Procedures help keep young athletes heart-safe

It was hopeful and heartbreaking to read the article about young athletes dropping dead from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) ("A deadly sport at heart," Page 1, March 16). Six years ago, my 7-year-old son, Nader, was one of those young athletes.

Increased heart screening is a step in the right direction, but it is not enough to help kids survive SCA. Children —- and not just child athletes —- suffer SCA for 18 reasons. Typically there are no generally recognized warning signs, and screening will miss many. However, we can increase a child's chance of survival from less than 5 percent to more than 70 percent if CPR is started immediately and an AED (automated external defibrillator) is used within five minutes. We advocate heavily for having AEDs and people trained in CPR wherever children play —- especially at schools and sports leagues.

Every May in Cobb County, we hold the Nader Parman II Memorial Run to broaden awareness of SCA in kids and to help make schools and sports leagues heart-safe. But our youth will continue to die until there are AEDs and people trained in CPR wherever our children play.

SHERRI PARMAN

Parman, a Cobb County consultant, has launched the Nader Parman II Memorial Foundation in partnership with the Marcus Jewish Community Center and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

FairTax would foster transparency

The article on open government is right on the money ("Finding the key to the kingdom," @issue, March 16). Speaking of money, no area of government affects more people than our income tax system. Yet that system is so complex and obscure that virtually no one understands it. Taxpayers spend billions of dollars and hours attempting to figure out how much they owe. Thousands of pages of arcane rules and regulations provide ample cover for influence peddling and corruption. The system is broken and desperately needs a complete overhaul.

The FairTax would replace this mess with a simple, fair and transparent method of collection. The AJC is right. Government openness is critical to our democratic vitality. There's no better way to hack away at government obscurity than by replacing our current system with the FairTax.

WILLIAM FOGARTY, Alpharetta

Puritanism preferable to prostitution

The opinion article "Trading on America's puritanical streak" (@issue, March 14) was an eye- opener. It illustrates the loss of moral responsibility that has increasingly plagued our nation.

The author begins with a predictable and overused attack on puritanism as a way to defend her politician of choice against charges of being involved with a prostitution ring. It becomes almost hilarious as she compares prostitution to legitimate professions and implies that we should raise its respectability to that of opera singers, dancers and actors.

As her attacks on puritanism continue, it becomes obvious that the author doesn't even consider common decency, which one would think is a cherished trait of the human race. What is frightening is that these words come from a person who is professor of law and ethics (ethics, no less) and is teaching our future leaders. Heaven help us.

ARNO STAHLE, Atlanta

Is it Herbert Hoover, or George W. Bush?

The big investment bank Bear Stearns is bought out at bargain-basement prices. The value of our dollar has hit a new low. Most admit past deregulation of mortgage banking has led to a national mortgage crisis. Billions of our federal dollars are being thrown at these results of unregulated free enterprise to prevent disaster.

Let's be clear, though: This isn't the right wing's hated welfare, the much smaller sums reluctantly given to the poor. When it's given to the rich, it's enhancement of our economy. Sounds much better!

When I was young, I remember talk about bank failures, the plummeting dollar, folks hoarding metal currency and tradable goods. This they called the Great Depression. Dubya hasn't yet admitted we're in a serious recession, but he says the economy does need close watching. Isn't that what Hoover said many years ago as well? Bring on a new administration!

DAVID BICE, Kennesaw

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Sunday alcohol sales

Perdue's personal opinion is not the issue

I was amused to see Gov. Sonny Purdue's opposition to allowing Georgians to determine if they should have the right to buy alcohol on Sunday ("Perdue blasts booze measure," Metro, March 14).

It is my understanding that one of the founding principles of the modern Republican Party is the right of responsibility and self-determination (as opposed to government dictating what is right and wrong in personal lives). Governor, we want to vote on what we feel is right, not what you feel is right. I do realize that Perdue has a personal opinion in the matter, but that should not interfere in the will of the people whom he claims to represent. Once again, let us vote!

A. VINCENT RAY, Cumming

How about a Thursday ban instead?

The Rev. Michael R. Griffin's recent column included statistics that have convinced me that we need to retain at least one day free from alcohol sales each week ("Ban serves public health and safety," @issue, March 14). Perhaps, however, we could set aside Thursdays rather than Sundays. Certainly his passionate support for public safety is not tied up in a particular day of the week, is it?

MIKE PERCY, Marietta

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Blame our profligate government, not NAFTA

A job is not something that belongs to a worker; it's owned by the person who offers it. It is something that someone wants done, and that person either does it himself or contracts to have it done.

Inflation is the only reason for a raise of wages for jobs in which the worker has not increased productivity or skills. Such wage raises do not increase the standard of living of the worker. They merely acknowledge that his wage has been depreciated by the government through its unwarranted increase in the money supply and/or credit. Thus the "giant sucking sound" being discussed is actually caused by our government, not NAFTA ("'Sucking sound' very real indeed," Letters, March 16).

SHIRLEY M. GIORDANO, Atlanta

Ad valorem tax unfair, indefensible

Your editorial "A junker of an idea" misses the point about the vehicle ad valorem tax (@issue, March 12). True, it would benefit the owner of a more expensive or newer car, but these are not exclusively the domain of the rich, as the editorial would have us conclude.

The truth is that this is the most irritating tax on the books to individuals in larger counties. The disparity in the tax rates applied to a DeKalb, Fulton, Bibb, etc., county resident's vehicle compared with someone in a rural county is not defensible. Reasonable arguments might be made about drastically different millage rates for real estate, given the costs of infrastructure (and the bloated and inefficient governments in some larger counties). But there is no justification for the disparity in tax applied to the same vehicle in different counties.

If it's just a matter of holding on to more of Georgia's money, set a revenue-neutral vehicle tax rate. Try charging a rural county resident five times the tax he pays, regardless of vehicle age, and see what reaction you get. This is not "election-year pandering," as you term it, but legislative attention to the people's will.

BILL PRICE, Atlanta

Mock trial victory a rebuke to board

Jonesboro High School's mock trial team has won the state championship in the Georgia Mock Trial Competition for the third year in a row. The 2007 national champion, Jonesboro now turns its attention to the 2008 national tournament.

Although I help coach a competing mock trial team, I couldn't be more pleased with the result. What a stunning validation of the quality of education and the dedication to excellence in at least one Clayton County school. And what a timely rebuke to the clowns on the Clayton school board who have imperiled the futures of these great kids.

MARCUS PATTON

Patton is a social studies instructor and mock trial teacher-coach at Decatur High School.