Looking out: Worse than death row

Worse than death row

“This is what counts — not this other kind of stuff about Linda Tripp, [Monica Lewinsky and Paula Jones ]. Who cares?” — Ann Landers

I have been asked by my editor to, on occasion, write short items so that sometimes space requirements are easier to meet. This will be such an item.

This column is directed at those in the United States who have been, and continue to be, more concerned with President William Jefferson Clinton's sex life than anything else. Some months ago the US, and some allied countries like Australia, very nearly went to war in the Middle East. All the while, many young men and women were getting ready to go and risk their very lives.

So to all of who are more concerned with the president's sex life (past or present) than the very real possibility that hundreds or thousands of young men and women might well have lost lives and/or limbs on some lonely stretch of battlefield, sea or air space: I think each one of you is much worse off than any man, woman or child on the USA's death rows.

[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA. Brandon and his friends are trying to raise funds to pay for a lawyer for his appeal. If you can help, please make cheques payable to the Brandon Astor Jones Defence Account and post to 41 Neutral St, North Sydney NSW 2060, or any Commonwealth Bank, account No. 2127 1003 7638.]