DOCTORS ARE NOT ACCURATE Until August, 1954 doctors had not been a part of my life even though I had gone to college where they were in training. One August day after having gone swimming in a rock quarry close to Washington, D.C. my legs wouldn't work properly. I was rushed to Bethesda Naval Hospital with polio. Without any testing I was put in a dark room for several days and told to drink orange juice and meditate on my childhood sin that was paralyzing me. Years later I found out that the S.O. B who doctored me was with the C.I.A. who was experimenting with LSD. Apparently the drug took the swelling out of my brain stem some and killed all pain. Barely knowing who I was the doctor sent me back to duty where I stayed until January of the next year. When I became so sick at my stomach that I couldn't do my work I was again sent to Bethesda where I was locked up in a ward with lunatics and criminals, and a few other LSD failures. Without very much treatment the Navy discharged me in May. Before I left an officer sat me down and told me not to discuss what was done to me. If I did, they would come after me. Returning to graduate school I was still very sick mostly with pain in my side and chest. I married and had a son, quit my job with a church sponsored community center in Louisville, Ky and went to work for the Texas Department of Agriculture. Fifteen years after my discharge I was so sick that I signed myself into the V.A. hospital at Waco, Texas where it was found that I had gall stones. During the operation they found out that I had a twisted appendix that was badly infected. This was after I had been to civilian and V.A. doctors who were tops in their field. After the operation I returned to work where my health improved until a chemical accident in the work place was bad enough to totally make me unfit for work. Five years later a V.A. doctor removed a cataract from my eye and told me about the LSD. Even though the Navy had marked my Service Record "Top Secret", apparently they had told private doctors about the LSD. I am 74 years old, two or three doctors have treated me in a matter that has helped, but for the rest, they haven't done one damn thing but put me through hell. After seven years in college and graduate school, I wasn't able to work in my field. My life has been drastically altered all because of one stupid Bastard in Bethesda Naval Hospital and one doctor who didn't give me proper treatment after the chemical exposure that almost blinded me. Can you understand why I don't trust doctors very much?

DRUGS FOR CHILDREN BEHAVIOR When I was a child in grade school in the 30s and 40s children were seldom given drugs for behavioral modification. When a child acted up, the teacher and the principal took care of the problem. Sometimes a little blow to the hindend of the disrupter did the trick. Sometimes a paddle with holes in it to cut down on air resistance was all that was needed -just the sight of old smokey hanging from the wall was enough to calm down the most violent child. Now instead of parents and teachers getting together and working out problems with children, the first thing that is done is to give Ritlin. Problem solved? Perhaps putting the child into a drug induced haze solves the problem for the moment, but what is the long range affect on the child? This is a question that has never been answered to my satisfaction. No matter what the long range effect is, I think mild physical and mental punishment is much better than making the child into a druggie is much better. I'm trying to find out if there is a connection between the use of Ritlin and the use of hard drugs. Perhaps some of you have research results on this that you will share with us. My forty-year-old son and I were discussing the fact that so many of his grade school and high school classmates are in prison or have been incarcerated. I'm afraid this is a carry over from the use of drugs to control behavior. My theory is that it is best to let children grow up without controlling them with medication.

January 21, 2004 ON THE NATIONAL ELECTION Since I am an Independent registered as a Democrat, I try to keep an open mind when it comes time to elect a president. Until election time in November Bush is our president, and I plan to keep from trying to put him down without giving him a chance to get himself out of the hole he has dug for himself and, we, the American people. Perhaps he can bring it together before election time by getting us out of Iraq and the rest of the Middle East. Perhaps he can resolve the National Debt and put unemployed people into jobs that pay a living wage. Perhaps he and Vice President Cheney will realize they were elected to serve the common folk along with Haliburton and the other big money corporations. In case the American people do elect a Democrat in November, John Edwards looks like a good choice, but the other candidates on the ticket seem like presidential material. Until tomorrow, in the meantime you can E-mail me at lbutler@erath.net. If you want to find out who I am, type "Luther Butler" in Google. Have a nice day.

LUTHER BUTLER'S THOUGHTS http://novelsbybutler.homestead.com/untitled1.html JANUARY 20, 2004 ON ABORTION Is abortion murder? I can't answer this question and prove the answer with scientific proof, but it seems to me that a fetus is not a person until it leaves the mother's womb. If a woman aborts because of violence on the part of another, then this should be a crime. Since I am a man I will never have to make the decision to terminate pregnancy, but there are girls and women who for various reasons have the right to make this decision. In some cases abortion seems like the logical thing for unmarried women to make. It seems better for a teenage girl who gets pregnant out of wedlock to terminate the pregnancy and go on about her life. This decision should not be make lightly. There are going to be emotional scars no matter what decision is made. The girl who chooses to put her baby up for adoption is going to always wonder what has happened to her child just as the mother who aborts will wonder what her child would have been like. No matter what the decision, I do not think that the State should be able to forbid the woman from making this decision, nor do I think it is the church's right to block this avenue of choice. I do not hear the preachers offering to help support a single parent's child. Abstiance before marriage is the safest course of action. The use of birth control is the next best action to take. Abortions are not always safe; they are not cheap, but the mother should be able to make the decision to go to a competent doctor for the procedure rather than botching the job herself.