Joycelyn Elders

Re "Two Views on the Fall of Joycelyn Elders," Commentary, Dec. 13: Cal Thomas asserts that young people should be denied access to condoms in the same way that purchase of tobacco products is restricted for those under 18 years of age. There is no justifiable comparison of these two commodities. Tobacco products will eventually kill the user; condom use may save the user's life. Furthermore (and whether we like it or not), easy access to condoms and full social acceptance of their use will do more to prevent the "epidemic of teen-age pregnancies, growing numbers of young unwed mothers and rampant venereal disease" than any public policy limit set by government.

I read with amazement your Sept. 16 editorial regarding the nomination of Dr. David Satcher to be U.S. surgeon general. The Clinton administration has presented an eminently qualified physician (head of Meharry Medical School, interim dean of the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for this post. He has also been endorsed by the American Medical Assn. Yet this black doctor's credentials do not seem to be good enough for The Times, which feels he should "model" himself after Dr. C. Everett Koop.

It's now clear that the political enemies of Dr. Joycelyn Elders, President Clinton's nominee for surgeon general, have run short of solid reasons to oppose her. Not that they didn't try hard. But in the end none of their objections held up, so they were left with only ideological arguments: They just don't agree with Elders' philosophies. That, in fact, is fair politics.

Parental Advisory: The following story contains mature themes and language that may be inappropriate for children and adolescents. Or not. After deciding to include Dr. Joycelyn Elders in our summer-long series on the American family, we began to get uneasy. Pam and I are hardly prudes. But we are protective of our children's innocence.

President Clinton on Thursday nominated Dr. Henry Foster Jr., a Nashville educator, obstetrician and gynecologist, as surgeon general to replace the controversial Joycelyn Elders, who was fired last December. Foster, 61, who founded a program that distributes condoms to youths and supported an organization that provides abortion counseling, appears to share many of Elders' views, particularly about combatting teen-age pregnancy.

U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, endorsing a global campaign to reduce reliance on baby formula, urged U.S. health providers to take steps to increase the percentage of mothers who breast-feed to 75% by the turn of the century. Elders, appearing at Georgetown University Hospital's maternity ward, said that she wants U.S. hospitals and physicians to educate women about the advantages of breast-feeding and to stop distributing baby formula or literature promoting its use to new mothers.

Parental Advisory: The following story contains mature themes and language that may be inappropriate for children and adolescents. Or not. After deciding to include Dr. Joycelyn Elders in our summer-long series on the American family, we began to get uneasy. Pam and I are hardly prudes. But we are protective of our children's innocence.

EXAMINING THE DOCTOR: A lively Senate hearing is assured this week when the President's controversial choice for surgeon general--Dr. Joycelyn Elders of Arkansas--arrives on Capitol Hill for her confirmation hearings. . . .

President-elect Bill Clinton's choice for U.S. surgeon general said Saturday she will advocate the medicinal use of marijuana, and will support distributing condoms from high school-based health clinics around the country. If physicians feel marijuana "would be beneficial for use by the patient . . . it should be available," said Dr. Joycelyn Elders, director of the Arkansas Health Department.

President Clinton fired outspoken Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders on Friday for telling an AIDS forum that she believes masturbation "perhaps should be taught" to schoolchildren. Ousting the most controversial official of his Administration, Clinton said Elders' comments reflect "differences with Administration policy and my own convictions, and have made it necessary for her to tender her resignation."

Descending radio's evolutionary scale. . . . The National Assn. of Radio Talk Show Hosts met in Washington last week, reaffirming that anyone with lips can join the club. Not that this is quite headline news. Take Kato Kaelin. Or take Joycelyn Elders, in some ways admirable, a caring, socially committed physician who fearlessly says her piece. Yet she was also one of the least articulate, most misspoken high-ranking U.S.

Like a splash of cool water on a hot summer day, your interview (Opinion, July 9) with former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders on health concerns and logical approaches to solving them only goes to emphasize the blindness, self-delusion and lack of true responsibility of our politicians on both sides of the political spectrum. Truth and compassion are subordinated to religious bigotry, infantile nationalism and fiscal policy, promoting the continual isolation of the United States from becoming a truly global nation.

When the Senate blocked the nomination of Nashville obstetrician Dr. Henry W. Foster Jr. for surgeon general last month, by failing to override a promised filibuster, it fulfilled the predictions of many conservatives. Shortly after the nomination was announced in Febru ary, Gary Bauer of the Family Research Council made this pronoucement: "We will count on the new U.S. Congress that was elected with the votes of millions of pro-family Americans not to repeat the mistake that was made when Dr.

President Clinton on Thursday nominated Dr. Henry Foster Jr., a Nashville educator, obstetrician and gynecologist, as surgeon general to replace the controversial Joycelyn Elders, who was fired last December. Foster, 61, who founded a program that distributes condoms to youths and supported an organization that provides abortion counseling, appears to share many of Elders' views, particularly about combatting teen-age pregnancy.

How can you turn the world upside down? --Claire Bloom to Richard Burton in "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold" * The Say what? report . . . President Clinton's recent firing of Joycelyn Elders as U.S. surgeon general affirms the hazards of being publicly inarticulate or imprecise when you're an outspoken, controversial federal official who gets on television a lot.

Maybe Joycelyn Elders should have come to California before she opened her mouth. The surgeon general was fired earlier this month, ostensibly because she said masturbation is "something that perhaps should be taught" in schools. In California, it often is. State guidelines for sex education suggest that teachers talk about masturbation "in such a way as to dispel common myths associated with it . . . sterility, blindness, or feeble-mindedness."

A judge sentenced a son of U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders on Monday to 10 years in prison for selling one-eighth of an ounce of cocaine to an undercover police officer. As Kevin Elders was led off to jail, the surgeon general fought back tears, while his father, Oliver, slammed his hands into a steel door in frustration.

President Clinton reasserted his support for his embattled surgeon general nominee, taking her back to Washington in his plane Sunday after she resigned as director of the Arkansas Health Department. Clinton gave Dr. Joycelyn Elders a sturdy hug as the two boarded a small presidential jet. He ignored a shouted question on whether he thought Elders could be confirmed. He had told reporters a day earlier during a visit to his home state that he did not think her nomination was in trouble.

As a Clinton supporter, I am very disappointed that the President fired Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders for speaking on masturbation (Dec. 10), while Ronald Reagan let Surgeon General C. Everett Koop speak his mind on AIDS, birth control and condom use--all positions with which Reagan disagreed--for both of the former President's terms. Perhaps Reagan recognized that doctors speak of things, in clear, uncensored language, in a way that politicians cannot. I have never seen such sore winners as the Republicans are this year.