Pubdate: Sat, 25 Oct 2003 Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch (VA) Copyright: 2003 Richmond Newspapers Inc. Contact: http://www.timesdispatch.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/365 Author: Diane Schulz Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1601/a10.html GOODMAN COLUMN MISSES THE POINT Editor, Times-Dispatch: In her column about Rush Limbaugh's addiction to painkillers, Ellen Goodman makes the tragic mistake of saying conservatives simplify life into categories of right and wrong while liberals talk of strengths and weaknesses. Conservatives believe one has the ability and possesses the inner strength to control and change one's life. The majority of liberals accept misconduct as a weakness that everyone else should overlook. Rush admitted he has a problem and is taking action to correct it. He is not lying about it. He is not blaming society for it. He is accepting responsibility for it and that is what liberals can't seem to understand! That is the honorable thing to do. Ms. Goodman's implied effort to equate Rush's dependence on painkillers to an addict's addiction to cocaine or heroin is misguided and follows a typical liberal "thought wave" - think dirty, find the weakness, and go for the jugular. The first person in the comparison is trying to live a productive life while the latter is self-serving and is trying to escape from life. Ms. Goodman described Rush as the voice of the "angry white man." He expresses a lot of my views and I am not an angry white man or a soccer mom. In the true conservative fashion I will tell her what I stand for. I believe in the overwhelming strength of the human spirit to overcome obstacles, in accepting one's responsibility, and in being honorable. Rush exemplifies those attributes. I am a proud, middle-class (as defined by liberal standards as making $30,000 per year or more), working white woman. Diane Schulz midlothian - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin