The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 158, Ed. 1 Monday, May 5, 1997 Page: 4 of 12
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D.C. socialism has got to go
Today in history
.....'....... 11 . .TTZl
—Mark 10:14
OPINION
Methodist Hospital. Our members volun-
teer special time in making Lifeline as
meaningtill and reassuring as possible to
those who wish to remain independent
and confident in their own homes for as
long as possible.
With Lifeline they are never alone. It is
the best room mate anyone could have —
always there when needed, but never in
the way!
As always, The Baytown Sun continues
to bring news of local concerns to the
Baytown area, reaching into homes that
may have no other means to know about
projects, such as ours.
Judging by the calls and inquiries we
are receiving, your feature has created
much interest in Lifeline’s benefits.
Thanks for your assistance in bringing
knowledge of Lifeline to those who need
it most!
Quite a few thinkers have plans to rescue
the District of Columbia from the dysfunc-
tional hell into which it has plunged.
Bill has a plan: He wants the federal gov-
ernment to assume a number of the city’s
fiscal burdens—prison operations, infra-
structure financing, a portion of its Medic-
aid obligations — in return for ending
Uncle Sam’s annual $660 million subsidy.
Newt has a plan, several of them, in fact:
He endorses die 15 percent flat tax for Dis-
trict residents and businesses that has been
proposed by D.C. delegate Eleanor Holmes
Norton and Jack Kemp; he has suggested
giving the District back to Maryland,
which donated the land on which the city
sits; and he has touted a Republican stew
of school vouchers, tax credits, and a “vol-
untaristic private sector” that would \sy
siege to social problems that have eluded
government solution.
Joe has a plan: Replace the People’s
Republic of die District of Columbia with a
free enterprise system.
I’m willing to compromise if they are.
Truth is, I’m not too keen on Bill’s idea.
The taxpayers have been throwing money
at the District since Congress granted lim-
ited home rule in 1974, and you see the
mess it’s in.
Roads are potted, pitted and haphazardly
patched. The traffic lights are spastic.
School buildings are crumbling and stu-
dents sometimes have to manage without
books. Corpses spoil at the city morgue
because the refrigeration units are in a con-
stant state of disrepair. Half the city’s
garbage trucks are serviceable on a given
day. Fire companies have been shut down.
Policeman are repairing and gassing up
their squad cars at personal expense.
Judges are cleaning their own courtrooms.
The water system is periodically invaded
by noxious organisms.
Even the Republican plans would attack
only the revenue side of the equation, and,
arguably, inadequate income is not Wash-
ington’s problem. The unemployment rate
is very low and its residents earn more—
$32,274 per capita—than the citizens of
any other state. It has some of the nation’s
highest tax rates.
No, the District of Columbia’s problem
is expenditures. Like all the socialist gov-
ernments which folded in the past few
years, it spends an inordinate sum on social
welfare programs, and it sees itself as the
employer of first and last resort.
The current mayor, former convict Mari-
on Barry, started this neat tradition when
he was first elected in 1979. Under Hiz-
zoner’s comforting embrace the city’s work
force grew from 34,000 to 40,000. That
was before he went off to prison for drug
abuse. The payroll now stands at 45,000.
Put another way one in every nine District
Joseph Spear is syndicated by the News-
paper Enterprise Association.
adults works for the city in one way or
another. It makes for a nice power base,
come election time. ..
Progress is presumably being made. In”
1995, Congress appointed a “financial
control board” to clean up the District’s fis-‘
cal mess, and it is playing hardball with the
mayor. But it promises to be a protracted
affair. Witness some recent events:
• A federal judge threatened to take away
District control of a school bus system that:
services disabled students. On any given -
day, almost half of the fleet is not fiinction-
al.
• Over the past three years, every dime of
the $7.3 million budgeted by the city gov-
ernment for job-training programs has •
gone for salary, benefits and contractors...::
• Over the past 10 years, the Justice
Department gave the District $4.4 million
to assist victims of crime. Seventy percent
of it was spent on salaries. The local offi-
cial in charge of administering the grant —
had the chutzpah to ask the feds if Ik could
buy a car with their money.
• The city council recently decided to
halve the mayor’s personal security detail.
He was being guarded, driven and waited
upon by 31 police officers—25 more
than the mayor of Philadelphia and 29
more than the mayor of New Orleans.
Go with Joe: Sack the commissar and
dissolve the PRDC.
< May 5,1997
PAT ON IKE BACK
... to Lee High School student Ervin Tolliver. His design was named
the winner throughout Harris County in the Empowerment Through
Education program and will be used on all publications by Texas
Southern University.
Please extend our sincere thanks to the
entire staff and especially Maike van
Wijk for her professional and special
coverage for Lifeline.
—Donna Walker,
Pilot Club Lifeline Board
Baytown
Lifeline thanks
The Pilot Clubs Lifeline System board
members wish to express our apprecia-
tion to the Baytown Sun for the special
feature on Lifeline in your Forecast ’97
edition.
We are very grateful for the special
focus as “Unsung Heroes” for our life-
saving project. Your entire staff has been
very generous in devoting time and effort
to make the Lifeline story available and
known to the Baytown community.
Your article on Lifeline has proven to
be a very positive source of information
for the community's awareness of our
program. Because of Forecast ’97, many
citizens have been informed of this ser-
vice who, otherwise, would not have
known of it.
Lifeline is a personal emergency
response system for elderly or disabled
persons, and is sponsored by both Pilot
Clubs in Baytown and the San Jacinto
Thought for today
“When in doubt, duck.”
— Malcolm Forbes, American publisher (1919-1990)
Semi us a letter
Please send signed letters
to: The Baytown Sun, P.O.
Box 90, Baytown, Tx.
77522. Or, fax them to:
(281) 427-6283. Or, email
us at:
thebytnsun@aol.com
Bible verse
Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the
kingdom of God.
^Saptoton B>un
The Baytown Sun is published Monday through Friday and Sunday at
1301 Memorial Drive in Baytown.
Gary Dobbs David Eldridge
Editor and Publisher Managing Editor
Today is Monday, May 5, the 125th day of 1997. There are 240 days left in
the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 5,1961, astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. became America’s first
space traveler as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in a capsule launched
from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
On this date:
In 1494, during his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher
Columbus first sighted Jamaica.
In 1818, political philosopher Karl Marx was bom in Prussia.
In 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the island of St. Helena.
In 1862, Mexican forces loyal to Benito Juarez defeated French troops sent
by Napoleon III in the Battle of Puebla.
In 1891, Carnegie Hall (then named Music Hall) had its opening night in
New York City.
In 1892, Congress passed the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act, which
required Chinese in the United States to be registered or face deportation.
In 1925, John T. Scopes was arrested in Tennessee for teaching Darwin’s
theory of evolution.
In 1942, sales of sugar resumed in the United States under a rationing pro-
gram.
In 1945, in the only fatal attack of its kind during World War II, a Japanese
balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing the preg-
nant wife of a minister and five children.
In 1955, West Germany became a sovereign state.
In 1981, Irish Republican Army hunger-striker Bobby Sands died at the
Maze Prison in Northern Ireland on his 66th day without food.
In 1991, New York City’s Carnegie Hall celebrated its centennial with an
all-day, all-star concert.
Five years ago: President Bush and Democrat Bill Clinton picked up pri-
mary victories in Indiana, North Carolina and the District of Columbia.
One year ago: Israel and the Palestinians began the final stage of their
peace talks in Taba, Egypt. The FBI released preliminary figures showing
that serious crimes reported to police fell for the fourth straight year in 1995.
Today’s Birthdays: Actress Alice Faye is 82. Actor Darren McGavin is 75.
Actress Ann B. Davis is 71. Actress Pat Carroll is 70. AFL-CIO president
John J. Sweeney is 63. Singer Tammy Wynette is 55. Comedian-actor
Michael Palin is 54. Actress Tina Yothers is 24.
— The Associated Press
Separatists are free to
pursue political goals
At the weekend conference in Kilgore of300 or so folks Mio flume that
Texas would fare better as an independent nation, it was obvious that the
separatists had profited from the exposure and publicity showered upon
the relatively obscure movement in the wake of the Richard McLaren standoff
in West Texas.
Still, the separatists who gathered in Kilgore tried to distance themselves from
McLaren — even as they basked in the media spotlight that, in all likelihood,
was due more to their so-called ambassador!; confrontation with authorities than
with the conference!; political impact.
Most of the separatists decried McLaren!; violations of the law.
That is a good sign.
The separatists are entitled, as is any splinter group in America, to espouse
loudly and pursue passionately whatever political ends they wish.
But when “revolutionaries” like McLaren use political beliefs to excuse them-
selves from a free society’s laws, they should held accountable for any and all
criminal acts.
That’s a lesson Richard McLaren is about to learn firsthand.
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Dobbs, Gary. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 158, Ed. 1 Monday, May 5, 1997, newspaper, May 5, 1997; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1176246/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.