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Letters to the editor: 06/29/00

Oliver to everyone: 'Take care of yourself'

To the Editor:

As of this week, I am leaving the practice of medicine and obstetrics in the very capable hands of Dr. Van Duuren and our midwife, Maggie McCrae.

I have appreciated working with Drs. Smallwood, Branning and Han. It has, in the past nine years, been a wonderful experience working with all my peers and with the rest of Harris Regional Hospital's doctors and staff. The nursing staff in the labor room who are responsible for birthing mothers and the third floor have become very close to me. I shall miss them and their kindness. The labor room staff had to put up with me and my unconventional approach to birthing, and they did it well. This community is very lucky, for they are a fine and knowledgeable staff caring for this area's population's diseases and ills.

I am impressed with the focus of all of our doctors, nurses and our physician associates who are delivering top medical care and concern, especially for their work in preventive medicine. I feel fortunate to have been able to introduced nurse midwives, waterbirth and unmedicated birth to mothers and their babies.

The wonderful people who assisted me in the surgical department, their great humor and dedication to their responsibility in the operating room and willingness to have me join them for breakfast every morning is memorable. And to our anesthesiology department who I had to awaken many night's to help me care for emergency cases, I wish the best and hope they will be able to sleep the nights through now.

The many women who trusted me to be there for them in their childbirthing, the women who allowed me to participate in their wellness concerns and the babies who allowed me to greet them into this life have made my work a joy.

During these short years here in Sylva I completed 43 years of clinical medicine. In the last 20 years I have added to the medical model of health the study of wholism in working with clients. I have tried to include for all a more whole approach to their care, that is, being sure that each person had a consideration of their spiritual, physical and mental (emotional) balance. I have used the support of our local alternative clinicians, chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncture specialists and healers. Bless them for their work and concern for you.

But most of all I will express the profound love and respect I have for Wanda Stephens, Melinda Hill, Beth Tallent, Beverly Roy and Glenda Nations. These were the women of my office staff who made my days easier, who supported me and who made sure that I did the right thing for our patients and clients. I despair that they will not be part of my daily life. I shall never, ever forget their spirits and their dedication. These women have been the base upon which I depended and without whom I would not have stayed in practice this long. They made my day bright.

I wish one of the things I could have contributed would have been a stronger stand on the cessation of tobacco abuse and obesity, which are both killing our people here in these beautiful mountains. The good ole Southern food is so good to taste and the fat in it the down side. Tobacco is causing so many babies to miscarry, to be smaller at birth and to have addictive problems. I feel sadness when I find mothers smoking while pregnant, filling their cars full of tobacco smoke as they drive along with their tiny babies strapped in their seats breathing in that poison. This goes for those macho dads who seem to have little regard for their children much less themselves.

So, my lovely mountain people, make your lives more whole - take care of yourselves.

I thank you for the joy I have had and the wonderful families I have attended.

Bob Oliver, MD

Sylva

Battle for the ETJ doors

To the Editor:

The ETJ controversy surrounding Forest Hills is a matter of concern to the people in Jackson County. But it's more than just that. It's also a double door into the future of Western North Carolina.

That future is tied to something which is not easy to talk about even though it's a magnet for tourist and commercial dollars. The magnet is beauty. "The beauty of the mountains" - we've all heard the phrase.

In a broad sense, "beauty" means different things to different people. However, the "beauty of the mountains" has some elements that many people probably agree on. For instance, areas which contain more natural features than buildings would probably be included as part of the "beauty of the mountains." In this case, nature outnumbers people, and no rules are needed to protect it.

Other areas have similar natural beauty, but in these areas nature is outnumbered by the many people who live or work there: hospitals, resorts, churches, schools. These institutions have governing bodies that make rules to protect the natural beauty. No billboards replacing trees on hospital grounds.

There is yet another relationship between natural beauty and people. In this case many people live and work in an area of natural beauty - but there are no rules to protect it. This is the situation that has given rise to Forest Hills' consideration of ETJ.

Forest Hills and its neighbor, Western Carolina University, are in a part of Jackson County which has beautiful natural features, no rules about them (except inside Forest Hill and WCU,) and which is on the verge of containing many people.

The residents of Forest Hills asked themselves what this combination of many-people-and-no-rules means for their part of Cullowhee Valley. Many of them concluded that development-with-rules is more likely to help Cullowhee Valley become an area which people consider beautiful and financially attractive.

From this conclusion it was a short step to consider ETJ as a means of providing rules for protecting the environment around Forest Hills.

When it became known that Forest Hills was considering ETJ, opposition appeared. This anti-ETJ opposition is trying to open one door into the future; the pro-ETJ people are trying to open another. The title on the anti-ETJ door reads "Development with many people and with no rules." The pro-ETJ door reads "Development with many people and with rules.

The battle for the doors continues. If Forest Hills wins, it isn't big enough to directly affect much of Cullowhee Valley. But if Forest Hills succeeds at all, it will at least show other communities in Western North Carolina that they have a say in controlling the growth that is already eating away at the beauty of the mountains.

If Forest hills is defeated, the door titled "Many people and no rules" will open. The people who defeated Forest Hills will look through the door at the uncontrolled development growing up around them. Some of them, at least, will wonder, "What happened to our beautiful mountains? All we wanted was to be left alone and for things to stay the way they were. But they didn't. And look at what's being built across the road from the church. Is this why our children left their homes in the mountains?"

Lee Budahl

Cullowhee

Amateur Radio Field Day was a success

To the Editor:

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service of Jackson County District 15 Field Day held June 25 and 25 was a very successful event.

Even though the total scores have not been tallied, many stations throughout the U.S. were contacted by ARES District 15 of Jackson County.

The weather was cooperatives all during the event.

This annual exercise conducted in all 50 states proves that Amateur Radio can play a most important roll in an emergency, no matter how small or how large.

Use of basic materials - hardware and batteries - proves that we can move and set up radio operations on the spur of the moment and effectively provide communications for all levels of our county.

Lest we forget Hurricane Floyd and how important our services were to the people on the east coast of North Carolina.

We here at ARES wish to express our gratitude and thanks to those who assisted in making this event possible and a services and all Ham operators who participated.

Special thanks to the Jackson County Recreation and Parks Department, The Sylva Herald, WRGC-AM Radio, Melton-Riddle Funeral Home, Harold Supermarket, Andretti's Pizza, Long John Silvers, McDonald's, the Jackson County Rescue Squad and all the amateur radio operators who participated.

Alvin Frady

Sylva

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