Friday, Sept. 12, 1997

OBSERVATIONS

Tissues with lotion
help soften the blow

It seems that you can hear a lot of sneezing and coughing around our
part of the world these days. I suppose it's the annual fall allergy
season with fronts coming through and bringing in lots of stuff people
are allergic to.

One doctor wondered out loud if possibly some of the problem might be
from the sludge being deposited in Culberson County.

I don't know if that is the case but I do know the pollution coming from
Mexico City is not helping any. In case you missed it, I pointed out in
a recent editorial that I hope our government will help the Mexican
government do something to control pollution in that country.

The prevailing southwestern winds are bringing pollution into our part
of the world, so much so that the clear skies that used to exist over
Big Bend and this area are no longer as clear as they used to be.

Pollution in Mexico City is so bad with open burning of trash, etc.,
that breathing the air there is said to be equivalent to smoking a pack
of cigarettes a day. There are even oxygen vendors on the street.

And another part of the problem for people this month is that it seems
with changing weather, comes the common cold.

U.S. News & World Report in its most recent issue has a database report
on the common cold. Its says about 50 per cent of us will be infected
with the common cold this winter, about 2½ times «MDNM»the number of
people who suffer from summer colds. We will spend $2.8 billion a year
trying to relieve the symptoms of a cold, but when all else fails, you
can always reach for a tissue, the magazine says.

I'm always intrigued by statistics and the magazine notes that 82 per
cent of American households use facial tissues with an average of 22,
100-count boxes purchased each year. This year, Americans are expected
to buy 199 billion tissues, that's 743 tissues for every man, woman and
child.

The magazine also reports that Kimberly-Clark Corp.'s Kleenex has been
the bestselling facial tissue since its introduction in 1924 as Kleenex
Kerchiefs. The material used to manufacture Kleenex tissues was
originally invented as a gas-mask filter in World War I, according to
the magazine. Kimberly-Clark has about half the tissue market.

Another favorite material on which to blow the nose is toilet paper,
with Kimberly-Clark having 29 per cent of that market. Last year, the
company sold 4.5 billion rolls, enough to stretch from the Earth to the
Sun.

One of the newest products on the market - its been out for several
years - is the tissue with soothing lotion in it to help soften the
tissue for noses that have been blown often.

I don't particularly like those as they are greasy but they do feel good
if you have a really bad cold that lasts for some time.

I've got one of those colds and/or allergies now and its not a lot of
fun, particularly when the coughing and nose blowing interrupts sleep.
That makes us appreciate good heatlh even more when we get past these
particular seasons.

Editor's Note: Mac McKinnon is editor and publisher of the Pecos Enterprise. His column appears on Friday and his e-mail address is bigmac@bitstreet.com.

Your Views

Incident with coach leaves parent upset

I am writing concerning an incident that my son encountered at Pecos
High School on May 27, 1997. My son was assaulted by coach Mike Ferrell.
My husband and I filed charges against the coach on May 30, 1997. Howver
nothing was done until August 22, 1997 due to the fact that the city
attorney had to go on vacation the judge was on vacation and then the
coach was on vacation those were the excuses that were given to me when
I would try and get something done before school started again.

Here we were one week into the new school year and the city attorney
calls and tells me we are going to trial but he prefers we settle this
matter with no trial. I ask the attorney for a letter of apology from
the coach to my son and the attorney says yes but it has to be kept
confidential.

Here it goes - written letter of apology from coach to my son, (see
bottom). Then finally we go to court on August 22, 1997 in which coach
pleaded no-contest, meaning he is guilty. He is given six months
probation, one hundred dollar fine and he writes my son the written
letter of apology and he is off.

This leaves me no choice but to go before the school board on Sept. 11,
1997 and hope that I don't have to wait three months before something is
done; after all had it been my son who assaulted a coach, teacher or
another student, he would have been picked up by the police that same
day. Well, this time it was a coach doing the wrong and nothing happened.

What kind of authority figures do we have coaching our students? We
teach our children to respect these coaches, but what message are we
giving them when something like this happens and even the public figures
want us to keep quiet about it? I really hope I get the cooperation and
support from the board in this matter.

The coach has yet to be reprimanded and as a result of this my son is
not playing football this being his junior year because of the temper
this coach has.

Coach, if you can bring a pair of sunglasses to school and not be
responsible for them, then you need to leave them at home. After all,
the students are not allowed them. Why should you?

NORMA RUBIO

Letter to the student who was assaulted:

August 20, 1997

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Rubio and son:

I want to express to you and your family my regret regarding how I
handled the incident that occurred in late May. Every decision has a
halfway moment, a split-second when it can recalled or remedied,
unfortunately I failed to remedy the situation before it occurred and I
regret that failure. I wish that the incident never happened. I hope
that we can move on from here.

COACH FERRELL

Pecos Enterprise
Mac McKinnon, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail: news@pecos.net
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Neither these AP Materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use. The AP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing.

Copyright 1997 by Pecos Enterprise
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