A Task Force Worthy of Its Name

Our collective self-esteem--the waning of which, we are told, is driving us to crime, drugs, drink, spousal abuse, teen-age pregnancy, ignorance, you name it--surfaces today as Item 70 on the agenda of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

Specifically, the supervisors will contemplate convening a panel to ponder our distressing psychological state--an august body with an appropriately multi-syllabic title, the San Diego County Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility.

Why? Because, according to Jimmie Slack, an aide to Supervisor Leon Williams, studies show that poor self-image is at the root of innumerable social ills, costing us billions of dollars in public money.

According to Slack, one New Jersey study found that 80% of all children entering school “feel good about themselves.” By 12th grade, only 5% do. Another poll, he said, concluded that two out of three Americans suffer from low self-esteem.

Like other task forces, this one would do its share of convening, identifying, compiling, getting of “input”--searching out social service programs countywide that have succeeded in raising or “rehabilitating” injured self-esteem.

And it would report its findings to a state task force with the identical name.

If approved, the task force would join a list of more than 130 boards, commissions and advisory bodies authorized by the county supervisors. Our second favorite: the Ramona Administrative Building Authority Commission.

Spreading the Word

San Diego is awash in tiny white flyers.

One, in girlish handwriting and copied on wallet-sized white vellum, boasts opportunities to lose 29 pounds in 30 days. Another offers career opportunities for “mature adults.” They have begun turning up on windshields and bulletin boards and scattered in public places.

“Do you know anybody that drinks water?” asked Sophie Olds, when a mature adult telephoned for information. “. . . It’s a water purifier. We’re looking for distributors who would like to make some money. Part time. On the side.”

So far, the miniature flyers have netted 10 distributors in the past month for the Memphis-based company’s water gizmo. “If you don’t like how the water tastes, you just give it back,” said Max Olds, Sophie’s husband and partner in the purifier business. “It’s guaranteed.”

The other flyers turned out to concern a well-known diet potion.

“Well, are you wanting to lose weight?” asked Denise Stallman, a supervisor of Herbalife distributors, when a curious caller telephoned. Stallman launched into a recounting of the nutrient and herb mixture she credits with helping thousands lose weight.

“This is good stuff,” Stallman said. “ . . Now’s the time. It’s really growing. San Diego and everywhere. The company is experiencing a new wave!”

A Mistake Is Born

When William Jovanovich materialized, Citizen Kane-style, at Sea World last week to speak out about the tumult at his firm’s troubled marine park, he stationed himself in the middle of an acre-sized map of the United States, standing on his birthplace, Sunnyside, Colo.

Within hours, lawyers for Sea World’s fired president, Jan Schultz, had sued, accusing Jovanovich of defamation. In tidy legalese, the complaint stated that Jovanovich made the defamatory statements during “a press conference at his birthplace in Colorado.”

As it turns out, one lawyer had misunderstood an account of the event and concluded Jovanovich had broadcast live from Sunnyside. Noting that he was in a rush to file the suit that day, Mike Crosby explained sheepishly: “I was speaking very figuratively.”

Crosby said the geographical error would be corrected when the complaint is refiled. He added: “Other than making everyone sound stupid, I don’t think that it in any way harmed the case.”

Bone of Contention

The San Diego County Chiropractic Society wants spinal manipulation to cut a higher profile: Society’s best and brightest may be passing up careers in chiropractic because all they know about the business is that it has something to do with backbones.

So the society is sponsoring a high school essay contest. The topics:

Chiropractic care: How does it fit into today’s health care system? Chiropractic perspectives: Interviews with four local chiropractors. Chiropractic doctors: Do they treat more than backs? Chiropractic: Nearly 100 years old--what is its history?

“People don’t generally know very much about chiropractic,” explained Dr. Alan Tuthill, the society’s essay contest chairman. “They don’t know many of the finer details that are involved in chiropractic.”

The first prize is $500 and a $180 book donation to the winner’s school. The books, of course, Tuthill said, will be “chiropractic-type books.”

Word to the Wise

A few happy holiday tips:

From the AMI hospitals’ eating disorders program, sending a representative to talk to high school students in La Jolla this week: “For anorexics and bulimics, the holiday season is a time of self-starvation, purging, anxiety and despair.”

From the Eye Physicians Medical/Surgical Center of Chula Vista: Beware pine needles.

“Pine needles not only carry toxic sap, but they are dirty and dusty as well,” said Dr. Floyd Wergeland of the center. “If a needle from a Christmas tree should puncture or scrape the eye, it can lead to infection beyond initial injury.”

‘Tis the season to be jolly . . .