Editor, The News-Herald

Last night I watched a movie on television. This movie was complete with all the necessary elements to mask the lack of talent by the &uot;stars&uot; as well as the writers. These elements included four letter words, nudity, sexual situations, lying, cheating, stealing, and murder. This is all in a PG-rated movie. All of this was expected, but the crowning outrage was some of the actors actually smoke cigarettes and this in full view of children and teenagers.

I bring this up because last week the ABC Good Morning America program ran a piece about a Hollywood screenwriter who has serious health problems from smoking for years. Now he has decided that having actors smoke in this pictures causes children to take up smoking. He will no longer have smoking written in his future screenplays.

How hypocritical can one get? All of a sudden, after he has earned millions writing scripts that include vulgar language sex, violence, disrespect, and smoking he has recognized that children will emulate what they see in movies so he will no longer include smoking in his films because he has become ill from smoking.

Will he also stop writing about illicit sex when he develops AIDS? Will he stop writing about violence when he or one of his loved ones is attacked and injured or killed? Will he stop including nudity in his films when a child of his or a friend is abducted, raped and killed by someone that has just seen one of his suggestive films?

This guy is a real role model. He appeared on the news show in ragged jeans with a bandanna rag hanging from his pocket. He was unkempt unshaven and slovenly. It appears that he went to a lot of preparation to show how foul and dirty he could appear.

This person is one of those who write the filth young people see in movies that, when criticized for their

writings say they only make these films because the public demands them. I would challenge any one of them to produce a real demand from a genuine moviegoer demanding such filth for their children to view.

If this character has come to believe that smoking in films has a harmful effect on viewers then he must conclude that the other elements that make his films R rated will also be emulated by those viewers. If he has any morals at all and is concerned for the younger viewers he will put his talents into writing wholesome screen plays fit for family viewing.

Macon N. Sanford