Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 106, No. 7, Ed. 1 Sunday, January 24, 1988 Page: 4 of 22
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EDITORIAL
SUNDAY JANUARY 14, 1*88
PAGE 4A
'Fool' has value
Weekly Special
Vince Johnson will not be the next president of
the United States.
Johnson of Twin Falls, Idaho, recently cancell-
ed a scheduled April 1 announcement to declare
his intention to run for the highest office in the
land.
Not losing the significance of the April Fools’
Day, Johnson intended on using the campaign
slogan, “Only a fool would vote for Vince.”
His contention was that this country was found-
ed by fools who crossed the ocean in fragile
sailboats; developed by fools who coped with
disease, Indians and starvation; and eventually
liberated by fools who challenged the greatest
military force in the 18th century.
He also claims the country has always been full
of fools who flew kites in thunderstorms, invented
electric lightbulbs even though not a single house
in die country was wired for electricity and made
airplanes and flew them.
All of this, Johnson said, came to and end when
politicians decided to stop fooling around and
spend our money more wisely, eventually telling
us die only way to reduce our national debt was to
increase spending and revise our tax laws.
Johnson carried his philosphy one step further
with a proposed rewriting of the Pledge of
Allegiance. His version goes;
“I pledge allegiance to the Debt of the United
States of America and to the payments for which
it requires, one burden, bigger than God, in-
disputable, with accounting fees and simplified
taxes for all.”
Johnson decided to bow out of the presidential
sweepstakes, however, because of insurmoun-
table odds.
“We Americans aren’t the fools we used to be,”
he said, “and without the support of fools, I don’t
have a chance.”
No, Vince Johnson won’t be the next president,
but let’s hope there are a few fools left in the coun-
try who will venture forth into space, defy the
predominant notions and build better mousetraps.
Vince knows the value of being foolish and so
should we.
(Reprinted by permission of the Scottsdale,
Ariz., Progress)
Hardships hardly shared by all
By JACK ANDERSON
and JOSEPH SPEAR
WASHINGTON - In a free enter-
prise system such as ours, economic
benefits and economic hardships are
theoretically distributed
evenhandedly and are shared by all,
right?
Wrong.
When belts have to be tightened,
everybody's bellyband gets cinched
a notch or two, right?
Wrong, wrong, wrong. And if you
want firsthand testimony, talk to
any of the some 7,000 people whose
jobs were eliminated by the
American Express Co. just a few
weeks before Christmas.
The layofs came when an AMEX
subsidiary, Shearson-Lehman
Brothers, merged with the big Wall
Street brokerage house, E.F. Hut-
ton, and the marriage created a
surfeit of employees. This, combin-
ed with October’s stock market tum-
ble, meant that a lot of people had to
go.
So far, so good. Most of us can
understande that AMEX is not in
business to lose money, so a lot of
working stiffs had to be given pick
slips. Just think of the boys in the ex-
ecutive suites who have yachts and
mansions and Jaguars to lose when
they get bounced. How they must be
suffering.
Save your tears. The nine top ex-
ecutives of AMEX and Shearson-
Lehman still have their keys to the
washroom. They took home an
average of $1.3 million apiece last
year.
The 16 members of the board of
directors are still there, too, wat-
ching over the $78,500 in stock op-
tions each was given as incentives
before the market plummeted.
Board member and former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
got his, as did fellow director and
former Transportation Secretary
Drew Lewis.
Kissinger also pulls down $420,000
a year as a consultant and lecturer
for AMEX and Shearson-Lehman.
Lewis served as the top executive
for former AMEX subsidiary
Warner Amex Cable for less than
three years; he collected $12.6
million in salary, stock options and
bonuses for his efforts, then moved
on to became top gun at Union
Pacific railroad.
Former President Gerald Ford
also managed to hang onto his job.
despite the layoffs. He is a consul-
tant for Shearson-Lehman and gets
about $200,000 a year for his advice.
To help these poor folks weather
the economic storms, Shearson-
Lehman is constructing some
getaway cottages at the pricey
Beaver Creek ski resort near Vaii,
Colo. Company officials regard the
project with approximately the
same reverence miUitary officials
demonstrate for a missile complex
They won’t talk about it. and they
have instructed other involved in it
not to discuss it either.
A Shearson-Lehman spokesman
assured our reporter Frank Byrt,
however, that the luxury accom-
modations will be used primarily far
business purposes. Modem com-
munications being as sophisticated
as they are, Wall Street’s just a
phone call away from Beaver Creek.
Vacationing VIPs will be able to
use the ocmplex, the spokesman
said, but only if they reimburse the
company. Of course, if there’s
business to be done when the
powder's fresh, it gets to be a close
call.
Incidentally, former President
Ford won't have to borrow the com-
pany condo. He’s got a nice little
place just down the street from the
Beaver Creek complex.
RELIGION RUCKUS - It hasn't
created the fervor of the school-
prayer controversy, but there’s a
church-state stew simmering at the
Voice of America. The government-
owned radio network broadcasts
programs that some insiders believe
promote particular schools of
religious thought and ignore others
“We don not propagate faith,"
said Acting VOA Director Robert
Barry . “We report on it as part of
American life."
Our own review of the network’s
programming demonstrated,
however, that the line between
reportim: on religion and preaching
it is a thin one. The Ri
language schedule, for exam) e
shows that Russian Orthodox pri »
who is an agency employee condo ts
a Sunday liturgy program. D
another program, a Russian ra bi
(not VOA staffer! reads from i *
Torah. On high holy days, c canfor
sings prayers.
News about Baptists, Mualiiia,
Pentacostais, and Hare Krishn t,
among other faiths, is broadcast, fit
their services are not.
The Supreme Court has nefr
specifically addressed the quest n
of whether religious broadcasts «
government stations are consti j.
tional. The court held in 19 ),
however, that the First Amendm it
prohibits state “aid to religion ura a-
the guise of assisting some of a
citizens in the free exercise of thfr
religion.
TWO CENTS' WORTH - lie
multi-billion dollar B-l bomber pi ►
gram has been stalled because bit s
were sucked into the engines of o e
of the aircraft, causrng it to crai i.
Geese have also grounded the pre i-
dent's • doomsday plane" - the B< s
ing 747 that circles the skies can r-
ing the people and equipment o
wage war ui emergencies. Ni »
we're investigating a rumor that t e
Pentagon wants a few milli n
dollars to train a squadron of spoift-
btlls to patrol the DEW line.
( tax i wi«e rmr arink, u .
The why are there always arguments?
Clean air, progress can coincide
By HARVEY ALTER
How times change
The recent controversy at Eastside High School
in Paterson, N. J., is a good example of why educa-
tional reform is so difficult and doubtful in this
country. Seven years ago, Eastside was a
veritable blackboard jungle. Student shootings
and stabbings were endemic in this inner-city
school with a predominantly black and Hispanic
enrollment Sexual liaisons were commonplace in
the lavatories, and drug pushers did a brisk
business on school grounds. In fact, the situation
was so bad that the superintendent of schools was
about to shut the doors.
Then Joe Claris was hired as principal.
Under Clark’s administration, automatic
suspensions were dispensed for drug possession,
fighting, vandalism, assault and gross disrespect
for teachers. Lesser infractions resulted in
students being barred from classes and assigned
to school cleanup chores.
Predictably, this ramrod regimen offended the
local civil liberties chapter, but it turned Eastside
High around. By 1983, the school’s 18-man securi-
ty force was pared to four men stationed outside
the school while the ubiquitous black ad-
ministrator prowled the hallways with a bullhorn,
barking orders to students to pick up litter and get
to class on time. They not only got there but ap-
plied themselves as well.
Before Clark took charge, only 39 percent of the
ninth-graders could pass a basic English skills
test Today, nearly 80 percent of them make the
grade, and similar improvements have been
achieved in math scores. And during his five-year
tenure, most of the school’s graduates have gone
off to college. Not bad for a school that used to
specialize in mayhem.
One would think that the dynamic principal
would be in line for a promotion. Actually, his job
is in jeopardy.
It seems the new school board objects to Clark's
no-nonsense approach to young toughs. Several
weeks ago, he was ordered to reinstate 60 delin-
quents, evaluate them with the aid of child
psychologists, and then provide special tutoring to
keep them in school. When the principal balked at
coddling these punks, all of whom are ages 18 to
21, he himself was threatened with suspension.
Clark remains at his post because he relented,
albeit under protest. It is significant that he has
the enthusiastic support of most students, many of
whom transferred to Eastside after the school sh-
ed its reputation as a combat zone and became a
safe haven for learning.
If the school board and the civil liberties have
their way, however, Clark will be replaced with a
pliable administrator who believes there is indeed
no such thing as a bad boy.
Fire years SSi. the president’s educational
Pollsters often report that 87 per-
cent or so of the public wants clean
air or clean water, implying that 13
percent or so want it dirty. Have you
ever met anyone who craves a
breath of dirty air?
The truth is that everyone wants
high standards of public health and a
clean environment.
Why, then, are there always
arguments - especially in state
legislatures and vivicjly portrayed in
the press - as if the nation were
divided befWeen those who want the
environment clean and those who do
not’’
The disagreement is on which
strategies to use to get where we
want to go.
I suggest that we change our
vocabulary in thus debate to dif-
ferentiate clearly between goals and
strategies - to understand which
health and well-being goals we want
to achieve and which kinds of
strategies we wish to use to achieve
them.
There will always be some who
want activities regulated to the
minutiae, believing this gains con-
trol. But convoluted and complex
strategies are an inefficient use of
human and financial resources and
they delay goal fulfillment Those
who are impatient with the rate of
progress toward environmental
quality should be the strongest ad-
vocates of strict goals and simple
strategies or regulations so that the
goals can be acheived sooner.
However, the pro-environment lob-
by often wrongly argues the other
side.
There is a perception that once a
law is passed, the environment will
be cleaner. There are those in Con-
gress and elsewhere who expect new
laws and regulations to be effective
within the modern time frame of a 30
minute sitcom. Obviously, this can-
not be done.
There is a paradox to modem en-
vironmental management. The
more that is known about a par-
ticular environmental effect, the
more the public questions it and ob-
jects to it. This is particularly true of
some chemical emissions, even in
the parts-per-billion range.
A related paradox is the success
that modem society has had in
managing risks, which heightens the
impact of small or sudden en-
vironmental releases and ignores
the day-to-day successful manage-
ment of hazardous and dangerous
substances -- for example, the safe
transport of gasoline
It is difficult to view environmen-
tal policies simply because there is a
bit of preservationist and conserva-
tionist in each of us. particular)!)
when we seek some of nature 's beau-
ty and quiet as a retreat from the
cacophony of modem life. But we
also want the economic development
and employment that provide the
necesities and amenities of that life.
How to achieve both economic
growth and preserve nature fuels
the battle of ians" among conser-
vatiomsm. preservation)sn and en-
vironmentalism
'•Preservationism" is nagative -
calling for inaction. “Conserva-
tionism" is active — calling for
growth with a concern for
posterity's welfare. "Environmen-
talisn" often preaches the inaction
of no growth rather than the action
of environmental management The
challenge is to achieve grow th while
protecting and preserving the en-
vironment.
We must heed President Teddy
Roosevelt who said, I recognize the
right and duty of this generation to
develop and use our natural
resources, but I do not recognize the
right to waste them, or to rob by
wasteful use the generations to come
after us.”
Environmental management and
restoration are costly and can be af-
forded only by large companies and
affluent governments We see the
paradigm that economic and in-
dustrial development, which require
evironmental management and con-
trol, generate the wealth needed to
pay for that management and con-
trol.
The polarization and arguments at
the extremes are caused by gross
misunderstandings of environmen-
tal legislation and regulation, as
well as confusion about goals and
strategy and how these are 9et.
The process of establishing en-
vironmental policy has been
described as having four phases -
recognizing, gaining control, solving
and maintaining control of an en-
vironmental problem. It is during
the first two phases that new laws
are passed and the regulatory pro-
cess begins
At each phase there is a call for in-
formation Opponents of growth
generally are satisfied with less
w hile proponents call for more All
sides make a huge investment in ex-
(H-rtise to define or oppose solutions
- as we can see happening in the pre-
sent debate over acid rain
The gaining control phase is mark-
ed by an esraliating polarization bet-
ween environmental activists and
those groups - pnmarilty industrial
- that are financially affected
F’oliticians and the media mcrea.v
ingly are leaning toward the former
Their arguments are simpler, but
not necessarily more correct
The public may pervei ve the gain-
ing control phase as ending when
legislation is passed, but laws do lit-
tle to control and dfluent This
phase extends until well after
regulations are promulgated and
complieance begins Tune becomes
essential to implement and evaluate
the effectiveness uf the new control
structure Environmental change is
slow Nature is patient
Treating environmental policy-
making like any similar political
process ignore the contribution of
science and engineering and returns
us to nonproductive arguments uv x
"iam " Industrial activities w h
environmental consequences A*
quire the rational consent of In
argumentative public, which is oft a
difficult to achieve because it ►
voives the weighing of risks
Elected representatives ai d
government officials are called up n
to cope with uncertainties and ma e
ethical judgements about potent il
harm to son* unknown members if
the population These judgemer s
are often made without reference o
other and established activities Ik I
may bear greater risk uf harm.
But populist rnrs for more conti 1
of substances with long. fi«ir *•
sounding names, and pieas for a y 4
( leaner environment, always sou I
good because they fit our nation I
ethic of caring
Policy makers have a hea r
obligation to steer a course that p< -
nuts informed discussion rath r
than emotion and which focuses s
how U> differentiate and choom bt -
ween goals and strategies To
otherwise denies economic grow*
and extension of the Amencn
dream tv more people, and reducA ,
the resources available for needft
environmental improvement
control
(Haney Alter Is manager of t r
Resources Policy Deportment of C f
I S Chamber of Commerre.)
POLK COUNTY
ENTERPRISE
ALVIN HOLLEY, PUBLISHER
Telephone Number 327-4357
USPS 437-340
Entered as Second-Class Matter at the Pool Office at Uniystan
Texas 77351 under the Act of Congress of March J. 19B7
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Letters will also be subject to
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This column is not meant as a
forum for political candidates,
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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
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Beatrice Hall, Special Correspondent
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White, Barbara. Polk County Enterprise (Livingston, Tex.), Vol. 106, No. 7, Ed. 1 Sunday, January 24, 1988, newspaper, January 24, 1988; Livingston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth795880/m1/4/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Livingston Municipal Library.