European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 30, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The stars and stripes Page 1t editor s note Ann Landers is on vacation. The following column is one of her favourites. Shell be Back sunday. Dear Ann lancers you be said a Good word for waiters maids Bellboy police officers airline pilots and garage mechanics. Now will you give a hand to the most abused people in America a the Utility meter readers. My son Elmer has been a meter Reader for two years he has been harassed cussed out kicked bitten and mugged. A few weeks ago a husband came Home unexpectedly saw Elmer in the basement and mistook him for his wife a Lover. Elmer was Lucky to gel out with his life. People Pul All sorts of things Over their meters so the readers can to get to them a heavy trash cans Garden implements and Lawn furniture they Park their cars in front of the meter and refuse to move them. To top it All if the Bill seems High they complain their Heads off and write dirty letters to the management saying the meter Reader is off his nut. T h please say something in your column to give these poor Guys a lift. They sure deserve it a a Richmond mom dear mom i did my bit for meter readers a few years Back when i printed a letter from a housewife who liked to do her housework in the nude. It seems she was in the basement doing her laundry and decided to take off her House dress and throw it in the washing machine. The woman suddenly noticed the pipes overhead were dripping so she put on her son s football helmet which was lying in the Comer. There she stood naked As the Day she was bom when she heard a Small cough. The woman turned around and stared straight into the face of the meter Reader. Be looked completely bewildered and All he could say was a i Hope your team wins lady. After that letter appeared in the column i had dozens of letters from mothers who said their sons had decided on a career. They wanted to be meter readers. Dear Ann Landers i was interested in the letter from the Man whose wife died. He pointed out that Many widowers Are left helpless a and done to know How to boil an or sew on a Button. He said a wives would be doing their husbands a big favor if they stopped wailing on them hand and foot and taught them How to do things for  it is my opinion that the teaching should be done by mothers not wives. My Mother saw to it that All of us kids washed dishes cooked cleaned House and ironed our own clothes a the boys As Well As the girls. I hated it at the time and so did my brother but when we went to College we were thankful. Shortly after i married my wife had an emergency Call to Fly to the coast. She left knowing id manage of. And i did. I cooked for myself and even did my own shirts. So Tell the moms out there that their sons May yell a lot when they Are forced to do household chores but in time they will Rise and Call her blessed. A one who did dear did thanks for the assist. And now mom done to hand this column to your teen age son but put it where he a Likely to see it. Like in the refrigerator. Confidential to Best foot Forward whom Are you trying to kid you know perfectly Well if you really wanted to put your Best foot Forward you would step out of the picture. C creators Syndicate a a Reader would what Ever happened to straight talk _ once there was a time when americans used words exact words to describe something or a particular disposition. But somewhere along the line the government special interest groups and psychologists have created a soft language that no longer truly describes something the Way it really is. At first these words they changed were harmless turning a Blunt word into something Kinder. They turned the dump to the Landfill dentures into dental appliances deafness into impaired hearing and constipation into occasional irregularity. These Little changes in vocabulary began to ignore some people who May have gotten help had they been called what they really were. Poor people were no longer living in slums. They were the economically disadvantaged occupying substandard housing in the inner City. They were not broke they had a negative Cash flow disposition. In Wei when a soldiers nervous system was stressed to the maximum and then pushed one step further it was called Shell Shock not a pretty word. So in Kwh they called it Battle fatigue a nicer word. In Korea it was called operational exhaustion. Now it ,. Sounds like he a tired. Then Vietnam came along. They called it Post traumatic stress disorder. The pain was completely hidden under the jargon. I bet if it had been called Shell Shock those veterans would have gotten the attn lion they needed at the time. Instead they were swept under the carpet by this soft language. This Kinder and gentler nation is a world Power now and its softer language affects those beyond it sore straight talk Borders. The Cia docs not kill anyone any More it neutralizes them. They do do not lie anymore they engage in disinformation. Other countries have commandos and assault forces we have the defense department. Another country Iraq holds approximately 21.000 we Siemers. It threatens to starve these people and place them in key locations that Are most Likely to be bombed in the event of War. We Call these people detainees or re strict Ces. When . Warships restrict All vessels carrying goods to Iraq and fire live rounds Over the decks of two different Oil tankers in he persian Gulf we Call it interdicting Trade shipping. Somebody needs to Wake up and Start using some straight Forward and Blunt language before someone gets Hurt. These 21,000 innocent men women and children Are hostages held against their will they Are not detainees and Saddam Hussein plans to starve them or Chain them to the front of his tanks when he attacks. On the water Over the two gulfs we arc running a blockade with the intent of starving our enemy into submission and forcing him to surrender Kuwait i wonder what Saddam will do to his hostages when he sees his people starving. 1 wonder when he attacks the Fleet that is starving him starting a War where will we drop our bombs. I wonder will the hostages be starved bombed or rescued i wonder if we can gel a straight answer from somebody no soft language please. A spec. Paul Wright bad Kissinger West Germany 1 Dodds summer school program discussed i wrote you last year concerning starting a Dodds summer school program. The Gist of the letter and the Dodds reply was that summer school for students needing tutorial help would be a great idea but Dodds does no to have the funding or staffing to provide a summer school program. I believe Dodds is missing the boat. A summer school program would not need much Money or additional Dodds staffing. Dodds could through those colleges now offering overseas programs e.g., big Bend Community College solicit a proposal to have a private College set up a summer High school level tutorial program using fully qualified teachers. The College would offer the courses through the base education Center and the participants would pay for the full Cost of the course. Dodds would have general program oversight approving the curriculum length of the course and possibly allow the use of its texts and facilities. Upon successful completion of the course Dodds would accept the course credits. The Bottom line is that Dodds needs to get the Ball rolling and has to take the first step. They need to agree with the concept of summer school and then solicit proposals to have someone teach it. Can we get Dodds to do it can we also ask one of the overseas colleges if they would be interested a chief master sgt. Dennis j. Mcavoy Ramstein a West Germany editors note a John l. Stremple director department of defense office of dependents schools Alexandria Van a replies Dodds has determined that approximately 20 per cent of the student population in grades k-12 could Benefit from a remedial program designed to develop and strengthen skills that the student did not master during the school year. An additional 10 percent of Dodds students including talented and gifted students could be provided the Opportunity to take advanced enrichment or special interest courses which scheduling would not allow during the regular school year. A summer school program is dependent on funding the availability of qualified teachers and student enrolment frequently it is difficult to have All three of these factors present in any particular location. Therefore if a qualified teacher is not available in the school no summer school program is possible even though funds May be available and student enrolment adequate. In other cases a qualified teacher May be available but student enrolment is not sufficient to warrant a class. Assuming that 30 percent of Dodds students would take advantage of summer school a typical 4-week summer program would require about 2,500 full time equivalent teachers at a Cost of approximately $5 million. Dodds has requested program funds for a summer school program for fiscal year 1992. The implementation of such a program is of course contingent on the approval of this request As Welt As the interest of the local Community. In the interim the Dodds regions will continue to consider school year Extension programs for interested students and will also provide assistance in gaining Access to alternative programs such As correspondence courses or As the writer suggested other locally available educational  is and ipes european edition col. Gene e. Town sen 0, Usan. Commander editor in Chial. To. Col. Suzanne l. Phillips Usan Deputy commander editor in chief Marie Kosnicki Mert Proctor Deane b. Mcdermott production manager managing editor circulation manager this newspaper its an authorized unofficial publication for members cd the military services overseas. Contents i the slats and stripes Are not  the official views of or endorsed by. The . Government. 1he department of defense or the  european command the appearance of advertising a this publication including inserts or supplements does not constitute endorsement by the department of defense or t he stars and stripes of the products or services . 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