To the Editor:

In 1977, I attended a two-week sales school operated by a large and well-known insurance company at its home offices in Chicago. One of the skills I learned was to always speak of restrictions and exclusions right before speaking of the benefits of a product. This way, the last idea in the customer’s mind was a positive theme, not a negative one.

When the County Board voted to allow the expansion of the DeKalb County Landfill, members knew many people would not like the idea for various reasons. To make it more palatable, they wrapped it with the positive that the monies would go to the new jail, an item that was much more widely accepted as needed. The potential environmental hazards were discussed, but the desire to have the landfill – and the money – overshadowed those concerns.