Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 106, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 4, 1989 Page: 2 of 12
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2_THE NEWS-TELEGRAM, Sulphur Springs, Tsxas, Thuraday, *■ IthO.
ijtorials...
- —■ Privilege of voting
tested at times
9 . • , - - • ' ' •
— ------ "" “ r~ • ■n ' - rV “•* " ' » ....
“I tell my students that I will haunt you if the day
comes that it is time to vote and you don’t vote.” That
was said just a month ago by a Greek immigrant who was
named National Teacher of the Year.
Mary V. Bicouvaris, an American government teacher
in Hampton, Va„ knows the importance of democracy
and the right to vote. The 49-year-old teacher survived
the Nazi occupation of Greece, but her father was killed
by the Nazis when she was five and her uncle was
rounded up with 39 others and shot in retaliation for the
death of a German. She came to this country when she
was 20 and began teaching American government even
before she became a citizen five years later.
Mrs. Bicouvaras has been in two worlds, has seen op-
pression and war, and has gained a deep appreciation of
the freedoms offered by her adopted homeland — includ-
ing the privilege of voting.
In every election, whether for local, state or national
contests, citizens are urged to exercise their rights and
privileges to participate in the elective process. But what
do you tell these citizens at a time when there are no con-
tests in two of three local government elections?
First, of course, you remind them to be sure to vote in
the one where there is a contest — in the case this Satur-
day that being the hospital district fioard election.
It would be just as wise, we think, for voters to cast
ballots in the City and school board elections, where in-
cumbents arc running unopposed. Now, we know that
won’t happen in any great numbers, but there seems to be
a potential hidden danger at a sub-surface level when
Americans don’t mark elections with a vote, even if they
might not be needed. e
Frankly, we’d prefer that these elections were contes-
ted — not because of any disenchantment with the in-
cumbents seeking re-election, but because we believe our
leaders should be actively subject to review and endor-
sement from time to time. Sure, it’s comforting to say that
there is no opposition because the public is satisfied with
the directions being taken. We sincerely hope that is the
case here.
But there also is a haunting fear that the numbers seek-
ing election are few because the numbers of people who
care, or who would agree to devote the time and energy
needed for serving the public, arc few as well.
\ In America we often decry how the percentage of
eligible citizens who make the effort to vote, who realize
ft# importance of % strong voter ttimout, andwhfO-ltke
sufficient interest in thlir governments arid those elected
re public office* ha&dcoUued ahnost annu^iyr ^ - :>• 1 -
Let us hope that the interest in serving fellow citizens
does not decline as well.
Faulty spending goes on
• _
The opinion^ page
„— ——————-
Kemp breaks the silence
By Joseph Spear
Quick quiz: What did Robert
Weaver, James Lynn and Moon Lan-
drieu have in common’
No, they were not infielders for the
Chicago Cubs They were secretaries
of Housing and Urban Development
under Presidents Johnson. Nixon and
Carter respectively. And that should
tell you something about the abyss of
anonymity that HUD Secretary Jack
Kemp could disappear into if his bat-
teries ever burn out.
But that's not likely to happen. The
former professional football quarter-
back and New York congressman has
an infectious energy that convinces
even skeptics he might succeed in cre-
ating a visible profile for an agency
that had none for the past eight years
unde .e stewardship of Silent Sam
Pierce.
“He's very hard to get to sit still for
more than 10 minutes." said one
Kemp associate. “He’s just anxious to
get on with things." Several times a
day he jumps in his official Lincoln
Town Car — in the front seat, beside
the drivfer — and takes off. “He’s
spontaneous," explained a close aide
Politically. Kempjis a strange bird
For most of his public life, he has been
an ardent champion of supply-side
economics and a hero of the hard
right. But his conservative creden-
tials appear of minor consequence to
some who would seem to be natural
adversaries.
At a Capitol Hill hearing, for exam-
ple, he was warmly received by a lib-
eral Massachusetts Democrat, Rep
Barney Frank. “By the time we finish
our brief opening statements,” Frank
told Kemp, “you will have spent more
time before this committee than your
predecessor ever did.”
A conference of mayors, mostly
Democrats, applauded Kemp when he
proclaimed himself a “bleeding heart
conservative, a progressive conserva-
tive" who wanted to be thought of as
“a big 'L’ liberal when it comes to re-
lations between the races, relations
between the poor and our govern-
ment, between the mayors and HUD"
When Kemp visited Atlanta the day
after he was sworn in for a tour of the
inner-city, black leaders received him
with gusto. “We have serious prob-
lems, as you can well understand,"
Coretta Scott King told the HUD sec-
retary. "You lift our spirits because
you have hope they can be solved "
Said Mayor Andrew Young, "We'ne
all very excited about this adminis-
tration" U S Rep' John » lib-
eral Democrat and veteran of civil
rights battles, .described Kemp with
an expression common to black
By Jack Anderson
and Dele Vaa Alta
WASHINGTON - A hotline in the
Defense Department puts whistleb-
lowers just a touch-tone away from
reporting waste and mismanage-
ment. Why then would any top mili-
tary officer risk breaking the rules
when it's so easy to get caught?
Maybe because the good-old-boy
system in the services until recently
guaranteed that complaints to the
hotline about top brass end up in the
Bermuda Triangle.
Take the case of Army Gen Alonzo
Short Jr. Last year an Army worker
placed an anonymous call to the hot-
line complaining that' Short had
charged the Army for unnecessary
trips to a base in Arizona and was
about to spend $300,000 to install a
kitchen and bath in his office.
If the remodeling plans were in the
works, the Army should have moved
quickly to investigate the charges.
But four months after the tip was
turned over to the Army Inspector
General, the investigation was barely
off the ground. The Army had cleared
Short of the travel allegation but had
not yet looked into the remodeling.
The Army refused to tell us the out
come of the investigation, and Short
did not return our phone call to his
current post at Fort Huachuca, Ariz.
The details of the initial Short in-
vestigation are in an internal Defense
Department memo stamped “OFFI-
CIAL USE ONLY," which is highly
Jack
Anderson
critical of the way the individual ser-
vices have fielded the hotline calls
‘Issues such as this speak to the lack
of sensitivity and responsiveness
typical of the (Army Inspector Gener-
al) office," Defense Department hot-
line operator Leonard Trahan Jr.
wrote in the memo, obtained by our
associate Stewart Harris.
Investigations of top officers have
been mishandled for years by the
Army, Air Force and Navy. Each ser-
vice has an inspector general who is
ofien chummy with the generals un-
der investigation. The poor working
stiffs in the inspector general offices
risk their careers if they do their jobs
well. Many inspectors are rotated
back into the regular ranks when
their tour with the inspector general
is finished No wonder they get weak
in the knees when it comes to investi-
gating big wigs
Defense Department Inspector
General June Gibbs Brown didn't like
the setup and asked that the Job of in-
vestigating top officers be taken
away from the services and given to
her umbrella agency Deputy Secre-
tary of Defense William Taft IV re-
cently granted her wish
The policy change comes none too
soon. Besides botching investigations,
the Army investigators drag their
feet, giving the generals plenty of
time to rationalize their excesses
It took 294 days lot the Army to
dismiss allegations that Maj. Gen.
William Streeter converted a five-ton
Army truck into a recreational vehi-
cle. The Army also cleared Streeter
of allegations that he bought 10 office
chairs for $359 apiece, reupholstered
them for $300 each and then sent
them to surplus because be didn’t like
the color, according to t|ie Defense
Department report The tipster also
accused one of Streeter's majors of
spending $997 on golf balls
That major took the rap on some of
the allegations while Streeter skated
The major was fined $500 and re-
moved from the promotion list, ac-
cording to the report. Streeter has
since been promoted. Streeter did not
return our call and the Army declined
comment
In another case it took the Army
"323 days to dismiss a complaint
against a brigadier general who made
a video tape of an awards parade, al-
legedly so his ailing wife could see it
In another case, a brigadier general
was paid for nine days of training
with the national guard when he only
showed up for two or three days He
was reprimanded after the Army
spent nearly a year investigating the
tip- ___
CwnpL Mi. tMM Pm* Syaintu Ik
Joe *
Spear
+ f
£ i
neighborhoods “He can walk the
walk, and he can talk the talk."
Kemp's popularity with those who
tilt to the left has many of his old ideo-
logical allies wondering if could still
pass a purity test "He's getting to be
buddy-buddy with a lot of the home-
less activists who are not on his side
politically and he's in danger of being
co-opted,” one disciple of the right
told a USA Today reporter.
The HUD secretary has described
himself as a "ccmservative with prag
matist tendencies." and it shows in his
stated goals “We need to unleash the
power of free enterprise in our inner
cities," he proclaimed at his Senate
confirmation hearing He would ac-
complish this mainly by attracting
businesses — preferably small ones
— to urban “enterprise zones" with
promises of tax breaks and fewer
regulations.
He/would also enforce the fair hous-
ing laws. He would let the tenants of
public housing projects manage them.
«piii
He would provide incentives to help
them purchase their homes He would
assist first-time and low-income
home buyers. He would encourage the
private sector to help house and feed
the poor and homeless
The orthodox right probably thinks
that agenda reeks of activism The or-
thodox left probably blanches at all
the talk of the private sector
Us radicals of the middle have
heard a lot of politicians offer new
deals, old deals, square deals and fair
deals, and few of them have lived up
to their billings So what’s to lose if we
try Kemp's deal?
© 1S» NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN
W&l
IK “WS BiS GCNSHVNEift
TCMV,..,
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iiini iniliW '_.'\Cc9r
Cable tunes in a monopoly
By Robert Walters
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark (NEA) -
This community is home to the Uni-
versity of Arkansas and its vaunted
Razorback football team, but some
local residents say the real pigs in
town arp the operators of the local, ca-
ble television system.
At a public hearing late last year,
one typically embittered Warner Ca-
ble customer complained that “its
service is poor, its selection meager,
its prices exorbitant, its technology
archaic and its attitude overbearing."
Another resident of this northwest-
ern Arkansas community called for a
boycott of the cable company while a
third compared it with the robber
barons of an earlier era.
“Warner Gets Miserable Ratings
From Public," proclaimed a headline
in the local newspaper the following
THE WORLD ALMANAC
DATE BOOK
Robert
UJalters
May 4, 1989
Today is the 124th I * Ixj-.pjw
day of 1989 and the
45th day of spring p. j
TODAY’S HISTORY: On this day in
1970, tour students were killed by the
Ohio National Guard at Kent State Uni-
versity during an anti-war
demonstration:
TOOAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Horace Mann
(1796), Audrey Hepburn (1929),
George F. Will (1941), Tammy Wynette
(1942)
TOOAY’S QUOTE: "Character is what
God and the angels know of us; repu-
tation is what men and women think of
ua." — Horace Mann
TOOAY’S MOON: Day be-
fore new moon (May 5).
n
day. “It's an explosive situation," ex-
plained one municipal official
The hostility toward the cable com-
pany here is matched in other com-
munities throughout the nation,
where customers complain that arro-
gant cable operators regularly in-
crease prices but seldom respond to
telephone inquiries and complaints in
a timely manner
Characterizing the cable industry
as an “unregulated monopoly," a mu-
nicipal official in Dubuque, Iowa, says
“consumers too often have no choice
but to pay the price and tolerate bad
service’ while the city government is
powerless to mandate reforms.
Politicians in Charleston, W.Va.,
complain that the cable company
serving their city, which had a pre-tax
profit margin of more than 36 percent
last year, then greedily increased its
rates for basic service by 22 percent
early this year
The General Accounting Office
found that 25 large cable companies
in Ohio increased their basic service
rates an average of 27 percent during
a recent two-year period. Attorneys
general in at least five states are
probing alleged anti-eompetitive
practices in the industry
When a Senate subcommittee held
hearings on the topic earlier this
month, its chairman. Sen. Howard
Metzenbaum. D-Ohio, cited govern-
ment figures that showed the cost of
cable service in recent years ‘in-
creased at a greater rate than any
other commodity or service in the en-
tire United States.*
Initially viewed as merely a means
of bringing broadcast signals to re-
mote rural areas, cable television
now is ubiquitous and lucrative. It is,,
available to 90 percent of the nation’s
households, with 60 percent of those
potential customers payirtg^receive
it. Gross revenues last year reached
$14 billion
Economic concentration has been
increasing in the industry, with the six
largest companies controlling more
than one-third of the business Al-
though there are approximately $.000
cable systems throughout the coun-
try, competition exists in only about
40 of those markets.
The lack of competition became ap-
parent in municipal officials in Fay-
etteville late last year, when they so-
licited 28 other cable proyiders as
possible successors to Wanner Not
one firm displayed any real interest
in bidding for the franchise, although
only nine responded negatively, auc
others did not even reply to the offer.
After years of frustration with the
cable television industry, a 1987 law
enacted in Arkansas empowered local
governments to enter the cable busi-
ness and compete with private opera-
tors. Another statute, passed in 1988,
provided a financing mechanism —
bonds could be issued by communities
in which public cable systems have
been approved in voter referenda.
State Sen. David Malone, a Demo-
crat who represents Fayetteville and
sponsored the first bill, says he hoped
the measures might at least "give the
city a little more leverage in dealing
with the cable company*--
But taking over cable operation
remains a daunting task few local
gov<>rrngbrtt»rgfe willing to attempt.
Malone notes that "there’s been all
kinds of citizen outcry - about the
outdated, outmoded system" in Fay-
etteville - but little has changed.
© MS NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE AW
TOOAY’S BARBS
BY PHIL PASTORET
Question of most any dietary week: Will
we become es healthy as horses it we
eat sufficient amounts of oat bran?
© MT NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE AW
Dogmatic in naming a new puppy
'JSM
By Lewis Grtzzard
The response to my reqMeat that
Mack Lab puppy wae awesome
Letters and cells came by the droves.
The reason I made the request was
I wasn't certain the name I had given
the dog — Combread — was any
good.
One shouldn't name a dog without
0vb« it some thought. For instance, I
once had a dog 1 named Duke, after
mgr hero, Duke Snider, the basebttl
Trouble was, several months after
taking poaaeaaion of Duke, he gave
birth to seven new puppies. After that
I called him Florence, in honor of the
Florence Critteaon Home for Unwed
Mother*. (Florence, wherever she is
and whoever she is, must have been a
pretty good old girl.)
L of course, have an older Mack
Lab, the haaiMnaer ant
CdttMh. The Mentton of CatfWi M i
Lewis
Grizzord
to about 4
charge Combread'* name to Hush
Puppy
"Any fool knows," said one letter,
“that Hush Puppy gue* with Catfish
better than Combread."
This is true. But allow me to point
out coteaisw also goes with Catfish,
but what fool would name s dog
hat is made out of cab-
FWther, allow me to point out that
hwdi puppiri are made with com-
raeaL as is corahreait
So, there M a connection there .
Since I did ttdmt rnnngti of the
Hush Puppy emgeMim. I tried h oik
on the new puppy
I said, "Hush Puppy, go outside and
get the morning paper.*
The dog didn't move
Then I tried, "Hush Puppy, go to the
refrigerator and fetch me a beer.*
He still didn’t move
Then, I said, “Combread, go to the
bathroom on the living room carpet I
The dog didn't hesitate for one
instant It will be at least s wreck, skid
the lady at the carpet-cleaners, be**—
,4~4jTthis to tell you that while 1 do
appreciate all the suggestion for
other names, I have decided to stick
with Combread I don't want to
confuse hkn by changing h» name at
this point, and I don’t want to change
spring. "Here. Catfish and Cam-
bread." when I can them I've always
furrows his brow and gives you those
eyes, it’s impossible not to hug him.
a He and Catfish get along quite
well, as long as he doesn’t attempt to
eat out of Catfish’s bowl. When that
happens it is reminiscent of "Dog
Fight at the OK Corral "
a Combread wants to sleep in the
bed with me. The good news is at
least he’s not a coverhog.
a Combread’s not the chewer
Catfish was as a puppy. Catfish
chewed practically everything I
owned, including remote control
devices for my TV.
The only thing Combread seems to
want to chew is an occasional roll of
totie* ~*per. 0 had s cousin who was
the same way.)
a One day in the future, I continue
to assure myself, Combread will be
A tittle about the new puppy now
a He's got s peat head and when he
Wish t» both a lot of kick
C law by Cswtw t
Berry's World
• 1W* A* MCA me
"Hey, I appreciate what you ’re trying to do,
but I’m in a very deep depression "
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Keys, Clarke. Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 111, No. 106, Ed. 1 Thursday, May 4, 1989, newspaper, May 4, 1989; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth824320/m1/2/: accessed June 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.