man}1 unprofitable services and could not raise tariffs on the expenditures on highways. Likewise, all tbe curren t proposals bulk commodities; every time ,they raised tariffs on the high to allow railroads to abandon unprofitable services and reduce value commodities they drove more and more of that business track mileage could not really do much. They would increase away. the short-term profitability of the railroads; but if ICC interSince the conventional wisdom is that the decline of the ference is allowed to continue, freight will con tinue to be lost railroads is due to highway subsidies, we now have proposals to trucks regardless of increased railroad profitabiLi ty, and the in Congress to give "compensating" subsidies to the railroads, enormous waste of resources in all modes will continue. Hence ei ther to upgrade their track or to provide them with new the most effective federal policy for achieving better allocation rolling stock. But if the above analysis is correct, such grants ,of transportation resources, reduced energy use, and increased will have little effect on the economic viability of the railroads. railroad profitability would actually involve no cost to the After all, the railroads were losiog business back when they government. All we have to do is get the government out of still had a sound physical plaot and before significant federal the regulation business. The Hospice Movement, Sandol Stoddard, 1978, $2.50 from: Vintage Books Random House 201 East 50th New York, NY 10022 It was strange reading abou t dying in the weeks just before our baby was bornthe fullness of the life within me seeming to bely the grimness of death as our culture perceives it. Yet death and birth are aU parts of the same full circle, and as ELizabeth Kubler-Ross, Raymond Moody and others have recently been saying, there is life even in death. The Hospice Movement shows that it is possible to have life even in dying. A hospice is a place where terminally ill (usually cancer) patients go to die comfortably and well. Often hospice care is provided on an outpatient basis to those who want to go from their own beds. In either case, the patient is • helped to get beyond the pain of the illness to clarity and alertness through carefully administered drugs (usually of a heroin or morphine base) and given ing in my mind that I might be able to · leave something to generations that follow me . . . using art as an educative and inspiring force to make people's lives fuller and more meaningful. . .." If you'd ever seen any of Joe's work-like the multi-media presentation on old train stations-you'd know how close he's come. (Thanks to Joe and H.T.A.) -SA Green Magic, by Lesley Gordon, Viking Press, New York, 200 pp., $14.95 I'm sure Flora, the Roman goddess of blossoming plants, would agree with me that this book really articulates the magic of spring . Its chapters are a garland of legends and lore in the most magically esoteric sense, complemented with lovely quotes and pictures. There are such intrigues as plant fantasy , witchcraft and wildflowers, plants and planets and plant deities. The standard approaches to herbs and flowers are examined, such as remembered perfumes and floral calendars, but Lesley Gordon 's main emphasis is abundan tly symbolic-as the energy of spring itself. You might just throw your culinary medicinal and cosmetic garden to the wind and sow a magic gar:den this year after you read this iovely touch of "Green Magic." The sentiments these flowers represent may well sum up this wonderful book : yellow jasmine- grace and elegance; belladonnaimagination; and ranunculus-you are radiant with charms. -NSZ May 1979 RAIN Page 19 the emotional support necessary to qie consciously. Families and friends, even pets, are an integral part of the process. The movement started in England and has spread throughout the U.S.- many communities now have at least fledgling out-patient services. The book is a beautiful one-sensitively and carefully written to explore both the practicalities of running a bospice as well as the spirituality of the Cll.re given to the dying. Several of the early ones are described here in loving detail. Tqere is history here and hope. I found it a truly inspjring book that should be read by all. It made me want to begin the groundwork for such a facility in our communiry and made me think again about Tom's old idea of a combined birthing and dying center to link the passages even more clearly. For further information about'hospices, write to the National Hospice Organization, 765 Prospect St., New l'Iaven, CT 06511. - LdeM ,
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