Ten years ago, my doctor referred me to AA. I found out, through the Internet, that AA has more than 100 meetings a week in Dayton and the surrounding suburbs. I attended weekly AA meetings for several months and I can tell you that many attendees were cured of their addiction.
It’s been more than nine years since I have tasted alcohol, and I did it without costly counseling. The only money I ever paid was a dollar a week for coffee after the one-hour session.
I also take exception to Brooks’ comment, “we will fail most of the time,” but if just one alcoholic who, because of AA’s 12-step program, gives up the booze, it is worth all the men and women who fall off the wagon.
I do thank the author for publishing information on AA so those poor, addictive souls out there just might give it a try. The hardest thing is to admit to yourself you have a problem. You alone cannot stop drinking; you need a power beyond yours to succeed.
Bob O’Connor
Centerville
Study of color bias completely valid
A recent letter to the editor (“Pitts, Cooper are fueling the flames,” June 8) almost convinced me that Anderson Cooper had mixed a witches’ brew of subjective, babblygook to manipulate color preferences of children. A little research showed otherwise.
The color preference study was requested by CNN, not performed by Cooper. It is a scientific attempt to replicate the findings of a 1947 study, before Cooper’s time. Replication is used to validate conclusions from previous studies. This study, a pilot study, tests experimental and study design helping to decide whether a full-scale study is indicated.
Margaret Spencer, University of Chicago child psychology researcher, structured the study, not Cooper. She was aided by three psychologists, two testers and one statistician, none named Cooper.
Currently accepted questionnaire design techniques were used, not questions made up by Cooper. The results were put through statistical tests to gauge the findings’ significance.
Last, but not least, a large body of research exists on color preferences, some funded by businesses looking for better ways to sell products to consumers.
Letter writers are entitled to their opinions. But this study is a professionally structured, scientific analysis, not thrown together by Anderson Cooper. To not indicate that misled readers.
Gunars Fricsons
Butler Twp.
Need action on clean energy now
Every single president, whether Republican or Democrat, since Richard Nixon has been a proponent of investing in clean energy made right here in America. Even George W. Bush said America is a nation addicted to oil.
Alternative energy isn’t limited to solar and wind power; there are fuel cells, hydrogen power, water energy and many others.
America spends $1 billion a day on foreign oil from countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. We can’t keep this up. It’s becoming more and more dangerous to get fossil fuels as we dig deeper and drill at unsafe depths.
This Congress must deliver a comprehensive clean-energy and climate-change bill. Sen. Sherrod Brown has said Ohio could be the Silicon Valley of clean energy. We have the opportunity to bring new jobs to the Dayton area; let’s not pass it up. Contact your senators and ask for a clean-energy bill this year.
Diane McGrath
Dayton
Amnesty hasn’t resolved problem
The editorial (“States can’t fix immigration laws,” July 4) and the commentary by Michelle Malkin (“Assimilation was a must for our Founding Fathers,” July 4) both miss the heart of the matter with respect to previous amnesty.
This was supposed to stop the problem of illegal immigration. Instead, it became an invitation for a new wave of illegal immigration in anticipation of a second amnesty. We now have about 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S.
Any form of legalization or amnesty for the 12 million will simply be an invitation for a third wave.
What made sense with respect to immigration in 1900 or 1950 does not make sense in 2010.
Lawrence Briskin
Centerville