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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us February 23, 2006 AT LENGTH Asbestos bill could break court logjam By Tommy Malot Central Point Those of us living here in beautiful Southern Oregon all too often forget that our lives and businesses can be dramatically impacted by what Congress does or does not do. A perfect case in point is the bill before the U.S. Senate called the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act — Fair Act. Asbestos? Yes, the substance that is no longer used, but is still the focus of nearly a million lawsuits clogging the courts, delaying compensation for victims of asbestos disease, and bankrupting dozens of companies, many of whom had little to do with asbestos in the first place. More than 76,000 Americans have lost their jobs after companies they worked for were forced into bankruptcy. And over 60 percent of the settlement funds or jury awards have not gone to victims, but instead to lawyers. Along with the leaders of several other concerned Oregon companies, I traveled to the nation’s capitol last week to meet with senators to express our view that something has to be done if veterans, seniors and small businesses are to get any relief from this mess. The American court system has virtually come to a standstill trying to address this complicated issue. Regrettably, the majority of these lawsuits are unfounded and delay compensation for those who are truly suffering with asbestos-caused illnesses. Of particular concern is that the legal system is now focusing on businesses that are not responsible for the problem. Yet sympathetic juries are awarding multi-million dollar settlements to individuals who have yet to show any symptoms of any disease. The Act will quickly provide a fair and reasonable solution — and a privately funded $140 billion trust fund — to this problem by removing all asbestos litigation from the courts. It would create a system where victims would no longer have to spend thousands of dollars and years of time trying to prove that one company or another was responsible for their illness. Instead, the privately funded trust fund would pay regardless of fault. That means that the 60 percent of the funding that currently is spent on lawyers and legal costs could instead go to the true victims. I am particularly interested in this issue because of my line of work. Our company cleans up asbestos laden buildings. We’ve never produced, installed or sold any asbestos related material, and yet even our small, local company has been threatened with the potential lawsuits. The FAIR Act would mean that businesses of every shape and size will finally be free from the threat of bankruptcy caused by asbestos litigation. It’s time that Congress fix this issue, bring relief to veterans, seniors, workers, businesses and the legal system. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Capital campaign boosted by event Willow Wind would like to thank the Ashland Daily Tidings and Jennifer Squires in particular for the wonderful front page article on the barn restoration at Willow Wind. Last weekend we held an event, The Beatles Barn-A-Thon featuring the Nowhere Men, to make this capital campaign known to the community. Everyone had a very good time and we exceeded our hopes for profit. We attribute this success in part to the Tidings for helping us get the word out about the event and the campaign. Judith Anne McBride Ashland U.S. needs to recognize Hamas As a follow-up to the Israeli/Hamas issue, it is my thinking the U.S. has an opportunity to play a favorable role. We know the situation has changed dramatically with Hamas’ surprisingly high win in the Palestinian election. The U.S. has referred to the Hamas as terrorists in spite of the fact they are the ones who have provided caring programs for their people. Who are we to call others terrorists? Look at the terrorists we are creating in Iraq. Even more hypocritical, Bush is using “terrorists” as his guiding light in the coming elections. France and Russia are both talking of opening up diplomatic dialogue with Palestine, and Hamas has recently suggested it would accept an open-ended truce with Israel. The U.S. could set an example for others here and accept the fact Hamas is now a ruling force. I know to some people for the U.S. to admit an error of judgment is a sign of weakness but quite the contrary, it forces one to rethink and take more caring and positive action. A sensitive issue is the billions in financial support to Palestine by Russia, the EU, U.S. and U.N. The threat to cut off this critical aid would force Palestine to look to Iran and other Arab countries. Look at the positive role the U.S. could play here. Hamas would be persuaded to change and possibly relations with Israel would improve. In an aside, the U.S. image would be a plus. The powerful U.S. could be so uplifting and creative if it just stopped looking at he world in terms of military control. The Israeli/Hamas situation could be a start. Peggy Roberts Ashland Columnist is too judgmental “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live,” wrote Oscar Wilde. This is one of my favorite quotes. Ms. Margulis might want to refer to it before she writes another article condemning parents for making choices different from yours; such as using daycare, or why only organic will do, or the evils of bathing our children more than every third day. Etc. Karen Bolda Ashland Criticism lacks realistic view As if working mothers don’t already have enough to increase their stress and guilt, The Tidings has now given us Jennifer Margulis. As a full-time working mom who has also enjoyed the luxury of working at home and (like Margulis) spending time with my kids, I must nevertheless note that Ms. Margulis has once again missed the point in her column (Feb. 20) criticizing working parents’ reliance upon caregivers. It is not the fact of children in childcare, but the quality of that care that matters the most. In her “progressively liberal” yet vaguely-elitist perspective, Ms. Margulis has failed to give any sort of nod to the untold highly-professional, compassionate, qualified, nurturing caregivers and preschools that care for the children of working American parents. Though Margulis’ poopy-diaper criticism of lazy caregivers is indeed illustrative of the dangers of daycare, I have seen many more such examples from unaware parents who are equally capable of neglect and selfish disregard for their own children. Jana Carole Ashland Daycare helped, did not hurt Jennifer Margulis’ column, “The dangers of daycare” left me shaking with anger. It is wonderful that she is in the position to be home with her children, but the reality is that not all of us have that luxury. The way that she portrayed working mothers was incredibly insulting. As a single mother I had the choice between raising my son in a cardboard box, or putting him in daycare so that I could support him. I always scheduled my work hours so that he was in day care the least amount of time as possible, and day care was always a positive part of our lives. The experience that she had witnessing a negative daycare situation was awful, and I shudder to think that there are daycare workers out there who would act as she described, but I think that it was a huge insult to all the wonderful people who are incredible caregivers to our children. Her descriptions were extreme and narrow-minded, such as “daycare makes children more belligerent and aggressive. It also makes them sicker. It also makes them sadder.” My son had a great relationship with the awesome women who worked at his child care center, and he is today a wonderful, happy boy. I would have loved to have been able to stay at home with my son 24/7, but had I done so, we would not have had the income to have a home at all. L. 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