The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 224, Ed. 1 Monday, July 20, 1981 Page: 4 of 30
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St®MTORIAL
• Editorials
• Other Views
• Sun Files
• Features
• Letters
• Cartoons
Old-Fashioned
Diplomacy
While die world’s attention was focused
elsewhere, the two-month-old Syrian missile
crisis quietly faded — a testimonial to the virtues
of old-fashioned diplomacy, as practiced by U.S.
Ambassador Philip C. Habib
The crisis had its beginnings in an obscure con-
frontation between Israeli-supported Lebanese
Christian militiamen and Syrian occupying
forces in the eastern Lebanon town of Zahle.
When Israeli warplanes attacked the Syrian
troops, the situation quickly escalated as Syria
moved in Russian-built SAM anti-aircraft
missiles Israeli Prime Minister Menachem
Begin threatened to bomb the missile sites, and
the stage was set for war.
It would have been a war wanted by almost no
one except, perhaps, the Soviet Union, which has
a treaty of friendship with Syria and would have
gladly enlarged its role in the Middle East as a
protector of Arab interests. For the United
States, a war between Israeli and its Arab
neighbors would have doomed President
Reagan’s hope of forging an anti-Soviet Arab
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Enter than Ambassador Habib, dispatched on
May 7 by President Reagan and Secretary of
State Alexander Haig to mediate the confronta-
tion. Ambassador Habib shuttled from capital to
capital across the Middle East for nearly two
months with little respite, providing precisely
what was needed in this delicate and dangerous
situation — time to work out a backstage solu-
tion
Neither side, it should be said, had an over-
riding national interest at stake in keeping Chris-
tian militia at Zahle or stationing SAM missiles
in the Bekaa Valley. But the dynamics of con-
frontation would permit neither side to back
down. Syrian President Hafez Assad was gaining
strong Arab support and sympathy from his un-
compromising stand against Israel. And Prime
Minister Begin, his party running hard in the
parliamentary elections, had seized on a potent
election issue with his ultimatum to Syria.
Both, however, welcomed a face-saving way to
avoid the final plunge toward war, and Am-
bassador Habib supplied it with a series of con-
sultations with Arab and Israeli leaders, sug-
gesting peace formulas, and making blandly op-
timistic statements to the news media.
The results of his tireless efforts became evi-
dent at last. Under a formula worked out by
Saudi and Kuwaiti emissaries to Syria, the Chris-
tian militiamen, the root cause of the crisis, were
quietly evacuated from Zahle to Beirut.
Moreover, the Israeli elections were over at that
point and it hardly mattered whether the Syrian
missiles remained — although there were
reports that some and perhaps most have
already been removed.
Ambassdor Habib has provided a textbook
case of how international crisis can be defused
by patient dedication to the diplomatic art of
talking it to death.
Shawn Balthrop
It Wasn't Lack Of Fish
That Raised His Temper
It takes a lot to make me really angry
nowadays, but I came pretty close to blow-
ing my stack recently.
My brother Steve, his wife and 1 had gone
down the beach near San Luis Pass to do a
little wade fishing. 1 had a new popping rod
to try out, and the water was clear and
green. We had every reason to expect a good
day.
We hit the beach about 5:30 a m., and
wading in water about neck-high, began to
cast into the surf.
. As the day wore on, the fishing there
stayed slow. Strikes were few and far bet-
ween, and landing one more rare. But none
of us minded that. It was a beautiful day,
and a relief Just to get out of the house for
awhile. * *
The sun started warming up and swim-
mers and sunbathers began to pome to the
beach, so we decided to pack our gear and
fish the mud flats at Galveston State Park.
Not that we had anything against the swim-
mers and sunbathers: we just wanted to fish
undisturbed
That turned out to be a false hope.
We had unpacked our gear, and were
wading the flats Ifishing when a speedboat,
disregarding the boat channel on the other
side of the bayou and the people trying to
fish on the shallow flats, roared through the
fishers’ midst at full throttle, effectively
ruining our chances of pulling anything off
the flats.
When that boat roared through there, I ad-
rhit I felt angry . I kept my temper in check,
realizing the futility of unloosing my anger
entheemptyair.
My brother, however - never famed for
his restraint — lost his temper. The incident
left him in a bad mood, and cast a shadow on
what until then had been a lovely day.
In effect, our whole day was ruined by a
simple lack of courtesy.
I have no animosity toward those who get
, a thrill out of speeding over the water in a
fast boat. I, too, find exhilaration speeding
From Sun Files
City's Lack Of Planning,
Zoning Noted 20 Years Ago
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From The Baytown Sun files, this is the
way it was 40 and 30 and 20 years ago:
JULY SO, 1*41
Marvin Edwards, son of Mr. and Mrs.
A.M. Edwards of Highlands, is a member of
the 351st School Squadron, Army Air Corps,
at Brooks Field in Las Vegas.
Channel view is Harris County’s new boom
town as the ordnance depot brings a new
business rush. Potential employment of up
to 8,000 men to build the arsenal is turning
the spotlight on the former quiet communi-
ty. The ordnance depot will he one of the na-
tion’s largest
The Radio Station KTRH transmitter will
be moved to a new $250,000 facility near
Cedar Bayou.
JULY IB, 1161
A fire breaks out today in the Lee College
book storage room in the east wing of
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Baytonians are watching reports of a
storm in the Gulf in the hope it would bring
relief from the 100-degree heat wave.
Leading hitters for the Baytown Lassies,
in a winning softball game against
□overleaf, are Peggy Faulk, Betty Joyce
Lindsey and Eunice Istre.
JULY », 1961
It is obvious that Baytown is confronted
with many municipal problems, according
to Leonard Church of Fort Worth, deputy
regional director of Urban Renewal, who
toured the city. “Baytown is seriously lack-
ing any general plan elements such as a zon-
ing ordinance, a master street plan and a
plan for public facilities, including parks
and playgrounds, ’ ’ says Church.
jfte federal official also said Baytown
I arts upda ted codes and ordinances which
would prevent blighted areas and construe-
*»nn nf substandard buildings, v
Jack Anderson
Car Dealership Killed
By High Interest Rates
over the water with the wind in my face and
the spray flying up from the bow.
Nor am I arguing that fishermen have any
rights of ascendency over those who enjoy a
fast boat ride.
What I am saying is that one’s pursuit for
pleasure is no reason to throw away the sim-
ple rules of courtesy to others.
In this case, the boaters could have found
their distraction on the other side of the
bayou, where a channel had been provided
for that very purpose There was no reason
to disrupt the fishers’ domain.
Or if they wanted to go through the fishing
area, why did they not employ a more
reasonable speed, so the fishers were not in-
convenienced by the boaters’ search for
fun?"'
I’ve taken a long time getting to my point,
but here it is: There’s no excuse for a lack of
courtesy
“Please” and “thank you’’ are free, and
there’s no reason not to include them in
one’s vocabulary. But those and similar
words of courtesy are vanishing in the dark
abyss of sett-centered indifference to the
rights and feelings of others.
I admit, there are times when I fail to res-
pond with the courtesy I should. And at
times my speech is a bit blunt. ..
But courtesy is always on my mind. And I
can say with some small pride that sir,
ma’am’ please, thank you and you’re
welcome are still parts of my daily
vocabulary \
Perhaps that is because courtesy was in- ‘
grained in me by my parents. They impress-
ed upon me at a tender age that there is no
excuse for a lack of consideration for others
And that teaching has stood me in good
stead ever since.
Courtesy, when you get down to it, is
about all that separates mail from the other
beasts of the earth. And without a little
courtesy to smooth life’s path, life itself
would be well-nigh unbearable.
You know, courtesy may well be our
cheapest andmost valuabjg commodity
WASHINGTON - Sky-high interest rates
have made it difficult, if not impossible for
many American families to buy their own
homes. For Don Bessler of New Carlisle.
Ind., though, the interest rates have made it
impossible to earn a living.
Bessler had been a Chevrolet dealer for
nine years but last August, he threw in the
tovBel, becoming one of 1,650 auto dealers
across the country to give up in 1980. It was
the wildly fluctuating interest rates that
knocked him out.
Like most small businessmen, Bessler’s
operation depended on short-term loans that
provided the necessary capital for his inven-
tory. In the case of auto dealers, the inven-
tory is known as a “floor plan”.— the
number of vehicles they must have on
'display to give buyers the wide range of
choices they have become accustomed to
over the years.
Obviously, no car dealers can afford to
purchase their stock of cars outright from
the manufacturer. They have to borrow,
generally at interest rates one or two
percentage points above the prime rate that
enough collateral left to meet the SBA’s re-
quirements, and the government loan would
fall through.
After Bedell complained to Ford, the com-
pany issued a memo to its field represen-
tatives stating that it is not company policy
to require additional collateral for dealers
who apply for SBA loans. A
Footnote: The ripple effect of the demise
of so many dealers can be telling. Although
they comprise only 2 percent of retail
establishments, auto dealers generate near-
ly 14 percent of retail sales, have a $10
billion payroll and generate another $1.2
billion in advertising expenses.
* '
NICARAGUAN AID - The Reagan ad-
minstration suspended economic aid to the
Nicaraguan government April 1 because of
evidence that the Sandinista regime was
providing arms and other support to leftist
rebels in El Salvador. But American dollars
are still flowing freely into Nicaragua
through the Agency for International
Development.
The AID money is going to private
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bankers offer their lowest-risk borrowers.
At the same time, most customers who
wanted to buy Bessler’s Chevies were no
more able to pay cash for their cars than he
was. They had to borrow from banks or
other lending institutions - at even higher
rates than Bessler was paying.
High interest rates, added to the inflation-
caused higher prices of new cars — scared
off many potential buyers. This left Bessler
with a larger inventory of unsold cars, on
which he was paying ever-higher interest
rate*;»
*' Thefigures are mind-blowing: Nine years
ago, Bessler told my associate Tony Capac-
cio, he was paying from $500 to $700 a month
in interest on the 40 to 60 vehicles in his in-
ventory. By last August, his interest
charges had reached $5,000 a month, at the
very time his sales were being held down by
customers' inability or unwillingness to
finance their cars.
For Bessler, “the bottom really fell out of
the bucket” in January of 1980. In the next
few months, he laid off six of his 12
employees, including his stepfather. He still
couldn't make ends meet, and finally had to
call it quits
Another problem facing dealers was un-
covered by investigators for Rep. Berkley
Bfedell, D-Iowa. they found evidence that,
in the Midwest region, representatives from
at least one major automaker ?- Ford —
were discouraging its dealers from par-
ticipating in government-backed loans from
the Small Business Administration. One
possibte Tnotive behind this squeeze play
was that SBA loans offered* competition to
financing that Ford itself provided for the
dealers.
Upon learning that a dealer had applied Taid on Iraq s nuclear reactor. In his uli-
for an SBA loan, congressional in- mistakable New York accent, D’Amato was
vestigatorsiound, Ford would raise the col- heard to say: “The French! They’re the
lateral requirements on its own loans to worst. They created the situation — for
dealers. This meant they would not have money ! ”
-Readers' Views--
had been approved by Congress earlier, and
was not covered by the president’s suspen-
sion order. My sources say AID’S obliga-
tions to the private sector should keep the
agency involved in Nicaragua until early
next year.
Lawfence Pezzullo, who just announced
his resignation as ambassador to
Nicaragua, was in Washington recently lob-
bying for re-allocation of economic
assistance. But his reception was lukewarm
at best .
AID officials still hope some form of
assistance request can be taken to Congress
this summer. They note that intelligence
agencies no longer report that Nicaragua is
arming the Salvadoran leftists. But in-
telligence analysts say the Sandinistas are
providing other types of support, including
clandestine radio stations that broadcast
leftist propaganda to El Salvador. That’s a
stumbling block that* would have to be
removed before economic aid can be renew-
ed.
While AID officials favor resumption of
economic assistance to Nicaragua, the
agency has now been put under the thumb of
State Department political offices, where
there is strong resistance to the idea. Mean-
while, Nicaragua.has turned to the Soviet
block and Libya for aid.
OUTSPOKEN FRESHMAN - Sen. Alfonse
D’Amato,- R-N.Y., has a far different per-
sonal style from that of Jacob Javits, the
man he replaced. D’Amato is blunt where
Javits was diplomatic, rough where Javits
was smooth. Recently, the new senator was
discoursing to intimates about the Israeli
Send$$, Not Flowers
To the Editor: —-
When I was young, my mother always
said, “If you can’t send me flowers when
I’m alive, please don’t send them to me
when I’m dead.”
This quote brings something to mind that The Texas Company
is very dear to each and every one of us.
Baytown has become a big city from the
small country town we all once knew it to
people and tell them you are tired of sending
flowers and want to pay for a better-than-
ever police department — one that will keep
us all city and country.
LeRoy C. Henning Jr.
1601 Garth Road
In this town, there is a very small army of
people, about 100 strong, that tries to keep
this little town in its right place, safe to
To the Editor:
(I am writing in reference to) your article
in the Baytown Sun Saturday, July li, about
the history of the USS Texas.
It also was the first ship to have a group of
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this little town in its right place, safe to Texas boys sworn in on it for the Navy. They
those who like the big city and those who were called The Texas Company. In boat
like to walk around like it still was country training, they were 839 Texas Company
If you, at this point, wonder what I’m talk-
ing about, it is the Baytown Police Depart-
ment. Let us all send money instead of
flowers and keep good men where they
belong. That way, we won’t have to send
flowers. And we will be able to keep city and
country working together.
So, the next time you or yours have to cry
help, remember the flowers. Go to your city
The Way
It Was
JULY 20,1969: American
astronaut Neil Armstrong
became 1st man to walk
op the moon.
Bible Verse
FOR EVERY got that
asketh receiveth, and be
that seeketh flndeth; and
to him that knocketh it
shall be opened. Matthew
7:8
By Ned
They were sworn in on Aug. 30, 1951.
There were 74 men. They left the same day
for San Diego, Calif.
I have pictures of them I took for Garrett
Studios in Houston.
My husband, William David York, was
one of those 74 men.
Mary York
1806 S. Canal, Highlands
if
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Brown, Leon. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 224, Ed. 1 Monday, July 20, 1981, newspaper, July 20, 1981; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1021191/m1/4/?rotate=90: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.