. - : • , • - \ • • 58- - opinion Herald & Lantern 25 April '84

The Elderly 's * Duty to Die' When Colorado Gov. Richard D. Lamm remarked that elderly people who are terminally ill have a "duty to die." he did more than speak in a jarring; insensitive manner, he" confused two very different ethical issues. One copcerns the widely accepted idea that seriously ' ill people deservp to be fully informed about possible treatments.^j'nd to decide for themselves wtyat course to pursue. 7 , The other, far more controversial idea is that there are limits on the right of certain people to call upon the scifciety to provide for'their care. DESPITE. THE INITIAL outpouring of criticism. Gov Lamra. to his credit, did not retreat. At a. later meeting with senfor citizens.' groups he amplified his remarks. 1 noting that "we are really approaching a time of almost • technological immortality when the machine and the tubes, and the drugs literally force life upon us." Technological advances', he warned, can "impose life oh people who , ..are suffering beyond the ability for us ■ to help." ■ . " ; . 1 Tfiis emphasis got a better reception from his audience. Many older people - and y ounger ones, too — dread the notion of being kept alive by artificial means ' In recent years people. have been willing. to talk frankly iboul the- right to make certain decisions about the ' prolongation of one's pwn life. ' ' 'Physicians should not be afraid to discuss with ' patients or family members the likely course of an illness and the probable success or side effects of different types of treatments; and people should not fear -that if a treatment is rejected, the patient will be denied all the, care 'necesSary. Bl'T WHEN -THE governor suggested that elderly patients have a-dutv to die le£t the cost of their care bankrupt the nation, he moved onto treacherous morql ground. , ft.is-irue that this country, for a number of historical reasons, distributes access to health care in a way that would be hard to justify if one were starting afresh Government spends tens of billions each year caring for elderly and severely disabled people. Not surprisingly, a high proportion of expenses goes for care in the last year of life. At the same lime, millions of people who aren't elderly have no health insurance coverage at all. With . medical costs as high as thCy-'are. this means that many people who could. resume a fully healthy life can't get the care required to do so. ' .If health-care resources are truly limited — a question that depends more on the society's preference for other • goods than on any absolute scarcity — ' priority should go •toTilling in the gaps in medical coverage rather than providing more extensive benefits to those already covered. "But it won't Ik* easy to decide how that should be done • — Washington Post 4 . Our Readers Write ^ Ramp Appreciated To The Editor s / I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all individuals and organizations who were kind enough to help get a ramp built for me so I can get out occasionally. Thank you is such a small word, but it comes from my heart. I do hope any money contributed in excess of what has been used*will be used to help someone else get a ramp. FRANCES REGAN Villas

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pk « A .: i--- u;. / 1 Probably Would Be Much More Concerned About The Deficit If 1 Knew What One Was

Lookin' and Listenin' Our Lighthouse By DOROTHY D. FREAS Listening to both sides of the question being debated on the subject of making "our" lighthouse a tourist attracftbn brought thoughts of how it had moved around. A lighthouse moved'' No. but when the ocean took some of the land away, there had. to be a new beacon erected to guide fhe ships, so there has been a series of lighthouses Old maps have indicated a signal light of some sort as far back as 1744. built by the British. It was not long after the Revolutionary War. however, that records show a transfer of property in front of Congress Hall for the purpose of building a beacon of some kind. The land here was of a higher level, but as far as we can learn, no lighthouse ever stood there. Just as well, for the ocean later covered ' that very/spot. BY 1821. CONGRESS set aside funds for the building of a 70-foot tower at Cape May Point. Completed two years • later, there -was a light formed by 15 separate lamps, not modern, but a warning light for ships approaching the . land. Less than 25-years later, as the seas surrounded it. this first lighthouse was destroyed, but by then a newlighthouse was built, in 1847. some distance inland. Again "man proposes." and only 12 years later. Cape May Point Light No. 3 was built at its present location. The tower of the 1847 light was dismantled at that time, leaving the base on the present beach, and it remained visible until about a year ago. The present lighthouse has over 200 steps to the stoj). At first it had kerosene lamps with five burners using over seven gallons of oil between dusk and sun-up. A BETTER LIGHT, installed in 1920. now uses electricity and automatically turns on and off. In clear weather it is visible^ miles at sea. The earlier lens is now to be seen in the Cape May County Museum, on Route 9. just north of Cape May Court House. o ■ The Cape May Point Lighthouse is believed to be the oldest one still "commissioned by the Coast Guard as a navigational lighthouse." There it stands where the ocean and the bay join forces.

Taxes Up; Sins Down As brewers and sociologists ponder the decline in American smoking and drinking, we're hearing sober analysis attributing this to a rising interest in health and physical fitness and to "neoprohibitionist" restrictions on - liquor ads. « • Interesting talk, but it leaves one thing out — taxes. Sin is the first place a government looks for more revenue these days. Last year alone, 14 states tried to squeeze more money from alcohol sales, and 18 did the same for cigarettes. As we've been saying for years, when you tax something more, people use it less. ^ NEW YORKERS, for one. have been frustrating the tax man by drinking less hard liquor as he raised the rates. A 26 percent hooch tax incease in 1983 is estimated to produce only 20 percent more revenue. They're even cutting down on beer in Brooklyn, thanks to a 1980 New York City tax of 12 cents per gallon. ( We remember how the six-pack set groused about the way the wine-and-Brie East Side dodged this tax bullet.) Smokers are just as perverse. A 40 percent increase in the state tax last year is estimated to bring in only 33 percent more revenue A diatribe against cigarette bootlegging enlivens this year's state budget. CALIFORMANS aren't any more helpful. With a $2-a-gallop state tax on distilled spirits, hard-liquor drinkers are cutting back from 2.18 gallons per capita in fiscal 1983 to an estimated 2.06 gallons in 1985. Cigarette smoking has dropped 5.6 percent a head this fiscal year from last, and state budget makers think it will go down another 4.7 percent next year. They blame the doubling of the federal cigarette tax in 1983 for their own declining tobacco tax revenues. None of this should be any surprise. The first of the Treasury men. Alexander Hamilton, described the principle in the Federalist Papers. "The saying is as just as it is witty." he wrote, "that 'in political arithmetic, two and two do not always make four." If duties are loo high they lessen the consumption, the collection is eluded, and the product to the treasury is not so great as when they are confined within proper and moderate bounds. " Our public health is probably improving because of these specific cases of overtaxation, but our fiscal health might be helped if our policy makers noted the supply-side lesson they entail. — Wall Street Journal Letters Welcome The Herald and Latern Welcome letters to the editor on matters of public interest. Originals, not copies, are requested. Writers should sign name, address and phone number.

Don't Mind If I Do 'Have a Little Wine, Joey?'

By JOE ZELNIK There is something nice about a drink or two at the right time and place — like a cold beer after you've mowed the lawn on a hot day. That profound conclusion came to me at Ju-Ju's Ranch House in Avaioh last Thursday night as two ladies in cowboy outfits kept filling my plastic glass with champagne. No, Ju-Ju's doesn't have a liquor license. It was a pre-grand. opening celebration. . 1 know drinking and driving don't mix. And I've seen far too many lives and marriages destroyed by alcoholism. So please don't' think I'm saying anything except that, for me. an occasional drink can be a pleasure. I've closed a few bars, but I've never opened one. I don't insist that "beer belongs — enjoy it. " I respect people willing to pay a buck and a half for a plain soda. On the other hand, when Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson sing, "To all the girls I've loved before,"" I know darned well they're not toasting yvith milk. ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES are part of my culture. I grew up in New York State where the legal drinking age was 18, which meant you started around 16. My dad sells beer in his grocery- store, attached to the house. So it was always there. When it's always there, it's no big deal. Yeah, I got drunk. I remember sitting at the bar of the Slovenian Club in Gowanda, New York, one New Year's Eve a thousand years ago and, when I got ready to leave, both of my legs seemed to have fallen asleep. A friend took — Way to Co, Nancy! — - Nancy Och of Avalon won lunch for two at Henny's iT Stone Harbor by correctly matching the saying, "You don't sweat much for a fat girl," with Gomer Pyle (actor Jim Nabors) of the Andy Griffith Ihow. % : t :

me home, propped me against the front door, knocked, and vamoosed. My dad took it pretty well, as I remember. I delivered groceries for him on Saturdays. People didn't give tips after I unloaded their boxes. They'd say, "Have a little glass of wine, Joey?" It came right from the barrel in the basement. 1 wasn't about to hurt their* feelings. I DON'T PRETEND to have good taste. In my refrigerator this minute is a bottle of Boone's Farm, an eight-pack cf seven-ounce Stroh's, and two bottles of Dortmunder, a German beer a friend brings cause she can't stand Stroh's. On top of my refrigerator is an unopened bottle of Kahlua. I don't even drink the stuff; I just bought it in Mexico cause the price was right. My dad. on the other hand, has exquisite taste. He prefers Wild Irish Rose, a 20-proof red liquid that masquerades as wine. Everyone finds pleasure in different things. Some people like to waich or play baseball or golf or shoot rabbits or catch mackerel. I like to sit in outdoor cafes, tip something cool, and watch the people go by. I KNOW DARNED WELL you don't have to drink to have fun. One of the sweetest days in my life occurred a couple years ago when I had hepatitis and wasn't drinking. I was with a favorite person at a swim club. It was our custom to take a small thermos which held four vodka gimlets and sip a little near sundown. Forgetting that I couldn't drink. I made the usual four-drink batch. Forgetting I wasn't joining in, my companion put away all four. Rain clouds rolled in and we left early, back to my place for food. We never did eat. To this day she doesn't remember a thing that happened and stays 10 feet away from vodka gimlets. Personally, I had a lovely time. I guess what it melts down to is that a drink — alcoholic or not — is as enjoyable as the person you're having it with. ,