Letters: Mar. 6, 2000

McCain's plan for campaign-finance reform won't be any different from cutting the tips off ragweed, which creates more shoots and a 1,000% increase in hay-fever attacks. Getting legislators to vote for reform and turn down big political donations will be like keeping hungry hogs away from a full feeding trough. THOMAS L. WASINGER Titusville, Fla.

Whether McCain wins or not, he has proved that the average voter is far from being the fool many of the ruling class would have us believe. Let all publicly elected officials heed this warning: tell the truth. RICHARD L. CARLSEN Ephrata, Wash.

What McCain has is the simple desire to do the right thing. That counts for nothing with the pols and media types, but it's the main thing for the rest of us. STEPHEN C. HAGEN Ridgewood, N.J.

BELIEVERS VS. NONBELIEVERS

Hurrah for Charles Krauthammer's criticism [ESSAY, Feb. 14] of the Super Bowl ad showing Christopher Reeve walking! As a rehabilitation psychologist and a quadriplegic for 42 years, I strongly urge anyone with a spinal-cord injury to live as if there is no possibility of a cure. It is a terrible mistake simply to wait for a magical cure. If one comes in your lifetime, wonderful! If not, then you haven't wasted your time waiting for something that may happen eventually but too late to help you. Life in a wheelchair is definitely worth living! I believe even Reeve would agree with that. LANI DEAUVILLE Vero Beach, Fla.

In his piece "Restoration, Reality and Christopher Reeve," Krauthammer chastised me for appearing in a commercial in which I am seen walking sometime in the future. He accused me of raising false hopes. My guess is that Krauthammer is unaware of the many published studies documenting the remarkable progress being made toward repairing a damaged spinal cord. A few months ago, you published an article by Jeffrey Kluger on spinal injury that was a less biased report [VISIONS 21, Nov. 8]. In it, in response to a statement I made that I hoped to be on my feet by my 50th birthday and that there was a chance this might happen, Kluger wrote, "Skeptics warn against too much giddy hope...Most researchers, though, are more optimistic. Over the course of 10 years, they say, the riddles of the cord have been solved." I wish to reassure the public that I fully realize how important it is not to make statements that are misleading or irresponsible. CHRISTOPHER REEVE Bedford, N.Y.

As a practicing physical therapist who has worked with spinal-cord injury patients, I privately cringed when Reeve stated he would walk again. I believe that the Super Bowl commercial was inappropriate. Reeve should instill hope for a life that those with a spinal injury can realistically expect to attain in their lifetime. The $2 million spent on this TV ad could have gone to finance research or a more realistic commercial. JULIE EBERLY Owings Mills, Md.

CORRECTION

Our story about a patent dispute between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Time Domain Corp. [NOTEBOOK, March 29] mistakenly said former Livermore researcher Thomas McEwan was not the first to invent "micropower impulse radar" technology. The U.S. Patent Office, which initially rejected Livermore's key patent claims, has now concluded that McEwan's patent for the technology is valid and reaffirmed Livermore's patent claims.