European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 27, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday March 27, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 11 dear Ann Landers this is for that crazy lady in Toledo who said people should Stop feeling sorry for widows and save their sympathies for divorcees. According to her widows get respect and condolences life insurance pensions cars paid for Homes r and no  Deal with. Divorcees get ripped off financially and have to answer such questions As i wonder Why she could t hang on to  All i can say is i wish i had had a Choice. My 33-year-old husband was electrocuted while working around the House. I found him myself. The insurance and the car and our paid for Home Are Small com fort when my 5-year-old son cries for daddy at night. We had a wonderful marriage. Not a Day goes by that i Don t Grieve for my first and Only love whose life was Cut Short because of a senseless Accident. To suggest that a widow is luckier than a Divorcee is the most insane statement i be Ever heard. It made me so furious i got a headache. . In Houston dear Houston it should come As no Surprise to you that thousands of widows flooded my office with responses. I Haven t seen such angry mail in years. The women who were both divorced and widowed supplied the most surprising mail. They insisted that the pain of divorce was nothing compared with the agony of Bury ing a husband. In the interest of fairness Here s a letter that reflects the other Side of the Story dear Ann Landers although i resented Toledo a bitter tone i must agree with her. She said widows were much More fortunate than Divor Cees and she is 100 percent right. As a woman who was widowed at 25 and divorced at 45, i firmly believe that separa Tion by death is infinitely easier. It does t involve the awful feelings of rejection and failure nor does the widow find herself on the defensive asking herself where did i fail the emotional wounds of my divorce still have not completely healed. Just sign me divorced in 1980 and still hurting dear Ann Landers recently a Friend and i had breakfast at a cafe. Just As we started to eat a Man sat Down at the next table ordered a cup of Coffee lit up a cigarette and started to read a newspaper. He was turned sideways so that his cigarette was four feet away from my face. His smoke drifted straight into my eyes nose and Throat. I very politely said sir your smoke is in my  he replied angrily Tough and continued to read his paper. I told him i was recovering from a viral lung infection and had trouble breathing. He said that s your  i did not ask him to Stop smoking i merely asked that he keep the smoke away from my face. In the next hour As i sat there he smoked seven cigarettes. This is just one example of How most smokers do not give a Damn about nonsmokers. What would you have done if you had been in my place Seething in Enci Odear Encino i would have asked the hostess for another table the moment the clod said  to sit for an hour and inhale the smoke from seven cigarettes does not show a great Deal of intelligence. In the future i suggest that you Patron Only restaurants that have no smoking sections. Questions about child care rate hikes answered i would like for someone to Tell me Why there was an increase in child care rates in january. There was an increase last Jan uary and the service did t get any better. I know it costs Money to run the child care Center but let s be reasonable. It used to Cost $3 to Register a child for preschool then it went up to $5, now it costs $15. Why the $10 increase Why pay $80 for a child to attend preschool to learn what they Learned last year or learn the same thing they learn upstairs with the children who did t attend preschool. The increase this year is $13. With that big of an increase Why not make preschool longer give the parents something for their Money. I just find it hard to believe that the overhead has gone up that much. Why Only air Force child care centers Why not army i thought the child care Center was Here to help the military family not break them. Patron Vogel Weh child care Center Kapaun As Germany editor s note col. Dorothy l. Stewart chief mar division Kaiserslautern Community replies you Are right it costs Money to run child care centers. You May not be aware of it but it is air Force policy that our child care centers operate on a break even basis. Accordingly Price increases were implemented effective Jan. 1, 1986, to attempt a reversal of a serious financial condition. Recent inflation devaluation of the Dol Lar against the German Mark required Security checks required changes in ratios of staff to children and mandatory upgrading of staff positions added to already High labor costs. Since most of the concerns Are about preschool the discussion will focus on this area. First it should be pointed out that preschool is an optional extra Cost program which Falls under the umbrella of air Force child care centers and not the Dodds system. In our centers All children Are offered a general curriculum emphasizing developmental skills through play and creativity. Whereas in preschool which is Over and above general care in our Center the curriculum is much More intensified and Struc tured with an emphasis on readiness skills i.e., language development Reading Readi Ness Fine and Gross motor skills science and social studies. Reason for Coffee Price increase thirty five cents that makes a 40 per cent increase in the Price of a cup of Coffee Over the past few months. Cafes has a funny Way of showing their customer appreciation. Even with free refills which the majority of people Don t hang around for i find 35 cents a Little Steep. Brother can you spare a dime Why not Mark up a Carton of cigarettes 40%? obviously we re making too much Money in the wrong places. Maj. Allen f. Almquist Iii Vicenza Italy editor s note master sgt. Bruce Zielsdorf customer relations specialist Public affairs office he cafes Europe replies rest assured we re no More pleased about sky rocketing Coffee prices than you Are. Being one of those two cups in the morning to get your motor started people i too had to Check with our services Divi Sion for an explanation. Here s what i found out. Our initial Price increase from 25 to 30 cents in september was the first Price change since 1978. Due to the severe drought in Brazil cof fee prices Are increasing rapidly. Our Price for Coffee has jumped $1.17 a Pound. In an Effort to continue the free refill service which i can assure you is Well used and to offset these escalating costs we had no Choice but to increase the Price. Also some interesting Reading in the Jan. 27 edition of restaurant  with the prolonged drought in Brazil s three major Coffee growing regions now pushing into its eighth month Ken Harris president of Dine More a major supplier of Coffee to food service operators notes it appears that 30 percent of the world s Coffee crop will be destroyed by the  according to the National Coffee association the brazilian crop will be off an estimated 43.6 percent on a year to year basis. What they re concerned about is not just this year s Coffee Beans but the death of the Trees themselves. According to Gary Ryan supervisor of restaurant purchasing for Cleveland based truck stops of America right now we charge 55 cents a cup and we figure that each of our customers drink 2.6 to 2.8 cups of Coffee per sitting. I think if you break that nine Barrier you could get very Strong resistance. If we must raise prices we will be looking at 59 cents to avoid that  no that kind of news in t easy to Swal Low but Felt it necessary to Lay the facts out on the table. A writer replies to her criticism i am writing in regard to the article by Jules Loh which appeared on the front Page of a recent stars and stripes. As a schoolteacher of 17 years i was very much bothered by the terminology used As Ordinary As a  although i understand the Point that or. Loh is trying to make i am concerned about the fact that Christa Mcauliffe s profession As Well As my own and my col league Sis so underrated. Teachers Are Seldom recognized in the Public Eye and mrs. Mcauliffe s accomplishments Are very special to those of us in the education profession. If a retraction is not possible i would at least ask that the author know my feel Ings. Louise m. Zito Rhein main a Germany editor s note Jules Loh associated press special correspondent re plies i regret that you read into my article on the death of Christa Mcauliffe anything disparaging to the teaching profession. As the father of a schoolteacher the father in Law of a schoolteacher and one who has taught some adult courses in the local High school i assure you nothing of the sort was intended and among All the schoolteachers who have responded to the article you Are the Only one to detect such. Others apparently read As Ordinary As a schoolteacher1 in the sense intended As you might read for example As Ordinary As a Church Steeple or As Ordinary As another s  schoolteachers have come to symbolize in America All that is Noble and self sacrificing undoubtedly Why the president chose one for the first ride by dare i use the phrase an Ordinary citizen. Yet there is nothing Distant or strange about schoolteachers. They Are familiar to literally every american. Ordinary. That is Why the Story went on to say that Christa carried with her into space everyone s own Best dreams and that it was the presence of an Ordinary person with the right stuff that made this manned space Mission different from any of the other 55." different because it was decidedly out of the Ordinary. In response to Why in t preschool longer i think you will agree that children at this age can Only Cope so Long in a Struc tured environment. Even in our Public Dodds schools kindergarten is Only a half Day. With regard to specifics on preschool charges the $15 registration fee was increased to help cover the Cost of initial supplies and equipment for each child. Our air Force preschools Are operated with three program offerings. There is a two Day per week program at $35 per month a three Day per week program at $50 per month and a five Day per week program at $80 per month. Snacks Are included in the fee and daily sessions Are 2vi hours Long. Snacks Are required by regulation in the air Force child care centers. Air Force child care centers Are open weekends and Are open until Midnight throughout the week. In checking with the army you will find that fees for both preschool operations Are comparable. The army has two program offerings a two Day per week program at $30 per month and a three Day per week program at $40 per month. They have no five Day per week program and snacks Are not included in the fee. Each daily session is the same 2 a hours. Both our air Force child development and preschool programs in this Community Are High in Quality and develop valuable and interesting activities that help children developmentally emotionally and physically. Bottom line it s your Call As to whether or not your investment is a Good one. The starsx/2 an european edition capt Dale k. Patterson us editor in chief cmdr Jeffrey s. Zakem us Deputy editor in chief . Blackwell m. Proctor . Mcdermott production manager managing de. Circulation manager this newspaper is an authorized unofficial publication for members of the military services overseas. Contents of the stars and stripes Are not necessarily the official views of or endorsed by the . Government the department of defense or the . European command. The appearance of advertising in this publication including inserts or supplements does not constitute endorsement by the department of defense or the stars and stripes of the products or services advertised. 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