Correspondence

0 Comments | Insight on the News, June 4, 2001

In the Case of Fitts, No Good Deed Has Gone Unpunished

The article on Catherine Austin Fitts ["Thankless Task" May 21] was great. It is another example of the diversionary tactics used by thieves at the highest levels of government. Time and again, they successfully have used innocent, unsuspecting people and businesses as scapegoats while they continue their thievery.

Randall Harris Franklin, Tenn.

Catherine Austin Fitts was punished for stepping on the wrong toes. The connection between certain Wall Street finance types and the Clinton administration was too close in my opinion. If more media investigated, many other scary stories would emerge from the last eight years.

Barrie Walsh Halifax, Nova Scotia

The article by Paul M. Rodriguez about the continued, baseless investigation of Fitts' company was very informative. I appreciate knowing this kind of news. It prompted me to contact my representatives in Congress to look into this process where a company that saved taxpayers billions of dollars by recovering money on defaulted Housing and Urban Development loans still is being investigated after being exonerated by three branches of government.

Genia Simmons Austin, Texas

Consequences of Drugging Children Could Haunt U.S.

Kudos to Kelly Patricia O'Meara for investigating what the mainstream media largely ignore: the possible connection between the wave of school shootings in recent years and the enormous increases in American schoolchildren being dispensed psychotropic drugs such as Ritalin ["A Prescription for Violence?" May 21].

At the national level, diagnoses of attention-deficit disorder -- the murky condition for which Ritalin most often is prescribed -- jumped from 900,000 to more than 5 million during the 1990s, while U.S. production of Ritalin soared 700 percent. What we may not know are all the side effects of drugging kids so they will concentrate on their studies and score high on tests. It's time for political leaders and policymakers at all levels to explore this explosive question honestly and openly.

Robert Holland Lexington Institute

PMS/PMDD Sufferer Says Illness Can't Be Dismissed

The article "Misleading Medicine" [April 30] indeed is misleading. What about the other side of this issue? The first 40 years of my life, I endured repeated bouts of depression. Twenty years ago I began antidepressant treatment. It gave me my life back.

Some people who suffer from depression commit suicide. The real question is: How many people in this group would have committed suicide even if they weren't taking Prozac?

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) are facts of life for some women. Surging hormones can reduce brain chemicals, leading to the symptoms they experience. Brain illnesses are real and physical. Chemicals can treat them. This article does harm if even one person is frightened away from treatment. Someday antidepressants will be seen as being as multipurposed as aspirin.

Gloria M. Kunz Sterling Heights, Mich.

Military Law Must Stand Trial for Miscarriage of Justice

Thank you for doing a story about military justice ["How Just Is Our Military Justice?" May 14]. I am speaking from personal experience when I say your story was right on target. I once was in the brig for one of those unusual court-martials you hear about. Because of what happened to me, I live outside of the United States. I will not return until I have justice and until there is justice in the military. If you check the stats, the U.S. military has a higher conviction rate than that of China.

John Mullahy, Cartagena, Spain

Write: Insight, Correspondence Editor, 3600 New York Ave. N.E., Washington, DC 20002. E-mail: Insight@wt.infi.net. Fax: (202) 529-2484. Please include an address and daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for space.