Heywood on Dr. Laura - FAN MAIL ?

         I write often myself to newspapers via E-mail just for the fun of

    it. If one tenth of them were published I would I would consider it

    extraordinary good luck. More often they are just the grip or the laugh

    of the day sent out into Cyber Space. I forward all of them to my own

    private chat partners. So all is not in vain,

       Mr. Heywood in a letter this morning on Robert Whitcomb's column ( " The

    rise of the grief industry" ) makes a number of valid points about Dr.

    Laura. She herself is no " grief counselor " or VICTIM consoler. She

    may even scold me if I asked her humorously about " toxic " parents .

       But as the editor points out Dr. Laura is part of MASS THERAPY and

    her stock in trade is " rather strident sermons " while usually " ignorant

    of the details of a callers life". My brother, for example, is on lithium.

    If he had an impulse to call Dr. Laura, I would be very nervous  about

    her " doing the right thing " advice. It could be disastrous !

       Also it was only necessary for Mr. Whitcomb to listen to her for

    five minutes to have her number. She is a gifted and intelligent person.

    Nevertheless she offers cheap counseling for dimwits!

       Yet I would not deny them this .

     I agreed completely with Mr. Whitcomb on " grief counselors ". If

    an individual in grief stricken state seeks them out ,that is his or

    her business. But how dare show up at school presuming that their

    service is really in demand! No thank you - we refuse to grieve by

    the numbers !

      President Kennedy was assassinated while I was in high school. If a

    grief counselor had showed up back then, I know what my reaction would

    have been: " Don't tell me what I am suppose to feel or how soon I will

    get over it". Many of us never quite get over PURE EVIL !