European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 4, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse Stars and stripes opinion Page 17 discuss Edwards but dont speak for her by Lynn Feigenbaum the Virginia Pilot How people handle Seri Ous illness and death seems to become everybody business probably because if s our own deepest fear what if it happened in my family what if it happened to me so it went with Terri Schiavo with Abraham Cherrix and others in the nation Al spotlight and now of course with Eliza Beth Edwards whose breast can cer has spread to her Bones and we All know that s very bad news when her husband John Edwards quickly announced his decision to keep running for presi Dent less than a Day after his wife chilling diagnosis i joined in scrutinizing and judging their decision it was a decisive thumbs Down How naive could they be Elizabeth Edwards insists Shes symptom free i dont look sickly i dont feel sickly but she must know that s a Short lived hiatus How could her devoted Hus band hardly a presidential front runner take on a probably hopeless quest that will keep them and away from their Young children when the family most needs togetherness dont do this i shouted in my head but haunt i done the same thing in october 1996 at age 55 my husband David went to the neurologist with a slight weak Ness in is left hand and nothing he Learned that he had als better known As Lou Geh rigs disease that night began the worst maybe the Only depression i have Ever experienced and the next morning i went to work As usual we both did even though i speak to anyone even to Tell them what we had Learned that he had two to five years to live and that unlike even Meta Static breast cancer there was no treatment no cure no Hope our lives changed forever but we both kept up our schedules As though nothing had changed Only missing work when David had an appointment at Johns Hopkins als clinic in Balti More and while he sat through batteries of tests and appoint ments i sat there like Madame Defarge instead of knitting i did my usual crossword puzzles i lost myself in that work Rou Tine and in the puzzles arid maybe i still do is that what Elizabeth and John Edwards Are doing keeping their Groove even such a demanding one As running for the country top of fice maybe if s crazy but hey if s their craziness in the months and years after his diagnosis my husbands ill Ness quickly spread until he walk or move or speak or eat or finally breathe David decided to get a feeding tube and go on a ventilator nursing aides came and went in our House Day and night medical equipment replaced furniture Hospital stays for pneumonia and other crises were a Nightmare still i kept working i told my self it was because David was on my health plan but he could have gotten social Security Dis ability and medicare i could have taken time off under the family and medical leave act but i didst i wanted to save it for a real emergency what s a real emergency if not the nine Days David spent at deaths door with two types of pneumonia that seemed to resist All medication i was never far from him i worked several hours a Day at my Home computer car ried around two cell phones and spent almost every now Orang moment with my husband we be came closer than Ever but i kept Mark Duncan a Elizabeth Edwards greets members after arriving for a speech at the City club in Cleveland on March 26 Edwards the wife of democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards spoke about her Battle with cancer working a full time Job was it for my sanity maybe five years after is death in still grieving and still working one difference from the Edwards family our children were already adults supportive and nearby the two younger Edwards children Are just 6 and 8 but who to say whats right for this dynamic ambitious Cou ple and there not strangers to personal tragedy i think they know what there doing if they dont Well John Edwards can stand up in front of the country and say Hes changed his mind Lynn Feigenbaum is commentary editor of the Virginia Pilot in Norfolk a Halliburton makes its move we make up our minds by my Andersen the Providence i journal one advantage of working some place a Long time is that you know How to find a Guy with a Dolly for some time i had been collecting material on Halliburton the Oiler vices company once headed by Dick Cheney and later blessed with Large govern ment contracts related to the Iraq War i sup pose i had intended to Wax Wroth at some Point but the Mountain of negative press grew so Large that i finally could not figure out where to begin i also was running out of room on my desk hence the Dolly alas too soon when Halliburton announced last month that it was moving its top Man to the United Arab emirates i was fresh out of ammo this is Why hoarders Hoard though that is a subject for another Day with Halliburton under so much scrutiny lately the planned move looked right off the Bat like a Case of corporate Cuta Drua both the Justice department and the securities and Exchange commission have been investigating possible improper doings by the company including overfilling and bribery maybe by creating a new Headquarters Halliburton was trying to get beyond the Laws reach or maybe it was trying to skip out on some heavy duty taxes no doubt these Guys were up to something though you could almost hear the collective aha sweeping the country but As the Story unfolded the move looked More and More like what Halliburton said it was an attempt to be closer to the action increasingly Halliburton business opportunities were in the Middle East it needed to be present to win a spokeswoman said the company would remain a us corporation with its main of fice in Houston by moving chef executive David Lesar to Dubai it anticipated absolutely no tax benefits analysts paid to Ana Lyme such things scratched their Heads it seemed to them she was right furthermore Haliburton has recently spun off Abr the subsidiary that handled most of its military contracting work Abr is now the bad twin above whose head perpetually hangs the Banner of blame the Good twin is just going about its business even the new York times editorial Page was perplexed usually the first to smell a rat it simply noted that the planned move to Dubai proved that facet face Contact still mattered in this Day of the internet int it the truth Haliburton has obtained government con tracts Worth billions to help reconstruct Iraq and to provide supplies and other support to us troops last year alone it received billion most of Wimch came through Abr but reconstruction has essentially been abandoned and the conflict drags on Ameri cans Are left to wonder what they got for their billions investigators bless Mem Are trying to find out fun footnote a couple of sex Haliburton people hold a contract to help run Walter Reed army medical Center where Iraq vet Erans have been held in such infamously deplorable conditions one of the first fruits of privatization was a two thirds Cut in the maintenance staff Boring As it sounds be cause not sufficiently tax Bene fits May yet turn out to be what the Dubai move is All about creative accounting is a National sport and it did not end with Enron Congress has been looking into offshore tax havens and raising ineffectual cries for years now a Senate report last summer found rampant use of such shelters among the super Rich including Sam and Charles Wyly two of president Bush top contributors corporations play the game As Well set Ting up subsidiaries to protect income from Uncle Sam hundreds have outposts in the Cayman islands for example offshore cheating is Worth an estimated 7 cents per every Dollar paid by honest Ameri cans yet Congress has refused to give the internal Revenue service the resources it needs to Call a halt nor has it done much to close loopholes in Hau Burtons Case it could at first be just Lesar and a few retainers who Tipp toe off to Dubai then Lesar May nonchalantly begin pulling the thread that brings the rest of the company along but who knows you could have a Good debate Over whether Halliburton has become a Branch of the government or Dick Cheney has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton Cheney lies have rubbed off on the company and Hau Burtons questionable paydays have tarnished Cheney neither the Man nor the company is particularly trusted now and that overrides any facts that May turn up in their favor As for the Dolly of i didst really get one i just threw All my Halliburton stuff in the recycling bin one Day but the Dolly makes a better Story yes and these Days when not even the truth sounds True a Good Story is about All we have m j Andersen is a member of the journal editorial Board prickly City by Scott Stantis kids 5
