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Finding some good news

Published 20-May-1990 in the Denver Post
Copyright ©1990 by Ed Quillen. All rights reserved.

Even though I am an unemployed recluse, I somehow become privy to glad tidings that the general population obviously doesn't see -- the major media are often accused of ignoring good news -- so I feel compelled to pass some along.

One neighbor gets conservative mail by the truckload. He shared this: My friend, because of your longstanding support for Oliver North and the Legal Affairs Council you are one of the special few I am asking this question: Question: shall we try one more time, to build support for a Presidential Pardon for Oliver North? Shall we kick off on the Fourth of July and culminate on Veterans Day in November, 1990?

My friend, we really need to get Oliver North that pardon. . . . Contributions have dropped off dramatically for our pardon Oliver North nationwide campaign . . . We have been forced to suspend the entire effort at this point . . . Can you write out another contribution check to help the Legal Affairs Council once more?

Or we could look at the local paper. Do you tend to put other's needs before yours? Do you tend to judge your thoughts and actions by the standards of other people? Are you a perfectionist, especially regarding yourself?

I once naively believed that putting other people's needs before your own was a condition known as marriage, parenthood or citizenship. Police and courts are always judging our actions by the standards of others. Perfectionism as also known as trying to do it right.

But according to that article, if you can answer any of these questions with a yes, you may be a co-depending person. Everybody I know suffers frequent lapses from total selfishness, and the mental health professionals say they cannot stem this surging epidemic of co-dependency.

The Defense Department issues an annual shopping list for the benefit of small business. Consider this partial entry from the 431-page list for fiscal 1988, which appeared on my desk recently, courtesy of a non-defense contractor:

Air Force regional medical centers world-wide generate annually about 100 50-gallon drums of syringes, tubing, bottles, gowns, and rags contaminated with small quantities of chemotherapeutic agents classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic, or teratogenic drugs. A Phase I engineering feasibility study should result in recommendations to include a prioritized list of disposal methods for implementation. Do you want somebody conducting that research on your street?

Or, There is a need for a compact, wide-dynamic-range nuclear radiation detector, for possible use in a future, advanced aerial radiation detection and fallout mapping system. Such a detector should be capable of measuring gamma radiation or X-ray intensities emanating from contaminated terrain areas. Want them to conduct those field tests in Colorado?

A few months ago, several of our representatives complained that Colorado enterprises do not get their fair share of the military pork barrel.

So other states are getting more than their share of mutagen disposal research and aerial gamma-ray detection tests. They can't cure co-dependency, and Ollie North's pardon fund is broke. You can always find good news, if you look hard enough.


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