ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 11, 1996 TAG: 9605130032
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
WE IGNORE most of the proliferating calendar-associated observances - you know, Such and Such Day or This or That Week or Month. Oh, we might comment on the occasional Earth Day and a few others, but you didn't hear a peep out of us about ``Tax Freedom Day'' (May 7). And National Foundation Garment Week is one we're happy to let go by unnoticed.
Regular readers may recall, though, that we've promoted National TV-Turnoff Week for the two years it's attempted to educate America's children - and adults - about our addiction to television's faux world. We'll do so again.
Youngsters from several area schools participated this year, joining more than 3 million people who took the TV sabbatical. More schools, PTAs, libraries, church groups, civic clubs, etc., should start planning now to make a big to-do of next year's Turnoff. It will be April 24-30.
Wouldn't it be super if it became a celebration on the scale of, say, Festival in the Park? Certainly, school districts across the region ought to be organizing divisionwide observances. Educators are among the first to see what television is doing to our children.
While they're at it, schools and other organizations interested in kids' well-being should also plan to work another special event (another exception to our willful neglect of most such contrived observances) into their 1997 schedule. It's called Kick Butts Day - the first of which was observed in 11 cities this past Tuesday (May 7). Its sponsors hope to make it an annual, national happening.
The idea is to convince children not to take up the cigarette habit - and to enlist youngsters as advocates in a national Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
It's a good idea. Peer pressure can be a powerful thing. If more youngsters would lobby friends who have already started smoking to stop, that likely would be more effective than all the lectures adults can deliver. It also would help counter cigarette ads that, for all the tobacco companies' denials, are still trying to hook the youth market.
President Clinton this week spoke at an anti-smoking rally at a New Jersey high school. ``Three thousand kids start smoking every day," he noted. "One thousand will die sooner because of it. Do you want to take a one-in-three chance that you're going to shorten your life?''
Kids in his audience said the president's message had been effective. ``I'm never going to smoke,'' said 12-year old Svetlana Rovenskaya. ``I'm thinking about quitting,'' said Nick Turon, 17, who admitted he smoked ``quite a bit."
Prohibition won't work for television or smoking any better than it did for alcohol. But public education and peer pressure can help deter young people from joining the ranks of video and nicotine junkies. Every one so deterred will be better off.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB