The Allen American (Allen, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 77, Ed. 1 Saturday, April 29, 1995 Page: 4 of 58
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Page 4A — The Allen American — Saturday, April 29, 1995
“I could never divide myself from any man upon the difference of
an opinion, or be angry with his judgment for not agreeing with
me, in that perhaps within a few days I should dissent myself”
- Sir Thomas Browne
OPINIONS
Your thoughts and views are welcome
in The Allen American.
---------------An Editorial---------------
Vote for firm foundation
Everybody knows you have to have a firm
foundation if you want a successful future.
In county terminology, “foundation” is
another word for infrastructure: the streets
and roads and bridges that make community
life possible and even desirable in a given loca-
tion.
there might be necessary in conjunction with
the bond package’s second item: a $5 million
juvenile justice center to replace the county’s
present, hopelessly small facility.
County police departments have had to re-
lease back to the community some truly
dangerous youths who should have been in-
The time to lay that foundation is now — or carcerated while awaiting their day in court,
more accurately, Saturday, May 6. On that The reason? Too few beds at the Juvenile Jus-
date Collin County voters are being asked to tice Center. The state’s temporary approval to
approve $45.4 million in bond sales to shore up double-bunk youths will be withdrawn if this
the infrastructure of an area quickly turning
from rural to urban. Collin County’s days as a
bond item fails
and this at a time when
bucolic pasture land are numbered; growth is
inexorably moving north.
By the year 2010, the county’s population
will have more than doubled what it was in
1990. County employment also will have dou-
bled and the number of miles being driven in
this increasingly urban area will double as well.
juvenile crime is increasing. Statistics show a
46 percent increase here over the last five
years.
Most, if not all, of the county’s police chiefs
are urging a "yes" vote on the .sale of bonds to
finance a new juvenile detention center. The
safety of our communities demands it.
We believe the infrastructure item deserves
And that’s where a “successful future” com- a “yes” vote, too. Allen will benefit directly
es in. Roads and bridges — the necessary firm through the widening of McDermott Road from
foundation — are required to attract the busi- Central Expressway to Custer Road, and the
ness and industry, the residential develop- widening of Farm-to-Market Road 2170 (Main
ment, that will keep everybody’s tax bill low or Street) from east of Allen Heights Drive to the
at least reasonable in the years to come. city limits.
With the tax base steadily expanding, Coun- Also nuttine money into State Highway
ty Auditor Pasco Parker says it’s unlikely the 121, the countys main artery to Dallas Fort
bond package will require an increase in the Worth International Airport, will hasten its
tax rate. We commend the citizens bond com- conversion . 622tat
mittee and the Commissioners’ Court for that, conversion into a freeway.
Limiting the bond package’s scope should leave The bonds will not be sold until market con-
the debt service portion of the tax rate un- ditions are good; although taxes may go up be-
changed. cause of rising property values, the tax rate
The portion that might be nudged upward is should stay about the same despite the
Operations and Maintenance. An increase “goodies” obtained through the bond election.
■ #Dle HANU
Bombing leaves sense of loss
By CATHY SPAULDING
For those going north on Inter-
Cathy
state 235 in Oklahoma City, the An ■ u ■
; Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building SPAULDING 1
rises suddenly to the left, its eastern 1
walls brightly lit like a memorial mar-
Commentary H
ing not to grandstand but to under-
stand: President Clinton traveling
from Washington and Gov. George
W. Bush traveling from Texas for an
interfaith service. Oklahoma Gov.
Frank Keating and Oklahoma City
Mayor Ron Norick providing calm
direction through it all. Oklahoma
Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin standing dren-
ched in Saturday night’s rain as she
waited at the site.
I looked through newspapers to
scan the names of the dead and the
survivors to see if I knew anyone.
Someone I worked with, perhaps. A
former classmate? A passing ac-
ker. Then, as is if to shield drivers
from the gruesome wreckage of its
north side, it disappears almost as
suddenly behind the street embank- temperature cold Saturday night,
ment. The local radio was filled with pleas
One year ago, one year before for relief supplies, not just for the
’ someone’s bomb tore through the surviving families but for those
building and killed at least 98 people, working in the cold rain: flashlights,
I was there looking for the Office of thermoses of coffee or cocoa, work
Personnel Management because I gloves, underwear, socks, rain
wanted to find a public relations job gear. quaintance?
with the federal government. My mother greeted me with a Her name was SusanJane Ferrell,
Last weekend, I went home. My long hug. She said she was glad I was daughter of two of my friends and
mother, who lives about 20 miles there to help take her mind off former editors, Don and Sally Fer-
north of the explosion, called two things. Oklahoma television had rell of Chandler, Okla. Chandler is a
days after the April 19 explosion to been nonstop in reporting the bomb- small, central-state pioneer town,
report the anguish she still felt. She, ing. Images of firefighters, law offic- Susan was an attorney for HUD. She
too, has had occasion to be in that ers and relief workers from across was 37. I don’t know if I ever even
building, doing some real-estate the country toiling at the site, those met her, but for Don and Sally, I felt
dealings with Veterans Affairs or the handsome dogs wriggling through a loss. When I shopped for a card of
Department of Housing and Urban tight spots to find people. sympathy, the maudlin sentiments
Development. The tons of donations, hundreds
It was raining and record- of volunteers. Public officials seek-
Turn to BOMBING, Page 5A
Candidate hopes to improve city
By DOUG GALLAGHER
In My Opinion
but this must not be accomplished at
the expense of our current resi-
dents. The developers should pay
their fair share through participation
in roadway and other infrastructure
expenses, as well as park dedica-
tion.
In the area of telecommunication
and computer upgrades, citizens
should be able to leave messages for
the council through a voice-mail sys-
tem and pay their utility bills through
In my opinion, the most important
task facing the City Council of Allen
is maintaining or improving the quali-
ty of life in our city. This, along with
our superior school system, is the businesses. We must pay attention
greatest asset we enjoy. to our retail sector to stem the loss
As your council member, I pledge of our sales-tax dollars flowing both
; to work diligently toward that task north and south of us.
by using the following strategies. As a Planning and Zoning Com-
; ■ 1. Enhancing the economy to missioner for six years, I was a
provide employment and increased staunch supporter of park acquisi-
shopping/eating alternatives. tions through the zoning process, their personal computer with auto-
■ 2. Working with the economic Our citizens have expressed a matic checking-account billing. The
development effort to attract quality strong desire to have a variety of city could investigate putting city in-
industrial/commercial ventures, parks and open space — active, pas- formation and services on the Inter-
which will result in a more equitable sive, linear, neighborhood, com- net, as well as televising council
tax situation. munity and regional in scope. meetings on the cable TV system.
■ 3. Resolving our traffic prob- I have responded to that desire by The council needs to improve the
lems by lobbying the county, state requesting developers to designate methods of communicating to the
and federal agencies for our fair and reserve park land for current citizenry — and just as importantly,
share of funds. and future generations. A strong the citizens need to let the council
■ 4. Promoting parks and open economy, blended with an excep- know what’s on their minds.
space, library, police and fire ser- tional parks and open-space system, As growth continues, we need to
vices. will make Allen an enviable place to have increased communication be-
■ 5. Making city government live. tween the City Council and the
more effective and user-friendly by A sound, managed growth pro- school board. Effective planning will
upgrading our telecommunications cess will ensure that our future eco- result in proper placement of new
and computer systems. nomy has jobs, retail and office ser- school sites, as well as lower overall
We must continue the expansion vices, reduced traffic problems, vi- costs for development.
of the tax base in order to get tax able parks system, excellent library The City Council should establish
rates down! Attention must be given facilities, superior water, sewer, an ethics ordinance, which all the
to existing retail and industrialestab- police and fire services.
lishments, as well as attracting new We all want quality development,
Turn to GALLAGHER, Page 5A
The Allen American
HARTE
HANKS
...A0D We.Nd
AmeRICANS,WL
NOT LET COWARD
SCARE US!
358585558383233328582883
Noling
wounds
Vietnam War part of a cultural revolution
he Vietnam War Syndrome is still
I with us in America. But it is chang-
L ing in nature. And it is fading.
Certainly it is not the same as in those
grim days of late April 1975, when we sat stunned
before the television set watching
the humiliating evacuation from
the roof of our embassy in
Saigon.
In the months that followed we
all became Scarlet O’Haras, even
our leaders in Washington.
Remember the scene from “Gone
With the Wind”? Scarlet sits alone
had there been no Vietnam War at all. West
Germany did not have a Vietnam War, nor did
Britain. Which is why historians today have such
great difficulty in sorting out the Vietnam
Syndrome, isolating it from other historical phe-
nomena.
DOUGLAS
PIKE
Commentary
in the ballroom of Tara, that great antebellum
mansion, recalling the cotillions, remembering
the days that were. Old retainers come to report
problems: the roof leaks, the plumbing no longer
works. Her’s is a famous reply: “I won’t think
about that today. I’ll think about it tomorrow.”
For the rest of the decade we did not exactly
refuse to think about Vietnam.
Rather we told our-
selves we would think
about it tomorrow.
That part of the
Vietnam Syndrome I
is now gone.
What is left is
fading in intensity.
Every now and
then — at the 10th,
then 20th anniver-
saries, Robert
McNamara’s memoir
— some of the old
passions return.
But each time the
colors of our memo-
ry are less brilliant.
Our collective mem- i
ory as a nation also
fades because half
of us — the youth
— have no direct -
memories. The
young in today’s ,
classrooms are
It can be argued, and in fact is
argued by some, that because of
Vietnam, America and its allies won
the Cold War with the USSR.
The reasoning is this: 1) America’s
failure in Vietnam convinced
Kremlin generals the U.S. was not
as formidable a foe as once
thought; 2) the USSR’s failure in Afghanistan con-
vinced the American generals that the Soviet
Army was not all that formidable; 3) this gave
Mikhail Gorbachev the opportunity he needed to
begin his own cultural revolution, which 4) got
out of hand and swept him and communism, too,
down the river of history.
None of this would have occurred, the argu-
ment concludes, had the Vietnam War
merely curious
about the Vietnam
War, as we adults
/elerans Meraynia
turned out differently —
that is, had it been
“won.”
But the central
reason why the
Vietnam Syndrome
is actually dead (although
it still has not laid
down) is that it is no
longer relevant. Its
historical meaning,
0 from the start,
_ always was in the
1 context of the global
Cold War. Now the
Cold War is over.
One geopolitical
construct is dead.
Another is waiting
to be born. No one
knows what this will
be.
It has been sug-
y gested the new
geopolitical con-
8 struct out there in
the Pacific will be
A Harte-Hanks
Community Newspaper
Lynn Dickerson
Publisher
Tim Watterson Beth Roddy
Editor Advertising Director
Bill Lindemann Linda Franks
.Financial Director Circulation Director
Dollie Turpin, Assistant Editor
Doug Layton, Director Graphics/Design
David May, Senior News Editor
Brenda Welchlin, News Editor
Valerie Barna, Opinions Editor
Ian Halperin, Photo Editor
Gary Patterson, Sports Editor
Don Olson, Production Coordinator
Liaqat Ali Khan, Production Director
Leslie Mascari, Marketing Services Director
Editorial Board
All editorials are opinions of The Allen American
editorial board, which includes:
•Lynn Dickerson, Publisher
•Tim Watterson, Editor •Valerie Barna, Opinions Editor
•Debbie Tackett, General Manager • DeeAnn Pitts, Administrative
Assistant
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when young were merely curious about the Civil
War, unable to share or even understand the lin-
gering passion of our grandfathers.
The Vietnam War was an integral part of a
much larger historical phenomenon — a world-
wide Cultural Revolution. It was a revolution by
the young, paradoxically led by an 80-year-old
Chinese: Mao Tse-tung. It spread to the U.S., to
Western Europe, eventually throughout the
world, arriving in East Europe and the USSR as
the Revolution of 1989.
This Cultural Revolution changed almost
everything it touched. It changed race relations,
gender relations, youth-age relations, attitudes
toward patriotism, music styles, the way universi-
ties are run, length of hair. In the' midst of it was
the Vietnam War, which both contributed to the
revolution and was affected by it. But quite proba-
bly there would have been a Cultural Revolution
triangular (China,
Japan, Association of Southeast Asian Nations).
Imposed on the triangle could be a return to
the 19th century struggle for power, the bal-
ance of power politics. Other scenarios envi-
sion a Japan-oriented construct of a “clash of
civilizations,” East vs. West. Or a heightened
regionalism, the creation of “super-regional”
institutions. Possibly it will be none of these,
but be a return to tribalism and regional anar-
chy — the so-called “death of nationalism” the-
sis.
No one knows, but in any case, this is a
stake through the heart of the Vietnam
Syndrome.
Douglas Pike, director of the Indochina Archive at the
University of California, Berkeley, is a retired U.S. Foreign
Service officer who during his tenure generally was
regarded as the U.S. government’s leading expert on
Vietnamese communism. The author of six books, he has
given an estimated 2,000 lectures in 40 countries during
the past 20 years.
Letters to the Editor
Administrative logic Why, she said herself, “I know I
1 1 wasn’t invited.” True enough.
naS gone askew Apparently, Dr. Erwin was not in-
On Friday, April 7, a number of formed of the agenda of the meeting,
parents from Heritage Park North and to our amazement, she pro-
gathered informally to meet our new ceeded to steer through her own.
elementary principal, Al Breedlove Less than one week after public
from Story. announcement that our children
It was my understanding the pur- would be attending a different school
pose was positive — introduce next fall, Dr- Erwin stood before us
ourselves, offer support and gener- arid rehashed the weak reasoning
ally move forward with the AISD that brought the board to its decision
board’s recent redistricting adop- for Option 1.
tion. Surprisingly, Superintendent Our meeting degenerated im-
Barbara Erwin was not only in mediately into a situation where
attendance, she was without hesita- Heritage Park North parents, having
tion (or much forethought) given the
floor.
Turn to LETTERS, Page 5A
Election Roundup
Bond issues
Taxpayers vote ‘no' on
$50 million proposal
Voters and taxpayers of Collin
County, we need to go vote no to the
$50 million proposal coming up May
6.
Why we need to vote no: First,
they are not telling you the truth.
Second, because it will raise land
prices. They have no way of know-
ing for sure what the tax base will
be. Third, we are not going to lose
the state funding on Highway 121
like they have suggested. Fourth, 80
percent of the citizens want the juve €
nile detention center left where it is
now in the Old Collin County Jail by
the court house and give them all the
space. Fifth, 70 percent of the peo-
ple won’t benefit from the $45 million
to be spent on the roads. Sixth, what
happened to the $10 road fee we pay
on cars, trucks, boats, campers,
motor homes and bikes? Where did
the $10 go? Seventh, because it is
not right. Pete Vamvakas Sr. of Fare
mersville called the commissioners"
Turn to ELECTION, Page 5A
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Watterson, Tim. The Allen American (Allen, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 77, Ed. 1 Saturday, April 29, 1995, newspaper, April 29, 1995; Allen, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1695486/m1/4/: accessed July 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Allen Public Library.