Thursday’s Letters to the Editor

• Right choices reduce breast cancer risk

In October, we celebrate efforts to reduce deaths and find a cure for breast cancer, which affects one in seven women during their lifetimes. In South Carolina, breast cancer is the most diagnosed cancer among women, with thousands of new cases reported each year.

While we don’t yet know exactly how to prevent breast cancer, we do know ways to reduce chances of getting the disease.

All women are at some degree of risk for breast cancer, but knowing your personal risk factors, such as older age and family history, helps your doctor know how frequently you should be screened. If you are at high risk, get checked more often, starting at an earlier age.

Repeated studies show lifestyle choices such as exercising, eating nutritiously, minimizing alcohol consumption and not smoking reduce the risk of breast cancer and many other cancers.

Breast cancer’s survival rate is more than 90 percent if detected early. I urge women to listen to their bodies, practice self-examinations and pay attention to anything unusual. For more information, contact the Komen Foundation at 1-800-462-9273 or visit http://www.healthysc.gov/.

Thank you to all who are working this October to increase awareness and promote early detection for breast cancer. I pray that this work continues year-round to help find a cure so more women will win the fight against this disease.

JENNY SANFORD

First Lady

State of South Carolina

Columbia

• Personal use of state cars is standard practice

I was deputy secretary of state for South Carolina during the 1950s and early 1960s. I know that during that time the secretary was furnished a new Plymouth. The comptroller was furnished a new Crown Victoria, and the state treasurer was furnished a Chrysler New Yorker. This was standard procedure; no questions asked.

The secretary at that time, I know for a fact, used the Plymouth and took his family on an extended trip to the West Coast, up into Canada and back — no business trip. There were no questions and no answers since no one seemed to care.

So why all the uproar now? This is a practice that has been going on for a long time. It will never be controlled.

I have been to Darlington races, golf tournaments, football games and all kinds of other activities with the users of state-furnished autos and gasoline. I never had a problem with it. I don’t think it is right, but who cares? It will continue.

COTY JEFFORDS

Irmo

• Scoppe has right take on Eckstrom incident

The State was never more on target than in the Tuesday column by Cindi Ross Scoppe, “When the ‘smell of politics’ serves public better than public servants.”

Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom’s blatant “I’m above the ethical standard to which mere state employees are held” attitude is beyond appalling and his campaign adviser’s response is vintage Rod Shealy baloney.

Gov. Mark Sanford’s tepid input speaks volumes about his commitment to being a leader and not just a libertarian.

I hope that Attorney General Henry McMaster and Solicitor Barney Giese will show the courage I believe they both possess and become involved, even if only by public comment.

I commend the state employees and Drew Theodore for bringing this “petty, personal abuse of power” (well said, Cindi Ross Scoppe) to the public’s attention.

BOB PIETROPAOLA

Lexington

• Graham stood up for basic human rights

I would like to express publicly my deepest respect and gratitude to Sen. Lindsey Graham. His recent position insisting on basic human rights for all persons detained by the U.S. government shows the utmost respect for the rule of our Constitution and our democratic fiber as a nation.

While politically unpopular with many, his position is vital to strengthening our country’s moral credibility and ensuring our ultimate success against terrorism.

I hope that, as citizens, we do not confuse dissent with disloyalty, for it requires great courage, character and love of country to take political risks for the sake of justice and national integrity.

SANDRA MOORE

Lexington

• TSA should target young Muslim men

The Transportation Security Administration is loosening its restrictions on liquids in carry-on luggage. The problem is not liquids on airplanes; the problem is possible terrorists on airplanes. Possible terrorists consist primarily of young Muslim men. That’s who the agency should be searching and preventing from carrying liquids on airplanes, not my 83-year-old Irish-American father.

And if innocent young Muslim men are put out by this inconvenience, then they should speak out loudly to their brothers and tell them they don’t appreciate this burden.

Prospective targets must remain ever vigilant and should feel free to profile all they want to minimize the impact on the everyday traveler.

DENNIS SMITH

Columbia

• S.C. slow to follow national trend

As a South Carolina graduate, I visited Columbia for the Georgia game, and while impressed with the progress occurring at the university and downtown, I was surprised that smoking is still allowed in restaurants and bars.

I realize social progress moves slowly in the South, but I fully expected South Carolina to have followed the nationwide trend of banning smoking in public places.

A similar ban has been very well-received here in Hawaii, especially among those working in the tourist industry who had been previously the victims of secondhand smoke.

This is not a freedom of choice issue but rather a health issue, especially for those who work in places that still allow smoking. The last place I visited where restaurants smelled so bad was Cuba.

HAL BARNES

Honolulu, Hawaii