A Refreshing Commitment to Help

The cheap cigar smoke fouling the air was the giveaway that had my wife and me smiling at each other.

We were heading toward the American Lung Assn. of Orange County’s Big Breathe Easy fund-raiser over the weekend at the Hyatt Newporter. The hotel is a series of buildings atop a hill. At the first one we approached, people were stepping outside to light up as if they needed a tobacco transfusion to make it through the evening. Wrong party, we told each other laughing.

The group we wanted--the one trying to save our collective lungs--was a good distance away, we discovered, on a terrace on the other side of the hotel. No one reaching for smokes there.

Not that American Lung Assn. supporters are focused only on fighting the tobacco industry. Irvine attorney Donald P. Wagner, president of the Orange County chapter, said he became committed to the lung group because of its programs for children. For example, it provides summer camps for asthmatic children, as well as workshops and support groups for their parents.

It also provides what it calls “Better Breathers” classes for people with lung diseases, to assist them in coping with the problem. Nearly a dollar out of every five the chapter raises goes to the state and national organizations, which spend it primarily on research. In all, just under 10% of the local chapter’s funding goes toward anti-tobacco causes.

“When I first got involved, I had no idea all that this group did,” Wagner said. “I wouldn’t have stayed with it this long if all it did was fight against smoking.”

It was his wife Meagan, also an attorney, who the chapter first asked to help with one of its projects in 1990. But she had another commitment at the time, so her husband said, “Why don’t I pitch in to help?”

Wagner explained: “That led to another project, then another. Next thing I know I’m on its board. Now I’m president for two years.”

Wagner’s concern is keeping up the nonprofit group’s finances. Its $738,000 budget for last year was slightly less than the year before.

“Money is tight everywhere; organizations like ours have to compete with each other for dollars,” Wagner said. “Which is too bad, because we really do help a lot of people with lung problems.”

If you think you want to know more about the association’s programs, the phone number is pretty easy to remember: (714) 835-LUNG.

Down but Not Out: Another of the American Lung Assn.’s causes: fighting tuberculosis. Monday was National Tuberculosis Day in medical circles, and the news on the disease was good, with a slight drop in the number of cases nationwide.

Orange County is following that trend: 273 TB cases here in 1996, 63 less than in 1995. But health care officials warn that communities can’t be lax about TB control. The local American Lung Assn. chapter is starting a pilot program for TB education, targeting college campuses within the county. Included is a new film about the disease aimed at young people.

Marilyn Dickson, director of the student health center at Orange Coast College, says too many college students are turned off by some of the outdated films on the subject.

Whose Ticket? A couple of local observations about TV golf coverage last weekend:

Did you catch that LPGA event in Phoenix, where rising star Laurie Brower of Villa Park finished third and picked up $51,327? The announcer called Villa Park “in the Los Angeles area.” My guess is the people of Villa Park don’t quite see their city as a Los Angeles suburb.

At the PGA stop in Orlando, Fla., you might have heard announcer Johnny Miller refer to one great shot as a “Disney E-ticket.” It amazes me how much Disney has influenced our language. Disneyland spokeswoman Susan Roth told me that the Anaheim amusement park hasn’t used the E-ticket (long its top-value ticket) since 1983. She agreed with me that it’s a phrase you still hear often.

“It ought to be in the dictionary,” she quipped.

Deadlines and Doubts: Orange County Superior Court Judge David T. McEachen was honored earlier this month as an “Outstanding Judicial Officer” by the alumni group at his alma mater, Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles. (He was Class of ’74.) A bonus to the occasion: Emcee for the event, and also the lawyer who introduced him, was Marcia Clark, O.J. Simpson’s chief prosecutor, also a Southwestern graduate (‘79).

McEachen told me that Clark was “very pleasant, very personable,” but a little anxious about her deadline. She was in the final stages of touching up her book ($4-million advance) on the Simpson case, “Without a Doubt,” and her deadline was five days away.

Clark did express great interest in what McEachen has been up to. Since 1993, McEachen has been involved in implementing and operating the county’s Drug Court.

Wrap-Up: In a column last week, I offered what I thought was only a mild defense of Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Rackauckas Jr.’s decision to overturn a jury’s guilty verdict in a murder trial. I didn’t defend the decision, just the judge’s integrity.

It brought in quite a number of reader responses, most highly critical of both me and the judge. When I saw that I’d received a letter from Paul Pratt of Irvine, I took a deep breath before reading it. Pratt is the husband of the victim in the case, Patricia Lea Pratt. She was strangled to death in their home in 1994 after apparently surprising a burglar. I knew Paul Pratt was upset by the judge’s reversal, and I was prepared for him being upset with me too.

What I found, however, was a most thoughtful letter, and a reminder how excruciatingly painful the whole criminal justice process is for a victim’s loved ones.

“As much as the change in the verdict hurts me,” Pratt wrote, “I will agree that until the moment of the announcement I was impressed with the judge’s fairness and in some cases gutsy rulings. . . .”

Pratt added: “As good as that judge is (and he is), that jury represented 12 citizens of Orange County. They heard the defense’s expert and the prosecution’s expert and made up their mind who they trusted most. . . .

“I understand the judge’s agony. Lea’s mother and I have been experiencing that agony for more than three years . . . Judge Rackauckas can now bear the burden of his decision.”

I don’t think even the judge would mind my letting Paul Pratt have the last word.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by call-ing the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail [email protected]