991). In 1975, the ore-hauling ship Edmund Fitzgerald and its crew of 29 vanished during a storm in Lake Superior. In 1986, French hostages Camille Sontag and Marcel Coudari were released in Lebanon. Access Information KERRVILLE CITY HALL KERR COUNTY COURTHOUSE KERRVILLE POLICE DEPT KERR COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT EMERGENCY EMERGENCY COMMUNITY REFERRAL HELPLINE 896-6888 Or 1-800-858-6889 911 JktUtT Copyright 1992 Kerrville Daily Times (USPS 293-860) "The Hill Country's Leading Information Source" The Kerrville Daily Times (USPS 293-860) Is published dall, Monday through Friday and Sunday, except Christmas Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and New Year's Day except when those days fall on a Sunday by Kerr Publications, Inc, 429 Jefferson Street, Kerrville, Texas 78028. Second class postage paid at Kerrville, Texas.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Kerrville Daily Times, Post Office Box 1428, Kerrville, Texas 78029. WALTER M. F1SHON Managing Editor TAMMY ZAMORANO Composing Manager STEVE F. McPHAUL PUBLISHER NEICE WIENECKE Advertising Manager HECTOR CUEVA Circulation Manager DENISE NOLES Accountant JIMMIE D. RIOS Production Manager MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS The Associated Press Is entitled exclusively to the use for republlcatlon to all local news printed In this newspaper as well as all AP news dispatches.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES Single Copy, dally 250 Sunday 750 Home Delivery Per month by carrier U.S. Mall KERR, GILLESPIE COUNTY 3 months 6 months $22.20 YEAR THE REST OF TEXAS 3 months $24.45 6 months 1 YEAR OUT-OF-STATE 3 months $16.70 6 months 40 i YEAR ALL MAIL SUBSCRIPTIONS ARE PAYABLE IN ADVANCE AND SOLD ONLY WHERE HOME DELIVERY IS NOT AVAILABLE. Kerrville Office 1-512-896-7000. The Publisher reserves the right to change subscription rates without notice and during the term of a subscription. Subscription rate changes may be Implemented by reducing the expiration date of the subscription.

ERRORS AND OMISSIONS The advertiser agrees that the publisher shall not be liable for damages arising out of errors and advertisements beyond the amount paid for the space actually occupied by that lorllon or the advertisement in which the error occurred, whether such error Is due to he negligence of the publisher, employees or otherwise, and there shall be no liability for non-Insertion of any advertisement beyond the amount paid for such advertisement. Opinion Satli fauf score and Seven oor fetters Mall wen afe created Abraham Lincoln Tohn F. Kennedy OK, people. Here's deal. ClirtiorfS a Chicken wan aw is a potato Chip rrive ozone wan will kn fte Ross rVof George Bush Misleading statistics can raise legitimate questions WASHINGTON Disraeli once wrote of three forms of the lie.

There are lies, he said, damned lies, and statistics. The prime minister's cynical observation applies with full force to last month's report from the General Accounting Office on drug prices here and "in Canada." The report isn't a lie, and surely not a damned lie, but the GAO put its statistics together so cannily that a false picture emerges. Drug prices in the United States are indeed higher than drug prices in Canada, but American consumers are not being ripped off quite as wickedly as Henry Waxman would have us believe. Waxman, a liberal Democrat from California, is now serving his eighth term in the House, where he is chairman of the key subcommittee on health. He commissioned the GAO report as part of his effort to move the country and his colleagues toward some form of national health insurance.

To quote another cynical follow, Waxman wanted statistics as a drunk wants a lamppost, more for support than illumination. The GAO came through handsomely. The report compares U.S. factory prices with those "in Canada," and therein lies the first deception. The Canadian figures do not come from "in Canada." They come only from Ontario, and Ontario vends prescription drugs under a price control system unknown in the United States.

Moreover, the Ontario program pays only for drugs used by the elderly and by low-income families. The effect of these limitations is further to lower the reimbursement prices paid to consumers. By comparing Ontario's controlled prices to "sticker prices" in the United States, which apply before Medicaid rebates and discounts, the GAO was James J. Kilpatrick COMMENTARY able to produce data that greatly pleased Henry Waxman. As a consequence, the press last month uncritically proclaimed that drug prices "in Canada'' are 32 percent lower than comparable drug prices in the U.S.

The New York Times obligingly ran horrid examples to demonstrate how sick people in America are gouged, robbed, cheated, swindled and otherwise abused by the greedy, grasping, money-hungry monatehs otthe drug industry, etc. c'n The Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association responded to the GAO report with a press release of its own. The PMA regarded the overall findings as "quite misleading," a fair characterization, but the PMA had no ready answer for some of the comparative figures. When full account is given to the apples-to-oranges comparison, American consumers still have some good questions to ask. An elderly person in Toronto gets 100 tablets of Tylenol with codeine for $3.32.

His American counterpart pays $19.38, almost six times as much. Why? The Upjohn company sells Xa- nax, a drug widely used for treating anxiety, for $47.81. The same package sells in Ontario for $16.92. How come? Roche Biomedicals makes the antibiotic Bactrine and the tranquil- izer Valium. The Bactrine is $22.62 there, $77.36 here.

A hundred 5-miI- ligram tablets of Valium cost $7.57 there, and $40.41 here. What explains this differential? Another leading drug manufacturer is the American Home Products Corp. The GAO study concentrated on the 121 drugs most widely prescribed here and there. American Home manufactures nine of the 121, including Premarin, used for treatment of post-menopausal syndrome. It is the fourth most commonly prescribed drug in the United States.

An American woman pays $26.47 for 100 tablets of Premarin; her counterpart in Ontario pays $10.10. These are other startling comparisons on drugs produced by American Home: Triphasil, an oral contraceptive, $15.60 here, $9.46 there; Micro-K, a potassium supplement, $9.49 and Ativan, a tranquilizer, $49.43 and Isordil, a heart medicine, $17.41 and Reglan, a stomach medicine, $34.46 and Orudis, an arthritis medicine, $69.99 and and Phenergan, an anti-nausea drue $18.43 and. $9.14. But consider this: American Home also markets Wymox, an antibiotic. The GAO says it sells for $16.84 here, $16.46 there, an almost identical price.

What gives? Yes, the U.S. drug industry invests $10.9 billion a year in research and development, and yes, its products save lives and immensely benefit mankind. True, it takes forever to get a new drug approved, and yes, patents expire before we know it. Everybody knows that. The GAO's statistics may be misleading, but even misleading statistics have value.

They lead to legitimate questions. COPYRIGHT 1992 UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE Civil servants unintimidated I had to check it out for myself. Alerted by a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal from a Mr. Chris Edwards, I checked it out for myself. You and I have wondered if it makes any difference who is President even who is elected to Congress if the tenured civil servants in Washington remain entrenched, which most all will.

Edwards visited the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., for the first time. Immediately, reading what was written underneath or alongside each of the portraits, he sensed something amiss. Under the Reagan portrait is a single paragraph describing "his involvement in controversies'' such as the "Iran-Contra affair and questionable grants at the Department of Housing and Urban Development" as well as "record deficits." Under the portrait of Jimmy Carter, on the other hand, is a glowing tribute. Nothing but positives. Carter's rise to power is described a "a miracle," "a startling success." So Edwards and I searched further.

In sections of the gallery designated "The Impulse for Reform" Paul Harvey PAUL HARVEY NEWS and "Social Change" and others, the consistent theme of glowing praise is reserved for those who advocate big government. Example: Wisconsin Gov. La Follette "made Wisconsin a power in controlling utilities and railroads for the popular good." The single conservative, Sen. Aldrich, these gallery spin doctors described as having a "bias toward big business he "routinely blocked any federal oversight of America's free-enterprise system." In the New Deal section of the gallery there is glowing tribute to labor unionists and FDR while Henry Ford is described as having "no sympathy for labor unions." Edwards' resentment of this lop- sided distortion of history at one of the Smithsonian's galleries also alerted Charlotte Porter. She is associate curator at the Florida Museum of National History at the University of Florida.

She writes, "Many of us who work in are trying to eliminate (political) messages that diminish the dignity of both the subject matter and visitors, and that ultimately diminish the purpose of museums large and small." This politicizing of art is a metastasis of a larger malignancy. The Beltway Army is dug in, protected by Civil Service lawyers you pay for, these little foxes, always yapping at the heels of a lion, will have their way however you vote. A former Agriculture Secretary once remarked that department policy was not made in his office but deep down in the bowels of the bureaucracy where some nameless, faceless G-2 was issuing regulations with the force of law. The closest they've come to being intimidated in half a century was when equally tenacious Ross Perot announced for President. But they had ways of taking care of him, too.

(C) 1992. LOS ANGELES TIMES SYNDICATE Elected officials' addresses President GEORGE BUSH The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C. 20500 Vice President DAN QUAYLE Executive Office Building Washington, D.C. 20501 U.S. Senators LLOYD BENTSEN 703 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C.

20510 (202) 224-5922 PHIL GRAMM 370 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 (202) 224-2934 U.S. Representative LAMAR SMITH 422 Cannon House Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515 (202) 225-4236 LETTERS Tivy students assist K'STAR To the Editor: The student body of Tivy High School recently had a clothing drive to benefit the youth at the K'STAR Shelter. We felt a public note of appreciation would be a fitting tribute to their efforts.

We hear so much about the negative things that teens of today are doing, but we seldom see the very positive things. This group not only gathered a large donation of clothing for K'STAR, but they laundered each piece before bringing them to the shelter. The clothes are in excellent condition and fashionable for youth of today. This donation will enable us to furnish the clothing needs of the youth of our shelter for this and the upcoming year. They are to be commended for their efforts.

Gwen Brubaker, K'STAR Shelter Administrator Player has say on little league To the Editor: My name is Matt Coons, I'm 11 years old. I've played baseball since I was six years old. I was in all-stars every year I was eligible. Over the years I've had a lot of tough coaches that have guided me through the years and have been tough on me and have taught me to be disciplined and taught me to not mess around. These coaches include my dad Ray Coons, Rick Van Klavern, Fred Russ, David Moreau, Alvin Neal, Craig Althaus, Brad Grimes and Steve Caraway.

They never told us we were doing good when we weren't. I think the coaches should be tough and get on us if we're not doing good. In my three years as an all- star we were dominant and trampled most of our opponents. Why? Because we were disciplined, we practiced hard and we weren't treated like girls. We were screamed at until what we were doing was done right.

I think that it is right. Kerrville has had a good baseball program for a while. If the group of people that want to change the little league get their way, Kerrville's baseball program will be a joke. The parents are one of the main causes. Baseball practices are not supposed to be fun and games.

When I'm out there on the field I'm out there to win, not just to have fun. I don't care what they say, winning is everything. No one wants to go out on the field and get beat. I think us kids should have a say in what's going on, after all we're the ones playing, not the parents, not the umpires, us kids. I know that most of the kids that are serious about baseball think the same.

Don't make it all fun, games and horseplay. It will make a difference in our high school teams. No one forced me into writing this. I just think I should have a say in things. Matt Coons, Kerrville TIMES LETTERS POLICY We encourage our readers to use this forum to express their opinions.

A few guidelines: Letters longer than 300 words are subject to editing. Letters must carry the full, legible name of the writer and signature. An address and daytime phone number for verification must be included; this information will not appear in print. The Daily Times does not withhold of letter writers. Texas Governor ANN RICHARDS State Capitol, Room 200 Austin, Texas 78711 (512) 463-2000 Texas Lt.

Governor BOB BULLOCK P.O. Box 12068 Austin, Texas 78711 (512) 463-0001.