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Show - Comments Free Press - Wednesday, June 4, 1997 Page 2 Our financial worries are "in the bag" Editorial Have a great, literate summer . The trouble with writing about literacy is that the people who most need to read the message can't. Read libraries open and accessible to young readers. The County Bookmobile program brings additional reading material into several communities, espethat is. A surprising number of our cially those that don't have access to community libraries. friends, relatives and acquaintances All of the local libraries sponsor have reached adulthood without for of us take hours to help children learn the most what story acquiring granted as a basic life skill. Just last joys of reading. Librarians always have suggestions week, some of our for good reading area high school for people of any marched down the reading level and Healthy Utah Valley aisle to pick up a any interest. Just 0 American Fork Library . . ask. diploma they can't Mtn Ridge Comm. Library . And parents read. Others who Lehi Library can help their have never 0 Pleasant Grove Library . . children learn to basic learned Bookmobile Utah County read two ways skills reading by reading to dropped out before children their graduation. And there are children in our and by reading themselves. A good schools who will take this same path example is one of the best ways to to functional illiteracy now if we don't teach children to read. do something to help them underHealthy Utah Valley is heading up stand the value of being able to read this county-wid- e push to promote litand write. eracy. They offer a variety of summer Yesterday morning, the three Utah programs. Call them for information. There are also a variety of adult County school districts joined a group of local organizations and businesses literacy programs available in Utah to launch a summer reading program County for people who have never aimed at addressing literacy in our learned to read. communities. The program will focus Marilyn Kofford, chair of the on children, and will make reading Literacy Committee for Healthy Utah Valley and president of the materials available to kids throughout the summer through various Alpine School District board of education summed up the goal of the summeans. Community libraries play a vital mer literacy program: "We want reading to become the role in encouraging reading and in most favorite summer activity for promoting reading skills. This summer the Alpine School District is also parents and students alike." That's a making an effort to keep many school great goal. graduates EBB 344-629- 5 .763-307- . .756-235- 5 768-715- 0 .785-395- . .489-483- 3 . Familiarity breeds confusion It's finally happened. I've become my father, and I can't stand it. Now, I want to make it clear at the outset that I loved my father. But he did these ... things, things that bothered me intense- - ly. Like he always wanted to know where I was going and who I was going to be with. He was constantly criticizing the clothes I wore especially the psychedelic flowered number with a Nehru color and long flowing sleeves. And he could never get names right. Especially my name. You see, I was the youngest of three brothers, and when Dad wanted to call me by name he always started fi with the oldest brother and worked his way down. As in: "Now Jimmy, er, Kerry, er, Marc. I hope you don't plan to go out in public wearing that." Or: "I don't understand it, Jimmy, er, Kerry, er Marc. How can you put 100 miles on the car in one night and never leave town?" And he wasn't the only one with name recognition problems. People called me "Kerry" from the day I was born until I left town to go to college. Lots of people. It was a small town. That meant everybody recognized my family, and then, without thinking, called me by my older brother's name. I always promised myself that I wouldn't do that. But I've become my father. It showed up on the front page of last week's Citizen, when I wrote Studentbody President Jeff Krommenhoek's name in a story about high school graduation and then called him "Adam" in the photo caption accompanying the story. As you might have guessed, Adam is Jeffs older brother. Knowing how these things go, I bet this isn't the first time Jeff has been called by his brother's name. Nevertheless, an apology is in order. I am gaining an appreciation for all The Editor's Column - By MARC HADDOCK - those people who called me Kerry while I was growing up. The problem isn't that I don't know the Krommenhoeks at all, but I know them too well. We don't spend any time together, mind you. We're not in the same LDS ward. We're not in the same stake, although we once were. But as members of the same communiespecialty, we share common interests ly where our kids are concerned. There are hundreds of kids and adults out there whom I have photographed, written about, taught in Primary, performed with on the stage and coached in soccer or basketball, all by simply going about the everyday activities of my life over the past 15 years. I think most of us can say the same thing. The people around us become such a part of the fabric of our lives that we become acquainted with hundreds of people, parents and children alike. We take an interest in their lives and their growing up and sometimes those kids grow up so fast and time passes so quickly that we lose track of the names while remaining very aware of the individuals. It might mean I've been around too long. On the other hand, maybe it just means I've been around long enough to be a real part of the community. And that's not bad at all, is it? I'm still not too happy about turning into my father, though. I've got it! Seriously, I think I know how we could solve any of the financial concerns that we may have in Lehi, perhaps even in the entire country. Just think, we could finance the proposed recreation center, we could build many new parks, and who knows, we might even be able to reduce the national debt. How, you ask? Simple. Capitalizing on our most abundant resource, we package and market it as "The Really Big Bag o' Bovine Byproducts." This resource is found in many different places, but is usually masked as "Little Smidgen o' Truth," where people really believe in a certain concept. One wonders if those people really know the name of the planet of their residence. For example, I have heard sports figures denounce the Jazz players for playing a certain style of game, then observe those same people display the same type of behavior they were criticizing. Now that The Team is in the playoffs, I see a similar problem occurring with the announcers, who effuse over one team while subtly degrading the other team. Just listen to the commentators, who will practically scream out certain bullish players' names and then turn around and describe the condition of Karl Malone's hand in graphic detail, saying "It's really oozing blood and sweat." Come off it, creeps. Sell your bovine byproducts to the farmers, not to the fans of the Utah Jazz or the rest of the country who no doubt has the wrong impression of our team. We can see the same thing happening locally, too. As our community grows, especially as developers see ways to promote their projects, this resource seems to be not only immense but endless as well. I've already explained my views on the eventually need legal health insurance. Such insurance would pay for your attorney when it becomes necessary to sue your HMO because they are refusing to pay for treatment that might keep you alive. When you are extremely ill, it is a heavy burden to have to fight with your managed-car- e provider to get the treatment that was readily available before the insurance people took over medicine. Having a legal insurance policy may be a way of prolonging your life. In the old days, when you were sick you went to the doctor of your choice. Your doctor was usually associated with the hospital of your choice. Your doctor decided when you should enter and leave the hospital. No more. Your life is governed by the bottom line. Your physician's Ph.D. has been replaced by some bean counter's master's degree from one of the prestigious financial institutions. There is a war going on to determine whether medicine or money should be the prime health-car- e consideration. If you can find a doctor who is working for himself along with a hospital, you may have added years to your life non-prof- it facilities have span. Managed-car- e absolutely no interest in medical Boland iw,' 1997 Creators Syndicate, Inc. research, teaching or new untried thera-- ' pies. They are in business to make Prolonging your life if the odds are against your getting well is not in the best interest of the HMO or the managed-care facility. You are eating up the profits. These people want your premium. When you become sick, you are a liability. In the long run, the efforts to cut costs will probably cost us dearly. Teaching hospitals are falling by the wayside along with the testing of new drugs. Somewhere down the road, the dollar bill is going to have to take a back seat to medicine. If things continue down the philosophy that "the people who will eventually be buying and living in potential homes are not represented" at meetings where existing residents come to voice opposition. While I take no sides as far as agreeing or disagreeing with the issue of development itself, I believe this vein of thought that we should in any way empower potential citizens with a voice equal to that of those who already live in a particular area and will feel the impact of new developis scary. ment A new thought surfaced recently, which to me is just as frightening as the previous one. In this one, the argument is that a developer wants to "make Lehi nice" by putting in homes. Again, I take no sides about the development itself. Regardless of the type of home or the size of the lot (a sore point for some people in recent months) intended by the developer, I emphatically disagree with the concept that building homes will make the community nice. First of all, it is already nice the way it is. Not that I am against growth, but more homes will not necessarily make Lehi nice, and indeed, might possibly make it less nice. Second, I have a hard time understanding what is unattractive or unacceptable Looking over the Obvious my fellow students were at the top of their subclasses, mostly in such jects as astrophysics or advanced mathematimind-bendin- g cs. Although the subject was the ethical use of biological knowledge, what I remember most about this BYU course is that I was the only person, including the teacher, who refused to accept the theory of human evolu-- , tion. I spent most of the semester defending that position. However, that topic will have to wait for another day. Among other things, that semester has often prompted me to consider the importance of what we believe about ourselves and the models we accept as road maps of reality. Bioethics has and will continue to be a political and social pandora's box. Without even approaching the ethics of clone reproduction, four common examples in the biopo-liticdebate are violence, mental illness, alcoholism and sexual orientation. If there are genes for these behaviors or diseases, what does that mean and what are we to do about it? If you don't think it's significant, read the fine print of your health insurance contract. Does your provider treat mental illness as biological disease or as controllable behavior? Even more important, do such discoveries free us of unnecessary guilt or lock us in our own misery? Just in stating the questions I have oversimplified the whole issue. A recent U.S. News and World Report article warns me to ing or density requirements. "Row Houses R Us is a cut above the rest," they may say, "where each of our tenants has a certain level of pride in their surroundings, so they will take care of their two bedrooms better than someone would if they had four rooms. And with no playground outside to distract them, they can sperd their time concentrating on keeping their room clean." The last example may be a little extreme, and I must admit I have not actually heard that one yet, but it is only a matter or time before someone who believes that line will try to use it. That is when we need to get out the bags and sell that line to someone who can really benefit from it. By BRETT BEZZANT throw up a red flag when the term "gene for" comes up, especially when it is used to describe human behavior. "When geneticists say they've found a gene for a particular trait, what they mean is that people carrying a certain "allele" a variation in a stretch of DNA that normally will develop the codes for a certain protein given trait in a standard environment." The key phrase here is "standard environment." What scientists are not saying is that a given allele will necessarily lead to that trait in every environment. In reality, given the the same suspicious genetic make-up- , depends signifiexpression of that make-ucantly on the environment. As one psychologist says, "To ask what's more important, nature or nurture, is like asking what's more important to a rectangle, its length or its width." The down side of this revelation is that bad experiences coupled with genetic vulnerability, can actually create chemical changes in the body that affect certain genes, which in turn affect certain brain proteins that make a person more susceptible to depression, for example, in the future. Some work p addictive substances can shown lead to biochemical changes at the genetic and molecular levels that actually undermine the brain circuits involving the exercise of willpower. The upside is that, acting through the genes, rich and challenging experience has the power to enhance life. Taking time to read or tell bedtime stories to my children, for example, can potentially get a gene to "turn on" and create a protein that will enhance thought processes or mood. The paradox of genetics is that "the harder scientists work to demonstrate the power of heredity, the harder it is to escape the potency of experience." (U.S. News & World Report, April 21, 1997) Interpreting this secular knowledge in gospel terms points me to certain fundamental doctrines. Genetic vulnerability is certainly physical evidence of the Fall of Man. As much as our children need to remember their status as "Saturday's Warriors," they also need to remember that sin and death are in their genetic make-up- , affecting them not only physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually. By nature we are prone to move toward the negative and eventual unless that process is of reversed through the the Atonement. What we may never be able to measure is the genetic effects of the spirit, particularly as young children develop their personalities and character. It's no accident that we call it a Although our spirits separate from our bodies at death, it may be that, in life, they are more intertwined than we realsearch-and-resc- ize. Letters to the editor Lots of local talent Editor: My name is Floyd Jensen and I am a cowboy poet. On May 16 and 17 I got together with some of the best talent I ever saw in my life and put on a Cowboy Poetry and Variety Show at Cypress High School in Magna for a benefit. Not one person left the building feeling cheated. I was told by several people that it was one of the best live shows that they had ever seen. path, there will only be two kinds of people very healthy and dead. As it stands now, the health-car- e industry is primarily interested in giving us the cheapest care money can provide. The time is ripe for legal health insurance. Senior citizens who have to deal with Medicaid and Medicare along with complicated policies provided by the HMO need the services of an attorney who can weed through the current health-car- e maze. We are constantly reading about individuals who have been refused treatment that would improve their quality of life because the HMO, not the doctor, didn't feel it was necessary. Your life is often in the hands of a clerk at the insurance company. You can never find an ambulance-chase- r when you need one. We have almost as many sick people as we have lawyers. The HMO's and managed-car- e people are becoming an impediment to good health. I realize that by bringing lawyers into the picture, costs could go up, but they will be legal costs and should not be combined with health-car- e managed-car- e low-lev- money. Planet By RUSS DALY One of my most memorable college courses was labeled "Bioethics." From the beginning I felt rather intimidated because all of present Dick Daly Nature or nurture; genetics or environment; plus spirit that has We need legal health insurance We will The about an empty field here and there. Call me pastoral, but I've been focusing on the beauty of empty fields lately, and I have enjoyed seeing some green space in our community. Before anyone misconstrues what I'm saying, I don't mean the empty lot where weeds are allowed to grow rampant, nor am I talking about the defunct business location where the windows are broken out and the empty building sits there screaming out to be decorated with all types of graffiti. No, I am talking about the pleasant sight of the pasture or the field where nature's grasses grow green and blow in the summer breezes. Perhaps even a well-kebasketball or tennis court could even look superior to a home crammed onto a lot just for the sake of building a home. Of course.-eacdeveloper will insist that his or her project is going to be superior, not only to whatever is currently occupying the land, but also to every other development in the world, and thus, that project might be a great candidate for exemption from some or all of the rules, such as zon- costs. If, as time goes by, legal costs begin to climb, we can fight that battle when we come to it. Right now, when I get sick, I want to get well at any cost. And do you know what made it even greater? Every performer I had on stage was a native of Utah. They were from Magna, West Valley City, Salt Lake City, Sandy, Lehi, Pleasant Grove, Payson, Santaquin and Genola. Their ages ranged from four to 80. I told them, that as good as they were, I would try to get them on stage at the Utah State Fair. The following Monday I called the Utah State Fair Grounds and was put in touch with Tom Robbins, the fellow in charge of the fair booking. He informed me that he had the same group of cowboy poets coming this year as he had perform last year. "And who may that be?" I asked. "Some cowboys out of Elko, Nevada," he answered. "Let me get some Utah talent!" I pleaded. "I already got them booked," he said. "And we don't have room on stage for your people." "OK," I said, "I'll let the people know," and we hung up. Maybe if some of those plush-seateclowns down from Utah State Fair got off their duffs and scouted some of the small towns in Utah during their celebrations, they would find talent that would have made Ed Sullivan eat his heart out. Then we could have natives perform at the Utah State Fair instead of hiring outsiders. Go to Lehi on the Wednesday before the d Roundup and watch the great Utah Cowboy Poets Fred Hardy puts on stage at the Lehi Junior High School for a benefit. On July 24, drive down to Genola and watch the Singers, Entertainers and Poets at the Genola City Park put together by Gordon Thomas. In August, drive to Payson and watch the Cowboy Poets and entertainment at the Payson City Park put on by Marion Manwell the Saturday before Labor Day. Or visit celebrations at Moab, Morgan, Blanding, "Goshen, Monticello, Magna, Santaquin, Farmington, Midway, West Point, Clinton or any other Utah town. Watch their talent and then, you Fair people, tell me that you don't have room on stage for the Utah people to celebrate their Utah Sesquicentennial. don't we send enough By the way money to Nevada by way of Wendover, Elko, Las Vegas and the other gambling towns, without neglecting our own Utah talent by employing the Elko cowboys and all the other entertainment. If we had more Utah entertainment on stage at the Utah gtate Fair, then maybe more of Utah would come to the Utah State Fair. Floyd A. Jensen Magna LHS Editor: has great year : ; We wish to thank the students, coaches, teachers and athletes at Lehi High School. They've provided us with a year of fuji memories, not only at the games, but at assemblies and other school activities. Talk about a great school!! You've made us so welcome and as you're now the all sports school of you're the best at making Silver Foxes likls us feel welcome and wonderful. We get a new lease on life each time we're with you our best friends. J See ya next year. Your faithful fans: ! 3-- Eva Johnson Betty Fowlar P.S. Eva has just perfected a new whittle and dedicated it to the Pioneers at LHS. Beware!! We welcome letters to the editor. All letters should be typewritten and double spaced. Letters must also be signed, and must Include the writer's name and telephone number. Please send letters to Editor, Newtah News Group, P.O. Box 7, American Fork, Utah, 84003 or through email at Newtaiiaol.com. ; '. ) J ,' |