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One more commentary or news “update” about the Casey Anthony verdict will push me to violence against whichever electronic media presents it.

The fact that there is this much outrage, attention and concern about the despicable conduct of one womanwhile the horrors at our very doorstep seem to be of no concern to people is bothoffensive and curious. Women in the grocery store are talking about what a monster Anthony is to have endangered her child without any remorse. Are any of themdoing anything to protest the reopening of the toxic waste wells in Romulus which pose more of a threat than just about anything Anthony did?

Doesn't seemlike it.

Peoplewant to criticize Anthony's lack of apparent concern for her daughter, while they sit idly by and allow this serious threat to the health andwelfare of the entire area gowithout any attentionor action. If this permit were for a halfway house for violent pedophiles practi-cally in their backyards, would that prompt them to action? This waste well is just as serious, if not a more overt, threat to their children and their own health, than convicted

felons.

Truly, I just cannot understand how people cannot equate this waste well with deliberate andmali-cious harm to the residents of every age in this entire area.

Do people think that because they live in Canton or Northville or Plymouth, this is not of concern? Guess again folks. This 240,000 gal-lon a day cocktail of neurotoxins and carcinogens is coming right through your community in tanker trucks….you know, just like the one

that exploded in Van Buren last month, spilling

the contents everywhere and closing the expressway for eight hours while firefighters attempted to clean up themess. If any of this stuff were an airborne contaminant, we can only guess how many homes would have to be evacuated or decontami-nated before residents could return, if at all. Or howmany would face the consequences of inhaling those poi-sons.

Yep, Casey Anthony was a very, very bad parent. She didn't take the time or put in the effort to protect her child.

We'll all for free speech.

The First Amendment is, to us, the real cornerstone of our business and our politics.

But just because we can do certain things, doesn't mean we should.

Last week, two young people stood in front of the Wayne Post Office with petitions and informational pamphlets urg-ing passersby to “join the fight” and “impeachObama.” OK, we said, no matter what anyone's politics are, if they arewithin the legal requirements of the city, they have a right to be there, to state their opinions and try to influence others to join them. This is America, andwe're glad that the freedom to stand outside a federal building urging the impeachment of the leader of the country is allowed.

This is the very type of freedom that we enjoy in this coun-try and that those in our armed services have fought anddied for. These people have every legal right to be there and to try to enlist others in their campaign. More power to them. And thenwe saw the poster.

These two naïve pseudo-activists had propped a very large, defaced photo of President Barack Obama up against their literature table. An Adolf-Hitler style mustache had been painted on the leader of the free world, making him look like the perpetrator of themost heinous war crimes doc-

umentedduringWorldWar II.

There was nothing illegal about it. There was also nothing effective or persuasive about it to anyone with an IQ above room temperature or any degree of civilization or respect for the office of President of theUnited States. It was, those of all political leanings here agreed, a disgrace to the very cause these childish antics were attempting to promote and an insult to the very freedoms they were claiming that Obama is attempting to curtail.

It apparently escaped these two neophyte thinkers that the basis for their claim that Obama is attempting to destroy the American Constitution was undermined by their ability to display that ludicrous poster, clear evidence of their igno-rance and lack of maturity, without interference. That they have and maintain, and were exercising, the right to flaunt that disfigured and insulting image of the President of the United States in front of a federal building would seem to defuse their argument that these freedoms were being

threatenedby the veryman theywere defaming.

Once again, we respect their right to be there and to expound on whatever political demagoguery or platforms they support. Further, we respect the effort they made to get involved in the politics of the country and not remain as ambivalent and lazy as most of the country. These two were out attempting to effect a difference rather than home play-ing video games or watching the Cartoon Network. We think any political involvement by young people is a good thing---- even when it is as obviously as contradictory and counterin-tuitive as this effort appeared to be.

We saw another group from this same effort at Art in the Park in Plymouth on Saturday, too. They were displaying the same poster and being completely ignored by the thousands of passers-by at the festival.

Had this group presented their literature and their argu-ments in a legitimatemanner with cogent arguments and fac-tual data, they might have made a favorable impression on otherwise placid, ambivalent citizens. That they resorted to this juvenile, tasteless, degrading effort at sensationalism made it appear that they had nothing other than emotion on which to base their apparent radical activism.

We were impressed last week, and a bit chagrined, whenwewere reminded by the Canton Township Leisure Services Department that our helpwas still needed. Like so many others, busy with our own lives, we hadn't been thinking about the devastation that is still so prevalent in Joplin, MO where one of the worst tornadoes in the history of theU.S. struck last May.

Members of the Romulus Rotary Club went to the area over the Memorial Day holiday to offer their help and worked during the weekend to provide whatever aid they could to the more than 50,000 people left homeless or impacted in the wake of the storm. More than 2,000 houses and buildings were destroyed and another 5,000 to 10,000 severely damaged. These people still need help, and the Leisure Services Department, along with the Canton Community Foundation, are continuing the Canton Cares program, seeking donations to offer whatever financial help pos-sible to the victims of the natural disaster.

The several summer storms that struck this area recently left many without electricity for days and the overburdened sewer sys-tem and infrastructure in several local areas resulted in flooded basements when the downpour dumped so much runoff into the sewers.

Imagine devastation hundreds of timesworse.

We're not minimizing the dam-age done here or the pain of our local families who suffered the consequences of the storms. Not at all.

We're only remembering, like thoseworking so hard in Canton to help, that there are still people in Joplin who do not have homes to go back to, who have only the clothing that has been donated to themor provided by The Salvation Army, who literally still have only the pair of shoes they were wear-ingwhen the stormhit.

We understand that we all get distracted by our own lives, which these days are busy, indeed. But there are still so many who need our help, here, in Michigan and in Missouri, where things were so muchworse.

In Canton, donations will be accepted at the Township Administration Building, Summit on the Park, Pheasant Run Golf Course and the Canton Sports Center. Checks should be made payable to the Canton Community Foundation with Joplin Recovery Fund written on the memo line. Checks can also be mailed to the Foundation at 50430 School House Road, Suite 22, Canton, MI 48187.

tants work side-by-side with doc-tors and other licensed health care professionals. In smaller clinical settings, medical assistants usually perform cross functional duties in administration and patient care, where in larger hospital settings, medical assistants will often spe-cialize in one particular area. Though the duties of medical assistants are wide-ranging, some of themost common duties include taking patient histories, recording vital signs, preparing patients for exams and procedures, adminis-