The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 39, Ed. 1 Tuesday, December 16, 1997 Page: 4 of 18
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FRESH CUT?
FEEDBACK: To comment on this page, call the Newsroom, 422-8302.
PAT ON THE BACK
... to Sara R. Shelton of Baytown. She was recently presented an
award by the American Quarter Horse Association for logging 250
hours in the AQHA Horseback Hiding Program.
BACK FROM
Guns in the hands of
children inexcusable
Clinton isn’t in Nixon’s league
— The Associated Press
— Isaiah 7:14
By JEOl
The Bl
Send us a letter
Please sendsigned ietteis4o^
Gary Dobbs or David Eldridge,
The Baytown Sim, PO. Box 90,
Baytown, Tx. 77522. Or, fax
them to: (281) 427-6283. One-
mail us at:
baytownsun@aol.com
Joseph Spear is a Washington-based
columnist.
Thought for today
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
—Arthur C. Clarke (1917-)
Some are too young to recall Nixon’s turpi-
tude. I can understand that. Some are
blinded by ideology.
I can even understand that.
But an astounding 70 percent of the pub-
lic fold the Fox pollsters that what Nixon
did was no “worse than what other presi-
dents have done.” We must face facts: By
forgiving Richard Nixon, we are flouting
the responsibilities of citizenship.
This sort of thing can depress a person
who has spent three decades studying
Nixon and fine-tuning his aversion to the
man. When I find myself dwelling on it, I
pull out my voluminous files and wallow
Bible verse
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel.
To get a measure of just how derelict the
’90s are, consider the fact that only about
three Americans in lOnow believe that
Richard Nixon was a uniquely evil man.
There are some, I know, who will contest
this statistic, but it is undeniably true. A
Fox News poll last June proved it.
It was also evident by the number of
viewers who called in with pro-Nixon
comments during a recent C-SPAN inter-
view with University of Wisconsin Profes-
sor Stanley Kutler, who has copied out
more than 200 hours of new Nixon record-
ings and has published the transcripts in a
book entitled “Abuse of Power.”
Some of the callers got right huffy about
it. Kutler and his ilk should leave Nixon
alone, they said, and go after the “real”
crooks, Bill Clinton and his henchperson,
Janet Reno
How to account for such stunning dis-
plays of sophistry? Some people are hope-
lessly ignorant. I can understand that.
and learning? What about brother and sis-
ter going to school? What about the drives
for food and clothing? What about mow-
ing the lawn and waving to your neighbor
working in a garden? What about going to
a dance with someone you love? What
about having a barbecue? What about
laughing at something funny? What about
giving someone a hug? What aboufriding
bicycles with some friends down the
street?
This is my hometown.
All we read and hear about are the sin-
ners, not the saints.
Sure life is not all happy and good and
©1HFGINQNW1RST. 1997
|Stahler55<®aol com
Some people don’t have a home or
enough food or clean clothes. But there is
help. We do live in a small town that can
and will look out for those asking for help.
We rely on friends and family, even
strangers. We listen and communicate and
■ He thrice ordered break-ins at the
Brookings Institution on the assumption
that the liberals who toiled there were in
possession of documents that he could use
to vilify Democratic presidents. “I want a
break-in, “he thundered in July 1971. “Get
it done ... I want the Brookings safe
cleaned out. And have it cleaned out in a
way that makes somebody else look bad.”
■ He ordered spies to be placed in a
Secret Service detail assigned to protect
Sen. Ted Kennedy. “We just might get
lucky and catch this son of a b—-,” he said.
“Ruin him for‘76.”
This is my hometown
I live in Baytown.’ It’s a small refinery
town built near some water. I can tell it’s
home by the smell. Yes. This is Baytown.
With a population of about 65,000, it
appears just like any other hometown. For
some reason it’s different. There is some-
thing not quite right.
We have a reputation.
Baytown: Couple hires hit man, students
murder friends, people fight neighbors,
children bring guns to school.
All this has happened more than once in
our little town.
If we read about it in the papers, we
acknowledge that it is an awful occurrence,
but maybe it is in another town.
-' Maybe it is not us they’re talking about. - prosperous.
Maybe it is in the big city over the hill and
across the water.
Maybe it is in some faraway land..
But not in my backyard.
This is my hometown. This is our town
they are talking about. Whatever happened
to the positive points of our town? What understand.
about children going to school everyday This is Baytown. My family lives here,
We realize that raising children these days is a difficult
we try to be understanding of today’s overworked and underappreciat-
ed parents.
But when elementary-age school children have the opportunity to sneak into a
closet and steal away with dad’s (or mom’s or whoever’s) handgun, our sympa-
thy is exhausted.
Last week, parents, teachers and staff members at Baytown’s Travis Elemen-
tary were, shocked to discover that two fifth-graders on that tree-lined campus
. brought a loaded handgun to school.
The two boys were caught Wednesday and hauled off, but this latest incident,
the third gun-on-campus case in Goose Creek schools in less than a month, has
us wondering: Just who is watching these kids?
It is, quite simply, inexcusable for any guardian whether that person is a
stressed-out single mom or the world’s greatest grandfather—to allow a child
or a teen-ager to come into possession of firearm.
Anyone who has a firearm in their home has a responsibility to ensure that the
weapon is out of the reach — br at the very least, disabled and made unusable
— for even the most curious and relentless teen-ager.
It seems obvious to us that any adult who cannot make that guarantee should
not have a gun in the home. ■
Parents who don’t put a high priority on this matter are tempting fate. It’s a
foolish gamble that can, eventually, result in the tragic injury or death of an
innocent.
Today in history
Today is Tuesday, Dec. 16, the 350th day of 1997. There are 15 days left in the
• year. .
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Dec. 16,1773, the Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists board-
ed a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea overboard to protest tea
taxes.
On this date:
In 1653, Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland and Ire-
Jand.—------------
In 1770, composer Ludwig van Beethoven was bom in Bonn, Germany.
In 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte was divorced from the Empress Josephine by an
act of the French Senate.
In 1905, the entertainment trade publication Variety came out with its first week-
ly issue.
In 1916, Gregory Rasputin, the monk who had wielded powerful influence over
the Russian court, was murdered by a group of noblemen.
In 1944, the World War II Battle of the Bulge began as German forces launched a
surprise counterattack against Allied forces in Belgium.
In 1950, President Truman proclaimed a national state ofemergency in order to
fight“Communist imperialism.”
In 1960,134 people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA
Super Constellation collided over New York City.
In 1985, reputed organized-crime chief Paul Castellano was shot to death outside
a New York City restaurant.
In 1991, the U.N. General Assembly rescinded its 1975 resolution equating Zion-
ism with racism by a vote of 111-25.
Today’s Birthdays: Author Arthur C. Clarke is 80. Civil rights attorney Morris
Dees is 61. Actress Liv Ullmann is 58. CBS news correspondent Lesley Stahl is 56.
TV producer Steven Bochco is 54. Pop singer Benny Andersson (ABBA) is 51.
Rock singer-musician Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) is 48. Actress Alison LaPlaca is 38.
Actor Benjamin Bratt is 34. Rhythm-and-blues singer Michael McCary (Boyz II
Men) is 26. ’
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other transcriptions, just a few items that
have recently enriched the legacy:
■Nixon flatly agreed that the gang who
burgled Democratic headquarters at the
Watergate complex should be paid hush
money. “They have to be paid,” he said.
“That’s all there is to that.”
■He met in the Oval Office with Greek-
American businessman Thomas Pappas to
thank him for cash contributions that were
used to keep the Watergate conspirators
quiet.
■ He instructed subordinates to demand
campaign donations from dairy farmers in
return for federal price supports. His Trea-
sury Secretary John Connally knew them
well, he told aide H.R. Haldeman in March
1971, “and he’s used to shaking them
down, and maybe he can shake them for a
little more.”
■He sold ambassadorships. “Anybody
who wants to be an ambassador must at
least give $250,000,” he told Haldeman.
once again in his many depravities.
We know from the existing record that
Nixon was a profane, anti-Semitic, dirty
trickster and abettor of criminal behavior.
Consider, from Professor Kutler’s book and Thanks in particular to Stanley Kutler,
whose 1992 lawsuit forced the release of
the most recent batch of Nixon tapes, I am
in no danger of running out of such won-
derful material. Indeed, Kutler’s recent set-
tlement with the Nixon estate and with the
National Archives — where the record-
ings have lain like little timebombs since
Congressmandatedtheirseizure in 1974
— calls for the ultimate release of all
3,000-plus hours of the secretly recorded
Nixon conversations that have yet to be
disclosed.
Think of it, Nixon lovers/Clinton haters.
Three thousand hours! No matter how hard
you try to portray the 42nd president as the
greater villain, the rantings and ravings of
the 37th will always be there to remind us
that Nixon has no peer.
Slick Willie will never be more than a
tinpot Trick.
St)
or!
SUf
your family lives here. You will always
have friends here.
— Bobby Araujo,
Baytown
, Editor’s note: Mr. Araujo is right, of
course. Baytown, like all communities,
has its positives as well as its negatives.
Here at The Sun, we try to cover our
community’s successes as well as its
problems. The real question, as always,
is how we as a community choose to
address the issues facing our city.
W IBaptoton Bun
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
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Dobbs, Gary. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 76, No. 39, Ed. 1 Tuesday, December 16, 1997, newspaper, December 16, 1997; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1176771/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.